Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continued with his criticism of more than 1,000 academics who have been subject to prosecution and administrative penalties from their institutions after signing a statement criticizing the government’s actions in the Southeast, calling them “despicable” and “cruel.”
“They are cruel, they are despicable because those who are together with the cruel are themselves cruel. People who are [in solidarity] with those who commit massacres are guilty of the same crime,” Erdoğan told reporters after Friday prayers at İstanbul’s Sultanahmet Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque, which was the site of a suicide attack that killed 10 German tourists on Tuesday.At least 12 academics who signed the petition this Monday as part of the “Academics for Peace” initiative were detained on Friday after prosecutors launched an investigation on the grounds of “insulting the state” and spreading “propaganda for a terrorist organization.” Dozens of them have also been suspended from their posts after Erdoğan railed against them in a speech on Tuesday.