Letter to US Government Officials Concerning Recent Events in Turkey
Recipients:
Barack Obama, President of the United States
John Kerry, Secretary of State
Ashton Carter, Secretary of Defense
We write as academics and concerned citizens to express our strong condemnation of the current situation in Turkey. While we disapprove of the attempt to subvert the democratic process in Turkey through the military coup of July 15, 2016, President Erdogan’s response has gone beyond measures compatible with the rule of law and human rights, using the occasion to undertake a massive dismissal or suspension from duty of judges, military personnel, civil servants, university deans, and teachers. As of the most recent news this number has reached nearly 60, 000.
In addition, the Turkish government has suspended the annual leave of more than three million civil servants nationwide, and public sector employees are also banned from traveling abroad. Academics and university researchers are asked to request special approval from their superiors to attend scholarly conferences and other professional activities abroad. During an interview with CNN on July 18, Turkish President Erdoğan did not rule out the possibility of reinstating the death penalty. We fear that justice cannot be done in this situation. There are no checks and balances left; authoritarian presidential rule has taken over and in major military and civil society institutions the ideology of one party is beginning to dominate while opposition of any kind is being crushed. There are reports that those in custody cannot find lawyers, since no one dares defend them fearing to be added to the purge lists.
All the evidence suggests that the coup provided an opportunity for the Turkish government to further restrict the role of the legitimate political opposition and its function of democratic oversight a process already underway before the coup attempt. Shortly after arriving in Istanbul, on the day after the coup attempt, President Erdogan said “This insurgency is a blessing from Allah, because it will allow us to purge the military” of mutineers. He has gone far beyond punishment of the conspirators, however, to attack any who have ever questioned his policies.
Turkey is a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights and, as a candidate for membership in the European Union, it has committed itself to the full observance of the Copenhagen criteria, including stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, respect for and protection of minorities, and abolition of capital punishment. The current crackdown violates all of these commitments and ought not to be tolerated by the EU, by NATO, or by the government of the United States of America which considers Turkey its strong ally.
We, the undersigned, condemn the actions taken by the Turkish government in violation of human rights and the rule of law. The principle of independence and impartiality of the judiciary—together with freedom of the media—is at the foundation of the rule of law and democracy. The political independence and the academic freedom of the educational profession is essential for free societies.
We therefore call upon President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, and Secretary of Defense Carter to strongly criticize the Turkish government’s violation of human rights, academic freedom and the rule of law and to refuse to accept anything but a reversal of these authoritarian policies.
U.S. Signatures: name, title and affiliation.
1. Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Yale University
2. Joan W. Scott, Professor Emerita, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study
3. Rudy Fichtenbaum, Wright State University, President AAUP
4. Henry Reichman, California State University, East Bay, First Vice-President; Chair, Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, American Association of University Professors
5. David L. Ransel, Indiana University
6. Prof Joan Neuberger, The University of Texas at Austin
7. Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Michigan State University
8. Eve Levin, University of Kansas
9. Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University
10. Robert Weinberg, Swarthmore College
11. Anne Friedman, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, Member of AAUP Executive Council
12. John Castella, Rutgers University, AAUP/AFT Vice-President PTL, AAUP Council Member
13. Michele Ganon, Western Connecticut State University
Secretary-Treasurer American Association of University Professors
14. Brian Turner, Randolph-Macon College
15. Gregory D. Loving, AAUP National Council, University of Cincinnati
16. Richard Gomes, Rutgers University, AAUP-AFT
17. Sally Dear-Healey, President, New York State American Association of University Professors (NYSAAUP)
18. Ashlee Brand, Cuyahoga Community College, AAUP National Council
19. Jonathan Rees, Colorado State University – Pueblo, Co-President, AAUP Colorado Conference, AAUP National Council member
20. Leslie Bary, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
21. Risa Lieberwitz, Cornell University, General Counsel, AAUP
22. Kevin L. Cope, Louisiana State University, President, LSU Faculty Senate
23. Philip L Cole, Idaho State University
24. Howard Bunsis, Eastern Michigan University, Chair, AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress
25. Dr. Nancy McKenney, Eastern Kentucky University; President, Kentucky Conference of the American Association of University Professors
26. Nathan (Natalio) Avani, PhD, San Francisco State University, AAUP National Council Member
27. Dr. Linda Rouillard, University of Toledo; AAUP Council Member
28. William Chase, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa 15260
29. Michael Bérubé, Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Pennsylvania State University
30. Debra Nails, Michigan State University
31. James L. Turk, Director of the Centre for Free Expression, Ryerson University
32. Eve Levin, University of Kansas; editor, Russian Review
33. Rei Terada, UC Irvine
34.Anthony Grafton, Princeton University.
