We are writing letters to Cihan

As the year 2020 is ending, we are writing letters to Cihan and his cellmates to convey our best wishes and show our solidarity.

Letters should only be in Turkish and Google Translate is pretty accurate!

CUSFSAR livestream on Oct. 17 3PM EDT

Carleton University Students for Scholars at Risk (CUSFSAR) is organizing a livestream event with Prof. Jacqueline Kennely (Cihan’s doctoral supervisor), Omer Ongun (Cihan’s partner), and Paul Champ (human rights lawyer) on October 17, 3pm EDT (22:00 UTC +3 Turkey Time). 

Follow this link https://linktr.ee/cusfsar

Message from N. Chomsky, J. Butler and W. Brown

October 11, 2020

Message from Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler and Wendy Brown: Please add our signature to #freeCihanErdal 💜 Scholars send their greetings and message of solidarity to all of the prisoners of conscience.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON CIHAN ERDAL’S IMPRISONMENT IN TURKEY

Cihan Erdal is not accused of signing a letter, he never signed a letter. In fact there is NO LETTER! The evidence that the prosecutor has so far presented against the 20 (only 20 out of 81 names were detained) in the ongoing criminal investigation consists of the party’s social media postings on Twitter calling on people to join the October 2014 demonstrations, following an Executive Committee Meeting on October 6, 2014. According to Cihan’s statement although he was a member of the Executive Committee, he did not attend the meeting on October 6, 2014 and, he neither saw nor approved the tweets
For details: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/10/02/turkey-politicians-and-activists-detained?fbclid=IwAR1PN5f21ZnGO0B66U7Ro7aPRNUcvmBNfShPdpP7exV7pWAe46iJMRwzD5g

UPDATE for October 2, 2020

UPDATE – October 2, 2020:

Cihan Erdal, a PhD candidate at Carleton University, was arrested in Turkey on October 2, 2020.

Cihan and 16 others who are jailed were taken to a prison in Ankara, where he is in solitary confinement. All prisoners will remain in quarantine for 14 days. Meanwhile, they were not allowed to talk to their lawyers or access to clean clothes.

…

Cihan Erdal is a queer youth activist and was a former central executive committee member of the left-wing opposition party, HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party). He had been detained along with 20 other politicians, academics and activists on September 25. The arrests came following an investigation regarding 2014 protests that support the Kurdish town of Kobane in northern Syria against Islamic State (ISIS) militants.

Cihan Erdal is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa and a member of CUPE Local 4600. He was visiting Turkey to conduct fieldwork as part of his research. Scholars from Canada and beyond have since signed petitions and called for his release.

Earlier, his partner Omer Ongun announced: “He reiterated that he is an academic defending peace and life… Cihan is right, truthful, confident, calm, and powerful. We will stay strong and determined!”

The campaign for Cihan’s release and safe return to Canada will continue.