In Turkey, more than 40 academics and university workers were arrested at two Istanbul universities on Monday, amid Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s widening crackdown. Among those arrested on charges of alleged terrorist links was professor of political science Koray Caliskan. This is Koray Caliskan speaking on Democracy Now! last summer about how he and more than 1,000 other Turkish academics signed a peace petition.
Koray Caliskan: “Of course. I signed that letter, too. First, it was signed by more than 1,200 academics. When Erdogan called us terrorists or voices of terror, 1,000 more academics signed it. Since then, more than 100 academics lost their jobs. What Erdogan does is to do what all authoritarians do: If there is—if he is being criticized and if he doesn’t agree with academics or journalists, he accuses them of being with terrorists.”
