Academic Freedom under Threat in Turkey and the Trials of Academics for Peace

Welcome to a new podcast series on Attacks on Academic Freedom in Turkey and around the World.The first episode is dedicated to Academics for Peace in Turkey who have been facing trials for saying “We will not be a party to this crime”. In this episode, we will first give context to the movement. Then we will read sections of defense speeches from the academics who have stood trial. By translating them to English, we hope to make the powerful content of their speeches that calls for peace, freedom of expression and academic freedom more accessible.We wish we could share defense speeches of every academic, but, for practical reasons, we had to choose only a few. However, we hope to keep reflecting on the movement of Academics for Peace in the upcoming episodes.The defense speech belongs to the following academics;  Ayse Gul AltinayNur MardinMeltem AhıskaBülent KüçükAyfer Bartu CandanFiliz ArıözAyşe ErzanÖmer TuranDidem PekünMesut YeğenBüşra Eraslanlı