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            Turkey Detains Academics Who Signed Pro-Kurdish Petition

   by VOA News

   Turkish authorities have detained at least 12 academics accused of
   supporting "terror propaganda" after they signed a petition calling for
   an end to the government's crackdown on Kurdish rebels.

   The state-run Anadolu news agency said the academics from Kocaeli
   University, near Istanbul, were detained during raids at their homes
   early Friday, adding nine others are set to also be taken in.

   The detainees are among more than 1,200 academics who have signed a
   statement condemning Turkey's "deliberate massacres and deportation" of
   Kurdish people in the southeast of the country.

   The petition also called for an immediate end to the use of curfews and
   the resumption of the peace process with the PKK Kurdish rebel group.

   Among the petition's notable foreign signatories are Noam Chomsky, the
   renowned U.S. leftist political analyst and linguist, and Slavoj
   Žižek, the prominent Slovenian philosopher and Marxist intellectual.

   'So-called intellectuals'

   Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed the "so-called
   intellectuals," whom he says are committing treason and are committed
   to the destruction of the Turkish state.

   Prosecutors have also opened an investigation to see if the petition
   has violated the country's anti-terror laws.

   Turkish forces launched a new offensive in July against the PKK in
   southeastern Turkey, a move that ended a cease-fire of more than two
   years between the militants and the government. Erdogan further pledged
   in November to continue until every one of the militants was defeated.

   Turkey, the United States and European Union all consider the PKK to be
   a terror group. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has left 40,000
   people dead since 1984.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/turkey-detains-academics-who-signed-p
   ro-kurdish-petition/3147064.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/turkey-detains-academics-who-signed-pro-kurdish-petition/3147064.html