Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, Dec. 7, 2009. (Photo: Wikipedia)
As many are aware, on June 15 there was a coup attempt in Turkey. The Committee of Concerned Scientists has denounced the attempt by the Turkish military to seize power from the democratically elected leaders.
As an organization of scientists, physicians, engineers, and scholars, dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of colleagues around the world, we also are greatly concerned about the unjustified massive purge of Turkish academics despite their unanimous denunciation of the coup attempt. Academics inside and outside Turkey believe that besides inflicting individual suffering on Turkish scientists and educators, the government purge has delivered a great blow to the entire Turkish higher education and scientific research community.
We are requesting that organizations, schools, universities and corporations that have branches in Turkey, or do business with Turkey, publicly and privately raise their dissatisfaction with the ongoing purge of Turkish citizens, academics in particular, without due process.
The United States corporations that we are aware have businesses in Turkey are as follows:
- Ford Motor Company
- General Electric
- Unilever
- Siemens
- Proctor and Gamble
- Mondelez International
- Danone
- Pepsi
- Bosch
- Carlsberg
CCS would again like to encourage President Erdogan to return academics and scientists to their previous positions, release those who have been detained, and charge or release those who have been arrested. We would like Turkish authorities to assure that those arrested will be allowed to speak with their attorneys and meet with their families; and that they will receive fair and humane treatment with adequate medical care, food and accommodations.