Assistant Prof. Dr. Timucin Koprulu a graduate of Ankara University Law Faculty and an esteemed academic who has started his academic career and completed his doctorate at Ankara Law Faculty and made valuable contributions to this faculty, as well as the academic world.
Timucin Koprulu attended the graduation ceremony of the Uludag University Law Faculty, where he is currently
employed, wearing a t-shirt bearing “Diren” (Resist)
and delivered the following speech:
“Dear guests,
I gave lectures to these students for three years. I was their professor
for the courses of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedural Law. I believe I have a
right to say a few words. It won’t take long. We go through an era where lies
replace the law and the law is a lie. Some say that “the police demonstrated
epic heroism.” You cannot call killing
people in the demonstrations, making the demonstrators blind, using tear gas on
thousands of people, dragging and forcing lawyers out of the courthouses and
arresting the lawyers from the Progressive Lawyers Association heroism. The
real heroes are these graduates. Thank you.”
The Uludag University administration has opened an investigation due to Dr. Koprulu’s speech and the t-shirt he was wearing, which bore “Resist.” With the investigation, the Uludag University administration has launched an attack against freedom of speech and academic freedom, based on the antidemocratic higher education legislation and culture, which is a product of the 1980 military coup and openly hostile to the universities and science. This attack is not directed only against Dr. Koprulu but also against all scientists, academics, university personnel and free scientific and critical thought. Moreover, a short while before the investigation, Yeni Akit – Habervaktim, a provocative daily and its web-site, launched a smear campaign against Dr. Koprulu, similar to the one it had launched against Ankara University Political Sciences Faculty and Ankara University Communications Faculty members recently. Yeni Akit has determined the target and the Uludag University administration took the “necessary” action.
We, the undersigned academics, share and repeat Dr. Koprulu’s speech. We also declare to the public and the relevant authorities that we will expose this unlawful attack with all kinds of methods including wearing t-shirts and pins that bear “#Resist,” “#ResistFreedomOfSpeech,” and “#ResistAcademicFreedom” in class, the meetings we attend and during all kinds of academic and administrative tasks we undertake. We condemn and warn the Uludag University administration.
We also announce to the public that we will stand against and resist the “witch hunt” started after the Gezi Resistance, all kinds of mobbing, oppression, banishment, investigation, custody, arrest, torture and unlawfulness and will take the side of labor and democracy. We announce that we support the Yeditepe University research assistants who were laid off, Marmara University Faculty member Dr. M. Meryem Kurtulmus whose tenure was unlawfully extended for only 6 months and faces the risk of losing her job by September because of taking part in the struggle for democratic university, academic freedom and “secure job secure future” campaign, and all students, academics and university employees who is subject to oppression and unlawful practices due to their critical ideas, academic work, political and syndicate related activities in the higher education institutions.
