Serdar Bascetin, another member of the Academics for Peace initiative, was arrested. His social media posts were allegedly evidence of terrorist activity.
Başçetin was detained with three others during a home raid in Antalya on February 13. The seven-day legal detention period of the detainees was extended by the prosecutor despite that their depositions were completed. After this period, all four individuals were brought to the court, where Başçetin and Kutay Meric, an executive member of the republican human rights organization Community House, were arrested.
Başçetin was a research assistant at Erzincan University's Department of Political Science and Public Administration. After Başçetin signed the Academics for Peace letter in 2016, the university opened a disciplinary investigation into his action, and after the attempted coup in July of that same year, he was dismissed from his position via a statutory decree.
Endangered Scholars Worldwide deplores and condemns Serdar Başçetin's ongoing detention, persecution, and conviction and calls upon all international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights to protest and condemn this arbitrary incarceration; to call for his immediate and unconditional release; and to urge the officials of the Turkish government to respect, guarantee, and implement the provisions and principles of human rights as specified in international conventions and treaties to which Turkey has long been a signatory.
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