Thursday, January 3, 2013

From Prison: A letter from Kemal Gürüz


A letter from Professor Kemal Gürüz, the former president of Turkey's Council of Higher Education (YÖK) and a retired chemical engineer, who was arrested on 25 June 2012 in relation to '28 February Investigation.' He has been in pre-trial detention for over six months in a maximum-security prison in Turkey. Although we do not endorse his political position and many of his past activities as the president of YÖK, we believe in his right to a prompt fair trial.

As in his first letter, in this second letter Gürüz responds to accusations concerning his involvement in the 28 February Process, which led to the resignation of the government in 1997, following a series of ultimatums from the military to end political activities considered threatening to the country’s constitutional secularism.