35. Natalie Zemon Davis, Princeton University and University of Toronto
36. Chandler Davis, University of Toronto
37. Stephen F. Cohen, Princeton University and New York University
38. Marianna Tax Choldin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
39. Julie A. Carlson, UC Santa Barbara
40. Claudio Fogu, UC Santa Barbara
41. Constance Penley, University of California-Santa Barbara
42. Eyal Amira, UC Irvine
43. Michael DeCesare, Merrimack College, Member, AAUP National Council Chair, AAUP Committee on College and University Governance
44. Katie Trumpener, Emily Sanford Professor of Comparative Literature and English, Yale
45. Katerina Clark, Yale University, Professor of Comparative Literature and Slavic Languages, Yale University
46. Emily Greenwood, Professor of Classics, Yale University
47. Maurice Samuels, Betty Jane Anlyan Professor of French, Yale University
48. Laura Wexler, Dept of History and American Civilization, Yale University
49. Inderpal Grewal, Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Yale University
50. Wendy Brown, Class of 1936 Chair, University of California, Berkeley
51. Carol Bernstein, Professor Emeritus, Bryn Mawr College
52. Richard Bernstein, Department of Philosophy, New School for Social Research
53. Benjamin Foster, Laffan Professor of Assyriology, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Yale University
54. Gary Tomlinson, John Hay Whitney Professor of Music and Humanities and Director, Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University
55. Christopher L. Miller, Professor of African American Studies and French, Yale University
56. Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy, Yale University
57. Robert Gooding-Williams, M. Moran Weston/Black Alumni Council Professor of AfricanAmerican Studies and Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University
58. Simone Chambers, Professor of Political Science, University of California at Irvine
59. Gordon Rogoff, Professor of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Yale School of Drama
60. Susan G. Clark, Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Adjunct Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Policy Sciences, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University
61. Tim Barringer, Chair and Paul Mellon Professor, Department of the History of Art, Yale University
62. Carol Jacobs, Birgit Baldwin Professor of Comparative Literature and of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Yale University
63. Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory, University of California Berkeley
64. John Protevi, Professor of French and of Philosophy, Louisiana State University
65. Robin S. Dillon, William Wilson Selfridge Professor of Philosophy, Lehigh University
66. Shamik Dasgupta, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley
67. Christopher Dole, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Amherst College
68. Edward Kazarian, Instructor in Philosophy, Rowan University
69. Denise Ferreira da Silva, Associate Professor of Social Justice, University of British Columbia
70. Adam M. Rosenfeld, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of North Carolina Greensboro
71. Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Executive Director, Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
72. Gabriel Zamosc, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Colorado Denver
73. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics, University of San Francisco
74. John E. Drabinski, Charles Hamilton Houston 1915 Professor of Black Studies, Amherst College
75. Bruno Gulli, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Kingsborough Community College -CUNY
76. Steven Vogel, John and Christine Warner Professor of Philosophy, Denison University
77. Maya Mikdashi, Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University
78. Isaac Rivera, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Colorado Denver
79. Rebecca Bamford, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Quinnipiac University
80. Sabrina L. Hom, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Georgia College
81. Bernard W. Kobes, Faculty of Philosophy, Arizona State University
82. Tom Digby, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Springfield College
83. Ron Silliman, Lecturer in English, University of Pennsylvania
84. Jennifer Schenk Sacco, Associate Professor of Political Science, Quinnipiac University
85. Anat Biletzki, Albert Schweitzer Professor of Philosophy, Quinnipiac University
86. Jason Read, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Southern Maine
87. Sean Duffy, Professor of Political Science, Quinnipiac University
88. Ellen Miller, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Rowan University
89. Gina Zavota, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Kent State University
90. Mary Paddock, Associate Dean/Associate Professor of German, Quinnipiac University
91. Selah Saterstrom, Associate Professor of Creative Writing, The University of Denver
92. Zena Hitz, Faculty, St. John’s College
93. Renee Tursi, Associate Professor of English, Quinnipiac University
94. Jeffrey Flynn, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University
95. Sarah Surak, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Salisbury University
96. Adam Hosein, Assistant Prof. of Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder
97. Robb Eason, Senior Affiliated Faculty in Philosophy, Emerson College
