Academic dismissed over ‘Peace Declaration’ reinstated after nearly 10 years

Assoc. Prof. Gül Köksal, who was removed from her post at Kocaeli University for signing the Academics for Peace declaration calling for an end to the urban conflict in the country’s Kurdish-populated regions in 2016, returned to her position after nine and a half years.

Köksal resumed work yesterday after the Ankara 14th Regional Administrative Court ordered her reinstatement.

The Education and Science Workers’ Union (Eğitim-Sen) organized a welcoming ceremony for Köksal at the university’s Anıtpark Campus.

The event was attended by Köksal’s colleagues, other  signatory academics dismissed from Kocaeli University, students and representatives of various organizations.

A press conference was also held for Köksal that evening. The academic said she was able to get through the nearly 10 years she spent away from the university in a productive and resilient way thanks to all her friends, both those who attended the meeting and those who could not.

In Jan 2016, hundreds of academics issued the declaration titled “We will not be a party to this crime,” calling for an end to the conflict. Other academics later added their signatures, bringing the total number of signatories to more than 2,000. The academics were later prosecuted on charges of “terrorist propaganda.”

Köksal recalled that they were outside the Kocaeli Courthouse for those who were detained four days after signing the petition on Jan 11, 2016.

She said it remained in her memory that they were together when they learned at the Karaburun Science Congress that they had been dismissed from the university under Statutory Decree No. 672 on Sep 1, 2016, and again when they were forced to empty their offices six days later.

‘The university is not just four walls’

Köksal said the university was not just four walls and that she had said at the time that every place they were in was a school.

Köksal recalled that Academics for Peace had gone through a difficult period since then, facing many rights violations, including trials before heavy penal courts, passport cancellations, travel bans and unemployment. She added that some of these violations were still continuing.

Looking at the present day, Köksal said two months had passed since the Regional Administrative Court issued its favorable ruling on Feb 20. The university took the case to the Council of State, the top administrative court.

She added that her other colleagues dismissed from Kocaeli University were facing similar situations, and that 14 case files were currently pending before regional administrative courts and the Council of State.

Köksal recalled that 822 academics were tried before heavy penal courts over the peace petition and that 406 were dismissed from public service. She said the cases ended in acquittals after the Constitutional Court ruled  in 2019 that the petition fell within the scope of freedom of expression, but that this did not open the way for their return to work.

She added that the process before the State of Emergency Procedures Investigation Commission then began, and after the commission issued rejections, the legal struggle was taken to administrative courts.

The academic said that, to date, only reinstatement rulings for 14 academics had become final. No case from Kocaeli University had been finalized, while all remaining files were being unlawfully delayed.

‘An academia capable of driving transformation is possible’

Köksal said she would begin working at the university under conditions of uncertainty, while no steps had yet been taken for her other colleagues. She concluded her remarks with the following words:

“We say that ‘another academia is possible,’ one that can drive social transformation. We have worked toward this both within the four walls of universities and outside those walls. During the time I was kept away from the institution, I had the opportunity to produce work across many different disciplines, and beyond disciplines.

“Just as we have tried to establish a free environment for production wherever we have been, from today onward I will continue to do the same within the institution as much as I can.

“I would like to thank the Kocaeli branch of Eğitim-Sen, our lawyers, the organizations we established, democratic mass organizations and everyone I cannot name here for all their material, moral and legal support throughout this process.

“Our struggle and our work will continue until all our colleagues return to their posts.

“Here’s to days when our belief in building free time together grows stronger, our solidarity deepens and the paths of our founding wills remain open…”

Hakan Koçak: We were dismissed because we wanted peace

Signatory academic Hakan Koçak, who attended the welcoming ceremony for his colleague Gül Köksal, with whom he was dismissed, also spoke to bianet.

Koçak, an academic in labor economics, said he and Köksal were dismissed together on Sep 1, 2016. He said they had signed the petition to draw attention to the need for a democratic and peaceful resolution of the Kurdish issue, referring to the current peace process.

Koçak noted that the rulings concerning colleagues who had begun to be reinstated were not yet final, but said he still considered them important.

Saying that the Constitutional Court had ruled that the petition they signed fell within the scope of freedom of thought, Koçak said, “All of us must be reinstated unconditionally.”

Koçak recalled that different courts had issued different rulings, and said they did not know whether the decision concerning his colleague Köksal would set an example for them. He argued that the decisive factor lay in the political sphere.

Koçak said the Academics for Peace were also among the parties to, and victims of, the current peace process.

“We read our names in the Official Gazette in the middle of the night. There was no court ruling. No disciplinary investigation had been completed, and for 10 years we have been kept away from our students by a decision based on some people’s ideological concerns and the government’s discretion.

“We could not accept it because this was a political decision. The organization they claimed we were affiliated with has been dissolved, and now a new political decision is needed. I believe this would also show the sincerity of the process.

“If this process truly envisions a peaceful solution in Turkey, we should have returned. The current situation makes us question both the process and the government’s intentions.”

‘Hope is not enough, political intervention is needed’

Koçak also said that being hopeful would not be enough, emphasizing that political actors needed to resolve the issue. He said even the status of the academics who had been reinstated remained “in limbo.”

Koçak said he missed being together with his students, adding that experiences such as the Kocaeli Solidarity Academy (KODA) had been useful in this regard. He said they had proved through this project that scientific production was not confined to the boundaries of the university, but added that he remained hopeful.

Koçak also noted that the number of reinstatements that had reached a final conclusion was very small, saying hope alone would remain insufficient unless the political institution did what it needed to do. (AY/HA/VK)