The European University Association (EUA) would like to express its concern for the academics in Turkey being investigated for expressing their views, under the petition “We Will not be a Party to this Crime”, on the conflict in the South-East region. EUA would also like to underline that, irrespective of the content of the petition, freedom of expression is a core university value and a sine qua non of democratic societies. We therefore urge the government of Turkey to fully respect the right to express any opinion in public without censorship or restraint as well as the Higher Education Council (YÖK) to withdraw its request to the rectors to open up an inquiry on the signatories.

More particularly, EUA is dismayed by the detainment of some signatory academics - even if they were released on the same day - most of them from Kocaeli University, an EUA member.

ENDS

Contact:

Jessica Carter, Tel: +32 2 743 11 59, email: Jessica.Carter@eua.be

 or

Ulrike Reimann Tel: +32 2 743 11 58; mobile: +32 491 15 89 72; email: Ulrike.Reimann@eua.be

The European University Association, as the representative organisation of both the European universities and the national rectors’ conferences, is the main voice of the higher education community in Europe. EUA’s mission is to promote the development of a coherent system of European higher education and research.