American Mathematical Society letter to Turkish President Erdogan - Intellectual freedom

American Mathematical Society letter to Turkish President Erdogan about Intellectual freedom   letter-to-president-erdogan-9-14-16.pdf   



"Dear President Erdoğan:
I, along with the American Mathematical Society’s Committee on Human Rights of
Mathematicians, write to you to express our grave concerns about recent actions taken by the government
of Turkey against members of the scientific community.
According to reports we have read, the government has retaliated against some academics who
signed the Peace Petition prior to the coup attempt in your nation during July, 2016. Most recently, we
read that on September 1, 2016, a cabinet decree of your government used the State of Emergency rule to
ban 44 academic signatories, who were deemed “supporters of terrorism.” Furthermore, we have read
some reports that nearly 3,000 academics have been purged from the university system through the
Council of Higher Education.
Intellectual freedom and freedom of movement and expression are non-negotiable elements of an
open and democratic society. We urge the government of Turkey to protect the freedom of its citizens, to
cease retaliation against its peaceful critics, and to reinstate the faculty who have been banned or purged.



Respectfully,

Robert L. Bryant
President of the American Mathematical Society and
Phillip Griffiths Professor of Mathematics, Duke University
and the members of the AMS Committee on Human Rights of Mathematicians:
-Roya Beheshti, Washington University-St. Louis, Department of Mathematics
-Raul Curto, University of Iowa, Department of Mathematics
-Moon Duchin, Tufts University, Department of Mathematics
-David Johnson, Lehigh University, Department of Mathematics
-Melvyn Nathanson, Herbert H. Lehman College, Department of Mathematics & Computer Science
-Ashish Srivastava, Saint Louis University, Department of Mathematics & Computer Science
-A. Shadi Tahvildar-Zadeh, Rutgers University, Department of Mathematics
-Chad Topaz, Macalester College, Department of Mathematics, Statistics, & Computer Science
-Joseph Watkins, University of Arizona, Department of Mathematics