98. Jaklin Kornfilt, Professor of Linguistics, Syracuse University
99. Jason Del Gandio, Temple University
100. Gregory Patrick Garvey, Professor of Game Design & Development, Quinnipiac University
101. Heather Pool, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Denison University
102. William Haver, Associate Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, Binghamton University
103. Lynne Huffer, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Emory University
104. Justin E. H. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7, formerly Professor of Philosophy, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul
105, Jeremy R. Bell, Professor of Philosophy, Georgia Southern University
106. Eva Feder Kittay, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emerita, Stony Brook University, SUNY
107. John Schwenkler, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University
108. Greg Recco, Tutor, St. John’s College
109. Matthew Boyle, Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago
110. Adam J. Graves, Associate Professor of Philosophy, MSU Denver
111. Gregory J. Seigworth, Professor of Communication & Theatre, Millersville University
112. Anna-Sara Malmgren, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University
113. Charles Bernstein, Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania
114. Laury Silvers, Sessional Instructor, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto
115. Michelle Kisliuk, Associate Professor, Music, University of Virginia
116. Joshua Foa Dienstag, Professor of Political Science and Law, University of California, Los Angeles
117. Sarah Dalrymple, Clinical Faculty in Biology, Boise State University
118. Holly Andersen, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Simon Fraser University [US citizen]
119. Nikhil Anand, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
120. Nancy Eberhardt, Professor of Anthropology, Knox College
121. Michael Nair-Collins, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, Florida State University
122. William E. Scheuerman, Professor of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington
123. Alexander Gourevitch, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Brown University
124. Rocío Zambrana, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Oregon
125. Jean L. Cohen, Nell and Herbert Singer Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Civilization, Columbia University
126. Wendy Chun, Professor of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University
127. Alexander Livingston, Assistant Professor of Government, Cornell University
128. Erin Pineda, Provost’s Postdoctoral Scholar in Political Science, University of Chicago
129. Inder S. Marwah, Assistant Professor of Political Science, McMaster University
130. Steven Levine, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Boston
131. Chad Kautzer, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Lehigh University
132. Bryan McGovern, Associate Professor of History, Kennesaw State University.
133. Michael Hoffmann, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Georgia Institute of Technology.
134. Alice Crary, Chair of the Department of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research, New York
135. Frederick Neuhouser, Professor of Philosophy, Barnard College, Columbia University
136. Gabriella Coleman, Associate Professor, McGill University, Montreal
137. Michael Rodríguez-Muñz, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University
138. Emily Nacol, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University
139. Karen Ng, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University
140. Christopher F. Zurn, Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Boston
141. Charlotte Karem Albrecht, Assistant Professor of American Culture and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
142. Chris Adamo, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Centenary University, New Jersey
143. Alexander Hughes, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, MSU Denver, Colorado
144. Teresa Irene Gonzales, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Knox College, Illinois
145. Jeffrey S. Juris, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Northeastern University
146. Brian Talbot, Washington University in St. Louis
147. Linda Martín Alcoff, Professor of Philosophy, Hunter College, CUNY
148. Adam Dahl, Assistant Professor of Politics, University of the South
149. Joshua Cherniss, Assistant Professor of Government, Georgetown University
150. Max Shue, Spanish Faculty, College of Western Idaho
151. Zeki Saritoprak, Professor of Islamic Studies, John Carroll University, Cleveland, OH. 152. Karen Bray, Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy, Wesleyan College, Georgia
153. Millie Wilson, Faculty Emeritus, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
154. Elaine Miller, Professor, Miami University, Oxford, OH
155. Brendan Hogan, Clinical Assistant Professor, Global Liberal Studies, New York University
156. Theodore Christov, Asst Prof, George Washington University
157. Alexei Efros, Associate Professor of Computer Science, UC Berkeley
158. Greg Felker, Associate Professor of Politics, Willamette University
159. Sharyn Clough, Professor, School of History, Philosophy, and Religion, Oregon State University
160. Alyson Cole, Associate Professor, Political Science, Queens College & the Graduate Center, City University of New York
