The Attitudes of Turkish Academy Towards Political Issues in the Context of the Kurdish

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Academia is belived to be a place or community to say the truth, and to be able to say the truth needs first of all a critical point of view. By doing so academics/intellectuals fulfill their social responsibility which sometimes puts them on the spot and creates a conflict between what s/he is doing and what s/he is expected to do. The power wants the academics to be accordant with its official policy and discource, namely doing their duties, and mostly they move in the frame that has been demarcated by the power. This relationship affects their approaches towards what is going on around, especially political issues.

The situation of modern Turkish academia, raised in the 1930s, can be evaluated in that framework. In the beginning of the 1930s Turkish academia played a crucial role in constructing a scientific base for the state’s official policy and discourse, and did not intervene any political issues. One of the issues that state was very sensitive about was the Kurdish issue and the academics who were interested in that topic had to pay a price for it.

In this article, this situaiton of Turkish academia and its attitudes towards political issues; their effort to be ciritical to official policy and what they had to pay for it are going to be discussed in the context of the Kurdish question with the case of Academics for Peace.

Keywords

• Academia,Scholarly ethics,Turkish Academia,Kurdish Question

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