A Turkish court has sentenced academic Müge Ayan to two years and one month in prison on charges of aiding a terrorist organization for signing a petition calling for a peaceful end [9] to Turkey's three-decades-old conflict with Kurdish rebels, independent news site Diken [10] reported Jan. 21. A former anthropology professor at İstanbul's Bilgi Univresity, Ayan is among the 1,128 signatories [11] of a petition that criticized heavy-handed tactics employed by the Turkish army in predominantly Kurdish cities in the country, including long curfews and the use of heavy weaponry, after a two-and-a-half year ceasefire between the state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK [12]) broke down [13] in July 2015.
The İstanbul court initially sentenced Ayan to five years. However, the sentence was reduced to two years and a month upon consideration of the verdict's effect on the academic's future, Diken said.
Hundreds signatories of the peace petition have lost their jobs [14] with no prospect of working again, some have been subject to travel bans, and some have had their passports revoked—preventing them from working ether in Turkey or abroad. (Ahval [7], Jan. 21)
See our last post on the crackdown in Turkey [15].