161. Franke Wilmer, Full Professor, Political Science, Montana State University
162. Susan L. Woodward, Full Professor, Political Science, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
163. Lauren Berlant, George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor of English, University of Chicago
164. Jurgen Braungardt, California State University East Bay, Philosophy Department
165. Andrew I. Port, Professor of History, Wayne State University
166. Jill Frank, Associate Professor of Government, Cornell University
167. David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Stanford University
168. John C. Franklin, Associate Professor of Classics, University of Vermont
169. Christopher Stone, Associate Professor, Arabic, Hunter College (CUNY)
170. Kevin Funk, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Spring Hill College
171. Lynne Tirrell, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Boston
172. Oyku Tekten, PhD Candidate in English, The Graduate Center (CUNY)
173. Al Kagan, Professor of Library Administration Emeritus, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign
174. Gabriel Oak Rabin, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, New York University
175. Laurie Cosgriff, Assistant Professor of Ancient Greek, Portland State University
176. Joseph R. Slaughter, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
177. Howard Pflanzer, Adjunct Associate Professor, English, Bronx Community College/CUNY
178. Patricia M. Locke, Tutor, St. John’s College, Annapolis
179. Georgia Warnke, Professor, Political Science, University of California, Riverside
180. Annick T.R. Wibben, Professor of Politics & International Studies, University of San Francisco
181. Baki Tezcan, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Davis
182. Alison McQueen, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Stanford University
183. Suzanne Bergeron, Professor of Women’s Studies and Social Sciences, University of Michigan Dearborn
184. Mark Warren, Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia
185. Joanne Meyerowitz, Arthur Unobskey Professor of History and American Studies, Yale University
186. Nicholas Mowad, Professor of Philosophy, Chandler-Gilbert Community College.
187. Rossen Djagalov, Assistant Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University 188. Linda Gordon, University Professor of History, NYU
189. Aziz Rana, Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
190. Victor Bers, Professor of Classics, Yale University
191. John Demos, Samuel Knight Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University
192. Andrew Dilts, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Loyola Marymount University
193. Davide Panagia, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles
194. Jean E. Howard, George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University
195. Michael Fischer, Professor of Computer Science, Yale University
196. Rosalind Petchesky, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, New York
197. Zillah Eisenstein, Distinguished-Scholar-in-Residence, Professor of Political Theory and Anti-Racist Feminism, Ithaca College
198. Julie Webber, Professor, Illinois State University
199. Raymond Duvall, Professor of Political Science and Special Assistant to the Provost, University of Minnesota
200. Jay M. Bernstein, University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research
201. Zehra Kabasakal Arat, Professor of Political Science, University of Connecticut at Storrs
202. Glenda Gilmore, Peter V. and C. van Woodward Professor of History, Yale University
203. Melvin Rogers, Scott Vaugh Chair in the Division of the Social Sciences and Associate Professor of African-American Studies and Political Science, UCLA
204. Jill Campbell, Professor of English, Yale University
205. Julia Driver, Professor of Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis
206. John Medearis, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Riverside
207. Renate Bridenthal, emerita Professor of History, Brooklyn College, CUNY
208. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University
209. Erin McGlothlin, Associate Professor of German and Jewish Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
210. Ismail K. Poonawala, Professor Emeritus of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
211. Alice Bullard, former Professor of History, Georgia Institute of Technology, current President and CEO, IRA – USA (www.ira-usa.org/news)
212. Bonnie H. Honig, Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Modern Culture and Media and Political Science, Brown University
213. Barbara Weinstein, Silver Professor of History, New York University
214. Naomi Scheman, Professor Emerita of Philosophy, University of Minnesota
215. Dan Wood, PhD Candidate, Philosophy, Villanova University
216. Michael Smith, McCosh Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
217. Lisa Guenther, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University
218. Simona Sharoni, Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, SUNY Plattsburgh
219. Indra Levy, Associate Professor of Japanese & Comparative Literature, Stanford University
220. Steve Cohn, Professor of Economics, Knox College
221. Cory Wright, Associate Professor of Philosophy, California State University Long Beach 222. Candice L. Shelby, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Colorado Denver
223. Michael Oman-Reagan, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland – Critical Languages Scholar (2013), U.S. Department of State
224. John Rapko, Ph.D, Lecturer in Art History, College of Marin, and Lecturer in Philosophy, California College of the Arts
225. Mauricio Suchowlansky, Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Letters & Sciences, Arizona State University
226. Muhammad Shafiq, PhD. Professor of Religious Studies and Islamics, Executive Director, Hickey Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue, Nazareth College, Rochester, New York
227. Elizabeth Burbridge, ABD, Medieval History, Fordham University
228. Stephen Cory, Professor of History and Comparative Religion, Cleveland State University
229. John Evelev, Associate Professor of English, University of Missouri.
230. Thomas O. Beebee, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of German and Comparative Literature, The Pennsylvania State University
231. Mustafa Gokcek, Associate Professor of History, Niagara University
232. Shelly Silver, Associate Professor, Visual Arts, School of the Arts, Columbia University
233. Megan Gallagher, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Pembroke Center, Brown University
234. Patchen Markell, Associate Professor, Political Science, University of Chicago
235. Jack Jackson, Assistant Professor, Politics, Whitman College
236. Reed Kurtz, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University
237. Nefertiti Takla, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles
238. Aaron P Smith, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Moraine Valley Community College
239. Joe Lockard, Associate Professor, English Department, Arizona State University
240. Michael Kremer, Mary R. Morton Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago
241. S.N. Nyeck, Clarkson University
242. Elizabeth Bishop, History Department, Texas State University-San Marcos
243. John Durham Peters, A. Craig Baird Professor, Communication Studies, University of Iowa
244. Alison Staudinger, Assistant Professor of Democracy and Justice Studies, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
245. Guillermina Seri, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Union College, NY
246. Don Howard, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
247. Noelle Brigden, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Marquette University
248. Anne Kane, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Houston-Downtown
249. Yair Minsky, Einar Hille Professor of Mathematics, Yale University
250. Shannon B. Lundeen, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of Academic Initiatives for the Residential Campus, Elon University
251. Mark Brown, Professor of Government, California State University, Sacramento
252. Jim Sleeper, Lecturer in Political Science, Yale University
253. Jann Matlock (American citizen), Senior Lecturer, School of European Languages, Cultures, and Society, University College London
254. Stephen Darwall, Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy, Yale University, John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan
255. Richard Schmitt, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Worcester State University, Worcester, MA; Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Brown University, Providence, RI.
