[On Friday, 25 September, the Turkish government arrested Carleton University doctoral candidate Cihan Erdal on charges stemming to her voicing solidarity with the Kurdish people in Turkey six years ago. The following is a letter shared by his departmnent condemning his detention as well as urging people to demand his release.]
The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University condemns in the strongest possible terms the detention of Carleton Sociology doctoral candidate, Cihan Erdal, in Turkey today. The charges stem from events back in 2014, which the Turkish government are using to continue persecuting members of the leftist HDP political party, the third largest party in Turkey’s parliament. Cihan and 81 others, including academics, activists, and politicians, have been targeted because they are all signatories to a letter from six years ago calling for the Turkish government to step in to protect a Kurdish town from ISIS attacks, during a time when ISIS was quite active and many Kurds were being killed.
Cihan was an active member of the HDP in 2014 as their youth representative. However, he has not been involved in Turkish politics since he moved to Canada to do his doctoral studies at Carleton in January, 2017. He had only returned to Turkey to visit family and then to interview Turkish activists as part of his doctoral fieldwork. Cihan’s research is on youth-led social movements in Europe, including in Turkey, focused on the stories of young activists about their involvement in social movements. His work is in no way critical of the Turkish state. His research passed a formal proposal defense, and his research ethics proposal was approved before the COVID-19 pandemic began. He was beginning interviews online, while awaiting approval under the new pandemic ethics process to begin face to face interviews in Turkey, Athens, and Paris.
We ask you to vigorously demand the release of Cihan from detention and demand that the Canadian government consular offices support Cihan, who is a permanent resident of Canada.
For more information on the arrests, read these articles from Al Jazeera and Bianet and watch this panel put on by Carleton University Students for Scholars at Risk:
Sign this petition to demand the release of Cihan Erdal.
Donate to this fundraiser for the release of Cihan Erdal.
The Embassy of Canada to Turkey:
Cinnah Caddesi No: 58
06690, Cankaya
Ankara, Turkey
Tel.: +90 (312) 409 27 00
Fax: +90 (312) 409 27 12
E-mail: ANKRA@international.gc.ca
Twitter: @CanEmbTurkey
[This statement was originally published by the Department of Socioology and Anthropology at Carleton University on 25 September 2020.]