Academic signee of peace petition dismissed in İzmir

İZMİR - Doğan News Agency

An academic who was working at İzmir University’s Psychology Department was dismissed from his post without explanation on Feb. 17, after signing a recent peace petition calling for an end to security operations in the southeast.

The dismissal of the academic, identified only as Ekrem D., marked the latest in a chain of similar procedures against signatories of the petition, which prompted fierce denunciations from government officials and nationalist groups. 

Over 1,000 academics had signed the petition calling for an end to military operations in the southeast, but since it was published last month dozens have been dismissed from their positions or faced investigation by university administrators and prosecutors, accused of “terror propaganda.”

In a majority of the investigations, prosecutors have based their arguments on controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TSK), which criminalizes “denigration of the Turkish nation, the state of the Republic of Turkey, the Turkish parliament, the government of the Republic of Turkey and the legal institutions of the state.”

According to some experts, signatories like Ekrem D. who work in private universities are at particular risk as they can be dismissed without explanation due to less secure working conditions.