256. Jennifer Eidum Zinchuk, Assistant Professor of English, Elon University, Elon, NC.
257. Julia Skinner, Curator of Rare Books, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA.
258. Daniel M. Haybron, Professor of Philosophy, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO.
259. Talia Shalev, PhD Candidate, CUNY Graduate Center
260. Gloria Fisk, Assistant Professor of English, Queens College, CUNY
261. Matthew Hart, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, New York, NY
262. Tim McGettigan, Professor of Sociology, Colorado State University – Pueblo, Pueblo, CO
263. Kim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
264. Federico Finchelstein, Professor of History, New School for Social Research & Lang College, New York City
265. Roshen Hendrickson, Associate Professor of Political Science, College of Staten Island, New York City
266. Mrinalini Chakravorty, Associate Professor of English, University of Virginia
267. Andreas Huyssen, Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
268. Jeffrey C. Isaac, Rudy Professor of Political Science, Indiana University
269.Yogita Goyal, Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, UCLA
270. Robyn Marasco, Associate Professor of Political Science, Hunter College, CUNY
271. Nancy Fraser, Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics, New School for Social Research
272. Julie Mostov, Professor of Politics; Senior Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, Drexel University
273. Talia Schaffer, Professor of English, Graduate Center CUNY and Queens College CUNY
274. Mihaela Czobor-Lupp, Associate Professor of Political Science, Carleton College, MN
275. Henry Theriault, Professor and Chair of Philosophy, Worcester State University
276. Rochelle Davis, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Georgetown University
277. Nico Israel, Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College
278. Ronald Gregg, Programming Director and Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies,Yale University
279. Kim Shively, Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
280. Nicole Lopez-Jantzen, Assistant Professor of History. City University of New York, Queensborough Community College
281. Leyla J Keough, Anthropologist, University of Massachusetts – Amherst
282. Peter E. Gordon, Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University
283. Jay Rajiva, Assistant Professor of Global Anglophone Literature, Department of English. Georgia State University.
284. Max Pensky, Professor of Philosophy, Binghamton University
285. Priya Kandaswamy, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Mills College
286. Christopher Fox, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Newman University.
287. Patrick Anderson, Associate Professor of Communication, Ethnic Studies, and Critical Gender Studies, University of California, San Diego
288. Maureen N. McLane, Professor of English, New York University
289. Nancy Bentley, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania
290. Morris B. Kaplan, Professor of Philosophy. Purchase College SUNY
291. Jose Casanova, Professor of Sociology, Georgetown University
292. Olga Touloumi, Assistant Professor of Art History, Bard College
293. Nataly Reed, University of Arizona
294. Laura McMahon, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Eastern Michigan University
295. Andrew Arato, Dorothy Hart Hirshon Professor of Political and Social Theory, The New School for Social Research
296. James Chamberlain, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, Mississippi State University
297. Macartan Humphreys, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University.
298. Nalan Erbil, PhD student, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
299. Ross Poole. Adjunct Professor of Politics and Philosophy, New School for Social Research
300. Nanette Funk, Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College, CUNY
301. Jack Woods, University Academic Fellow in Mathematical Philosophy, Leeds (previously Assistant Professor, Bilkent University, Ankara)
