In the aftermath of the attempted coup in 2016, many universities in Turkey were closed leaving staff with no jobs and students with no available schooling. Many staff members of these schools were charged for “supporting a terrorist organization.” Meliksah University was one of those involved. On August 15, 2016 arrest warrants were issued for 100 members of their staff. Sixty-three were detained for 11 days. Then, the court arrested 19 of them, including President, Vice President, General Secretary of the University, Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Department Chairs, Directories of Graduate Schools. The rest of the detainees were released under conditions of judicial control and placed on a travel ban. On March 21, 2018, about 20 months after the arrests, the court sentenced Veli Demirci, the General Secretary, to 11 years, 3 months prison time; Mahmut D Mat, Rector, to 10 years prison time; Murat Sen, Dean of Law school, to 12 years prison time; Prof. Onur Genç, Chair of the Department of Construction Engineering and Prof. Halit Akturk, to 8 years, 9 months prison time; Profs. Emin Emiza, Bilal Vatansever and Dogan Bulut to 6 years 10 months prison time; and Profs. Hayrettin Eren, Mustafa Yuzukirmizi, Metin Mete Ozbilen, Huseyin Kalyoncu, Ahmet Uyar, Mustafa Yilmaz, Nihat Koroglu to 6 years and 3 months prison time. The cases for Profs. Mustafa Unalmis and Kanber Sedef are still pending but they are still currently confined. CCS has written the Turkish Minister of Justice to request a review of these cases with the release of these individuals and a dismissal of their charges and withdrawal of the travel restrictions.
Who We Are
Co-chairs
Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University
Paul H. Plotz, M.D., Washington, DC
Walter Reich, George Washington University
Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College
Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College
Vice-chairs
Astronomy – Arno Penzias, New Enterprises Associates*
Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University
Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.
Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University
Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park
Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering
Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University
Medical Sciences – J. Joseph Blum, Duke University
Honorary Board Members
Nancy Andrews, Duke University
David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*
Alan J. Bard, University of Texas
Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook
Raoul Bott (deceased), Harvard University
Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley
Stanley Deser, Brandeis University
Edward Gerjuoy, University of Pittsburg
David Gross, (2004 Nobel Prize in Physics), Kavil Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara*
Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University
Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*
James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara
Peter Lax, New York University
Louis Nirenberg, New York University
Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*
Honorary Board Members
John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*
Stuart Rice, University of Chicago
Sir Richard J. Roberts, (1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine), New England Biolabs*
Myriam Sarachick, City College of New York
Harold Scheraga, Cornell University
Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University
Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University
Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin*
Myrna Weissman, Columbia University
Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*
* Nobel laureate