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While the UN devotes its human rights operations to the demonization of the democratic state of Israel above all others and condemns the United States more often than the vast majority of non-democracies around the world, the voices of real victims around the world must be heard.
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All Actions of the UN Human Rights System Critical of Specific States, 2016
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has severely criticised the signatories and called on the judiciary to act against their alleged treachery. (Kayhan Ozer/AP)
Turkey, January 15, 2016
Turkey Rounds Up Academics Who Signed Petition Denouncing Attacks on Kurds
Original source
Turkey has been accused of violating academic freedom by rounding up university teachers who signed a petition denouncing military operations against Kurds in the south-east of the country.
Police have detained at least 12 academics over alleged "terror propaganda" after they signed a petition together with more than 1,400 others calling for an end to Turkey's "deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish people".
In a crackdown, condemned by the US ambassador as "chilling", police are also still processing the paperwork of nine other academics who also face arrest.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has severely criticised the signatories, including political scientist Noam Chomsky and the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and called on the judiciary to act against their alleged treachery.
Prosecutors launched an investigation into the academics over possible charges of insulting the state and engaging in terrorist propaganda.
Staff from 90 Turkish universities calling themselves "Academicians for Peace" signed the petition last week calling for an end to the military campaign against the Kurds and accusing the government of breaching international law.
Entitled "We won't be a party to this crime", the petition urged Ankara to "abandon its deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region".
All 1,128 Turkish signatories of the petition are under investigation, according to the Doğan news agency. If convicted, they could face between one and five years in prison.
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