302. Rachel Beaty, University of Arizona
303. Sabra J. Webber, Professor, The Ohio State University
304. Whitney Dirks-Schuster, Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Grand Valley State University
305. Elizabeth R. Johnson, Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
306. Martin Rocek, Professor of Physics, C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University
307. Jackson Beck, Occidental College
308. Stephen Nelson, Philosophy Instructor, Northland Community & Technical College
309. Dorothy Salinger, Professor, University of California at Irvine
310. Robert Y. Shapiro, Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government, Columbia University
311. Darryl Li, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of
312. Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University Chicago
313. Miriam McCormick, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Richmond
314. Florence Dore, Associate Professor of English, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
315. Susan Buck-Morss, Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY
316. Paul A. Passavant, Associate Professor of Political Science, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
317. Eugene Ostashevsky, Clinical Assistant Professor, New York University, New York, NY.
318. Susan R. Ackerman, Henry Luce Professor Jurisprudence in Law and Political Science, Yale University
319. Peter J. Schwartz, Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Boston University
320. Alexander Dickow, Assistant Professor of French, Virginia Tech
321. Sofian Merabet, Associate Professor of Anthropology, UT Austin
322. Vitaly Chernetsky, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Kansas
323. Jessica Sewell, Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, University of Virginia
324. Judy E. Gaughan, Associate Professor of History, Colorado State University, Pueblo.
325. Cynthia Paccacerqua, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
326. James Owens, PhD student, UMass Amherst
327. Jennifer J. Carroll, Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University
328. S. West Gurley, Assistant Professor, Sam Houston State University
329. Christa Salamandra, Associate Professor, City University of New York
330. Erin C. Tarver, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Oxford College of Emory University
331. Gary R. Poe, Associate Professor of History, Palm Beach Atlantic University
332. Illya Bronshteyn, Research Associate, University of Kansas Medical Center
333. Greg Carey, Professor of New Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary
334. Michael Ting, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Columbia University
335. Michael Cowan, St Andrews University
336. Nina d’Alessandro, Clinical Assistant Professor, New York University, New York, N.Y.
337. Patricia Morton, Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside
338. Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Professor, University College Dublin; Visiting Professor, Yale University
339. Amy K. Drees, Composition and Literacy Faculty, Northwest State Community College, Archbold, Ohio
340. Julia Roos, Associate Professor, Department of History, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
341. Dmitry Dubrovskiy, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New York.
342. Sondra Hale, Professor Emerita, University of California, Los Angeles
343. Nikolai Kitanine, Professor, Université de Bourgogne, France
344. Matthew Siegel, Professor of English and Writing, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
345. Benjamin Peters, Professor of Communication, the University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma
346. Martin Jay, Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor, Emeritus, U. of California, Berkeley
347. Sondra Hale, Professor Emerita, University of California, Los Angeles.
348. Karen Koehler, Levin Professor of Architectural and Art History, Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts
349. Serena Laws, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
350. Erin Adam, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, University of Washington
351. Rogers M. Smith, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean for Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
352. Jonathan Chausovsky, Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs, The State University of New York at Fredonia
