Sociologist İsmail Beşikçi is well-known in Turkey as the Turkish academic who, because of his research on Kurds, had to leave university and spent many years in prison, accused of spreading PKK propaganda.

Now a group of intellectuals and academics has announced that a group affiliated with the PKK, the so-called “People’s Defence Forces” (Hezen Parastina Gel, or HPG, in Kurdish), has been threatening Beşikçi.

"A courage seldom seen"

They condemned such threats by saying:

“Those now writing uncritical articles and spreading threats were perhaps not even born yet when Dr. İsmail Beşikçi displayed a courage seldom seen in this region. He is a respectable intellectual who used insight, courage, and determination to oppose the Turkish Republic’s official ideology, official history and official truths, all of which ignored, denied and denigrated the Kurdish people.”

"Overstepping the mark"

Access to the HPG’s website, www.hpg-online.com, is banned in Turkey. The supporters of Beşikçi say that wo articles published on the website by Adil Kurtay and Kasım Engin insult and denigrate the sociologist. They point out that the sentence “the academic is overstepping the mark” represents a clear threat to Beşikçi.

The intellectuals and academics signed a statement in support of Beşikçi. Entitled “Intellectuals Should Always Speak the Truth…”, part of it reads:

“Do those who write uncritical articles with no worry about ethics or intellectual issues and those supporting these writers know whom they are writing about?”

"A symbol for all the oppressed peoples"

The statement is meant to show that Beşikçi is not alone, and that such actions against him are strongly condemned. The supporters described the sociologist as a symbol “for all the oppressed peoples of this country, for the honour of the exploited classes, for being intellectual, for intellectual honesty, for honourable scholarship, for freedom of thought and for criticism.”  (EÖ/AG)