Peace academic in Turkey commits suicide after having been dismissed
A young academic from Turkey’s Çukurova University ended his life after having gone through a major depression following his dismissal from his post in school.
Also a member of Turkey’s Eğitim Sen (Union of education workers), Mehmet Fatih Traş was a signatory of the Peace Petition of Academics.
As BirGün journalist Meltem Yılmaz have reported, in a letter written to one of his professors at school, Traş had said ‘he was being labeled as a PKK sympathizer by his school officials for having signed the petition.’
His friends also told reporters during the funeral that Traş had gone into depression as he could not find a new job after having been dismissed from his post at Çukurova University.
Letter of Traş had the following notes: “Hi again, my teacher. As you would remember, I mentioned in our messages from a few weeks back that I had been placed for three lessons by the department… However, I found out recently that during a meeting of the council of the department last week, one of the professors said I was a PKK sympathizer as I was a signatory of the petition of the Academics for Peace and suggested for these three lessons that I was given to be cancelled since Turkey was going through very tough days – referring to the latest attack by TAK in Beşiktaş. I was also informed that the dean asked about it to the rector and the rector found it dangerous for me to take on duty at the department...
As a result, lessons I was given were called off by a decision of the board of the department... Although I talked with the dean and said that the claims needed evidence and that there was no legal case against me, trying to explain that this decision would put me in a very difficult situation in my future applications, I got nothing out of it...”