353. Stephen Loffredo, Professor of Law, City University of New York School of Law
354. Arijit Sen, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies, University of WisconsinMilwaukee
355. Richard Grusin, Professor of English and Media Studies, University of WisconsinMilwaukee
356. Matthew P. Hitt, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Colorado State University.
357. Fred Dallmayr, Professor of Philosophy and Political Science, University of Notre Dame
358. Mona El-Sherif, Assistant Professor of Arabic Cultural Studies, University of Miami
359. Tracy L. R. Lightcap, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College
360. Jessie Clark, Assistant Professor, Geography, University of Nevada Reno
361. Kent Schull, Associate Professor, History, Binghamton University, SUNY
362. William McKeithen, Graduate Instructor, Geography, University of Washington, Seattle
363. Pamela Brandwein, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan.
364. Julie Novkov, Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, University at Albany, SUNY
365. Jennet Kirkpatrick, Associate Professor, School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University
366. Alexander Dolinin, Professor of Russian Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison
367. Cynthia Wu, Associate Professor of Transnational Studies, University at Buffalo (SUNY)
368. Min Song, Professor of English, Boston College
369. Maxwell Uphaus, Assistant Professor of English, Montana State University
370. David J. Vanness, Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
371. Christian P. Traeger, Assistant Professor, Environmental Economics, UC Berkeley.
372. Jonathan Skolnik, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
373. Mary K Meyer McAleese, Professor of Political Science, Eckerd College.
374. Dohra Ahmad, Associate Professor of English, St. John’s University
375. Kristie Dotson, Associate Professor of Philosophy, MSU
376. David Gutman, Assistant Professor of History, Manhattanville College, NY
377. Michael Bosia, Associate Professor of Political Science, Saint Michael’s College
378. Amy Werbel, Associate Professor of the History of Art, State University of New York – Fashion Institute of Technology
379. Joe Lockard, Associate Professor, English Department, Arizona State University
380. Sarah Lopez, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin
381. Daniel Lipson, Associate Professor, Political Science Department, SUNY New Paltz
382. Jamie Mayerfeld, Professor of Political Science, University of Washington
383. Hugh Miller, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago
384. Yevgeniy Slivkin, Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of Languages and Literatures, University of Denver
385. Tamara C. Ho, Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of California, Riverside
386. Julian Carter, Associate Professor of Critical Studies, California College of the Arts, Oakland and San Francisco
387. Elyse Semerdjian, Associate Professor of Middle East/Islamic World History, Whitman College
388. Alison M. Jaggar, College Professor of Distinction, Philosophy and Women and Gender Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder
389. Donna Robinson Divine, Morningstar Family Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Government Emerita, Department of Government, Smith College
390. Alice Stek, MD, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Los Angeles, California
391. Bernard Harcourt, Professor of Law and Political Science, Columbia University
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Open letter to: Ms Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission
To: Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
On Friday 15 July, Turkey experienced an attempted coup, which has resulted in more than 200 victims, mostly civilians, and more than 1400 wounded. Immediately after the failed coup, the Turkish Government started a massive, totally disproportionate purge within the State apparatus. Since the day of the coup, as of 20 July 2016, the total number of purges (suspension from duty and arrests) in public services has totalled more than 61,000 people. The following sectors have been in particular purged: Ministry of Justice (2875 judges and prosecutors), Prime Ministry (257 personnel), Interior Ministry (8,777 police officers, gendarmerie, province governors, local governors and staff), National Education Ministry (21,738 personnel suspended), Higher Education Council (116 professors, including 4 rectors, + 1577 university deans asked to resign), Minister of the Family and Social Policies (393 civil servants), Finance Ministry (1500 personnel), National Intelligence Service (100 personnel), Turkish Energy Regulatory Market (25 personnel). Development Ministry (16 personnel), Ministry of Forestry and Water Management (197 personnel), Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (300 personnel), Ministry of Youth and Sports (245 personnel), Ministry of Environment and Urbanization (70 personnel), Radio Television Supreme Council (29 personnel), Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (86 personnel), Ministry of Customs and Trade (176 personnel), Competition Authority (8 personnel), Military Court of Appeals (35 personnel), Defence Ministry (7 personnel), Istanbul Stock Market (51 personnel).
21,000 teaching licences in private institutions have been revoked.
It is likely that academics will come next. Thousands of academics had already been under investigation on grounds that they were “supporting” terrorist activity for having defended the Kurdish populations in South East Turkey, under extensive and lethal attack by Turkish regular forces over the past year.
According to several sources – among them Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn – the lists of people to arrest were ready before the coup even started. Some of these sources maintain the coup was staged as extrema ratio against these lists.
The Turkish Prime Minister has suspended the annual leave of more than three million civil servants nationwide, and public sector employees are also banned from travelling abroad.
Moreover, following an interview with CNN on 18 July 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has not ruled out the possibility of bringing back the death penalty in Turkey. In the meantime, the state of emergency has been proclaimed by the Government, together with the temporary suspension of the European Convention on Human Rights, as permitted by article 15 of the ECHR. The same article does not imply the disrespect of fundamental principles enshrined in the Convention.
There are no checks and balances left. There are reports that those taken under custody cannot find lawyers, since no one would dare defend them and become part of the purge list.
Turkey is a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights and of Protocol n. 6 to the ECHR concerning the Abolition of the Death Penalty. As a candidate country for accession to the EU, Turkey has also committed itself to the full observance of the Copenhagen criteria, including stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities, abolition of capital punishment.
We, the undersigned, condemn any attempt to overturn the democratic order by military coups. At the same time, we condemn the purge undertaken by the Turkish Government in violations of human rights and the rule of law. The principle of independence and impartiality of the judiciary – together with freedom of the media – is at the foundation of the rule of law and democracy. The political independence of the educational profession is essential for free societies.
We call on the HR/VP Federica Mogherini, as well as the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, to closely monitor the situation in Turkey, as far as the respect for human rights and the rule of law is concerned, and ask for the immediate release of all those arbitrarily arrested and detained in the wake of the failed military coup.
We recall the recent bill adopted by the Turkish Parliament regarding the waiver of immunity from prosecution of several MPs, belonging mostly to the opposition party HDP. All the evidence seems to suggest that the coup represents an opportunity for the Turkish government to further restrict the role of the oppositions and their function of democratic oversight. Shortly after arriving in Istanbul, early Saturday morning, Mr Erdogan said in a statement: “This insurgency is a blessing from Allah, because it will allow us to purge the military” of mutineers.
We call therefore on the HR/VP Mogherini to scrutinise the situation, paying particular attention to the condition of the Kurdish minority and other minorities in the country. We urge as well Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland to remind the Turkish government of its obligation to respect the European Convention on Human Rights and all its protocols, including the right to life, to fair trials, to protection from arbitrary arrests.
We also urge the HR/VP Mogherini to demand the European Council to withdraw immediately the EU-Turkey Agreement, signed on 18 March 2016, in the light of the recent developments. Since the signature of the Agreement, Turkey has not been a “safe country” for refugees and asylum-seekers.
Finally, we request all the EU Member States to fully engage with the Turkish government in order to reinstate completely the rule of law and the democratic principles in the country as a basic condition for future diplomatic relationships and the continuation of the accession negotiations.
Best regards,
Barbara Spinelli – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Albena Azmanova – Associate Professor of Political and Social Thought. Director, postgraduate programmes Political Strategy and Communication and International Political Economy University of Kent, Brussels School of International Studies
Étienne Balibar – Professor Emeritus (philosophy), University of Paris-Ouest, Anniversary Chair in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University London
Seyla Benhabib – Eugene Mayer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University
Sophie Bessis – Historian, Tunisia-France
Hamit Bozarslan – Historian and political scientist, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris
Susan Buck-Morss – Political Philosopher, CUNY Graduate Center, NYC
Judith Butler – Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory, University of California, Berkeley
Claude Calame – Historian and anthropologist, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris
Joseph H. Carens – FRSC Professor of Political Science University of Toronto
Maeve Cooke – Member of the Royal Irish Academy, Professor of Philosophy, University College Dublin
Vincent Duclert – Historian at Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, France
Didier Fassin – Professor of social sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Éric Fassin – Professor of sociology, Paris-8 University
Shelley Feldman – International Professor, Cornell University
Michael Hardt – Professor, Duke University, USA
David Harvey – Distinguished Professor, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Marianne Hirsch – William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and Director of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality
Philip Hogh – Philosophy Department, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
Jean E. Howard – George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Julia Koenig – Institute for Social Pedagogy and Adult Education, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main
Elena Loizidou – Reader in Law and Political Theory at School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London
Sandro Mezzadra – Professor of political theory at the University of Bologna
Jennifer Nedelsky – Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Toronto
Rosalind Petchesky – Distinguished Professor Emerita of Political Science Hunter College & the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Ilaria Possenti – Research fellow in political philosophy, University of Verona, Italy
Mary Louise Pratt – Silver Professor, Professor Emerita of Social and Cultural Analysis, Spanish & Portuguese, Comparative Literature, New York University
Lynne Segal – Anniversary Professor, Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London
Vicky Skoumbi – Editor in chief of the Greek Journal αληthεια
Céline Spector – Professor at the Department of Philosophy of the Université Bordeaux Montaigne, honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France
Yanis Varoufakis – Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens, former Finance Minister and Member of Parliament, Greece
Frieder Otto Wolf – Freie Universität Berlin, Former Member of the European Parliament
Vladimiro Zagrebelsky – Former Judge of the European Court of Human Rights
François Alfonsi – President of the European Free Alliance (EFA)
Brando Benifei – Member of the European Parliament, S&D Group
José Bové – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
Nicola Caputo – Member of the European Parliament, S&D Group
Fabio Massimo Castaldo – Member of the European Parliament, EFDD Group-M5S
Fabio De Masi – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Karima Delli – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
Pascal Durand – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
José Inácio Faria – Member of the European Parliament, ALDE Group
Eleonora Forenza – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
María Teresa Giménez Barbat – Member of the European Parliament, ALDE Group
Ana Maria Gomes – Member of the European Parliament, S&D Group
Tania González Peñas – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Yannick Jadot – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
Benedek Jávor – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
Eva Joly – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
Josu Juaristi Abaunz – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Jude Kirton-Darling – Member of the European Parliament, S&D Group
Stelios Kouloglou – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Merja Kyllönen – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Patrick Le Hyaric – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Paloma López Bermejo – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Lorena Lopez de Lacalle – Treasurer of the European Free Alliance (EFA)
Marisa Matias – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Stefano Maullu – Member of the European Parliament, EPP Group
Marlene Mizzi – Member of the European Parliament, S&D Group
Ulrike Müller – Member of the European Parliament, ALDE Group
Javier Nart – Member of the European Parliament, ALDE Group
Carolina Punset – Member of the European Parliament, ALDE Group
Michèle Rivasi – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
Sofia Sakorafa – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Elly Schlein – Member of the European Parliament, S&D Group
Helmut Scholz – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Branislav Škripek – Member of the European Parliament, ECR Group
Jordi Sole – Secretary General of the European Free Alliance (EFA)
Bart Staes – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
Dario Tamburrano – Member of the European Parliament, EFDD Group-M5S
Miguel Urbán Crespo – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Pello Urizar – Secretary General of Eusko Alkartasuna (Basque political party)
Ernest Urtasun – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
Monika Vana – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group
Marie-Christine Vergiat – Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL Group
Julie Ward – Member of the European Parliament, S&D Group
Tatjana Ždanoka – Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA Group