
A Turkish physicist wrote research papers in prison - mbaytas
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01370-1
======
cf498
Can Dündar once described the prison library of Silivri

Sadly I couldn't find a translation in English, but the original in Turkish is
also linked

[http://www.zeit.de/2017/43/meinungsfreiheit-tuerkei-
haeftlin...](http://www.zeit.de/2017/43/meinungsfreiheit-tuerkei-haeftlinge-
bibliotheken-autoren) [http://www.zeit.de/kultur/2017-10/meinungsfreiheit-
tuerkei-h...](http://www.zeit.de/kultur/2017-10/meinungsfreiheit-tuerkei-
haeftlinge-bibliotheken-autoren-tuerkisch)

The first paragraph is a rather good summary

>Do you know where the literacy rate in Turkey is highest? In Silivri. Because
there is Turkey's largest prison, and it is full of writers, journalists,
scientists and intellectuals. There is a fairly extensive prison library
there, which is steadily growing, as each inmate author asks his publisher for
donations or donates his books to the library at the end of his stay. When I
was there I happily discovered four of my books in the catalog. Imagine, you
are behind bars as "offenders" and your books are there to "help the offenders
better them self". Another piece of black humor in this matter: Once a
prisoner asked for a book, the librarian's answer was: "We do not have the
book, but its author is here."

~~~
benbreen
I spent a memorable day once with a Turkish acquaintance who was also doing
archival research in Lisbon when I was doing my PhD work there. Her mother
came to visit and we walked all around the city.

My acquaintance's mother and father both turned out to be prominent Turkish
intellectuals. I asked her mother how she'd met her father - it turned out
they met in prison. She said that was a pretty common origin story for Turkish
academic couples of her generation, because that was where all the smart
people were.

------
grenoire
The brain drain faced by Turkey in the last century is getting to even further
extremes. I'm doubtful that the universities can restore their past reputation
or 'quality,' but Turkish academics themselves will hopefully persevere and
flourish in other countries.

~~~
terminalcommand
Not all academics are pursued by the government. However, if you state an
opinion against the government openly or are an expert in an important field
such as constitutional law or state theory you are sure to face some
consequences.

For example all my constitutional law professors at one of the most prominent
law faculties in Turkey were either arrested or forced to retire. Nowadays,
our professors only state that new laws contradict the whole legal system but
are afraid to speak out. For example, there are horrifying changes with
executive decrees to the most basic rights such as Habeas Corpus. They
contradict with the constitution but no one can take these executive decrees
to the supreme court, because that is not allowed. The professors jokingly
state that they do not want to speak further about these subjects, because
they do not want to be subjected to these very laws they'd want to criticize.

~~~
sametmax
It's funny to read people being astonished about the habeas corpus violations
in turkey, while hapily forgetting the US disregarded it too since the patriot
act.

The scale of violence is not the same, but you are sliding in the wrong
directions too.

------
totalZero
> One of my students Google-translated some research papers for me into
> Turkish, but they were held back on suspicion that they included secret
> codes — presumably because they contained so many equations.

Such a fearful and non-results-oriented suspicion. Even if a physicist were
able to hide messages in equations, what malicious activity did they believe
he could accomplish?

~~~
0xcde4c3db
Not to mention the availability of vastly more suitable communication
channels. I recall American news media giving a similar justification for not
showing video statements by Al Qaeda. It was certainly realistic to expect
that Al Qaeda would engage in communications with malicious effect, but it
seems like _quite_ a stretch that they'd rely on CNN to be their C&C channel.
Maybe it hadn't quite sunk in at that point that the Internet extends well
beyond the US.

~~~
maze-le
Its not a strech. Not showing videos released from terrorist groups, might be
a valid strategy. After all, terrorism is a means of political communication
through violence. When you remove one of the most potent channels of
communication, you could remove the ability of these groups to 'terrorize'.
Albeit, in times of facebook youtube and twitter this is not possible anymore.

So theoretically, a valid idea. Practically not possible and maybe even
counterproductive.

~~~
acct1771
There are some people so desperately crying out for us to stop our government
from killing innocent people overseas without our consent that they feel the
situation is all but hopeless, so they start killing and causing destruction
themselves to draw attention to the problem, and government simply doesn't
want the voters to see that.

~~~
acct1771
In case this has to be said, no, I will never defend the killing of innocent
people.

But the big question I ask myself, and ask of others: Are you innocent?

~~~
maze-le
What kind of nonsensical comment is that?

~~~
acct1771
My tax dollars pay for this: [https://theintercept.com/drone-
papers/](https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/)

Do yours?

~~~
maze-le
My taxes support this at least. Ramstein Air Base is a relay station in the
drone wars and is partly supported by the German government. And I don't like
it either. The scale of it is disproportionate and counterproductive. With
each drone bombing, they kill 2 terrorists and create 20 new ones.

~~~
acct1771
Then I'm not sure why you're calling my comment nonsensical. You agree with
it. Cheers, have a good one.

------
jackdumn
If you are against to Erdogan, you will be declared as a terrorist at best. He
is a control freak, and lost his sanity when he was a little boy. People of
Turkey suffer a lot because of him.

------
shafyy
_For example, one of the arguments in my official indictment was that I had
visited the United States and Canada, countries favoured by supporters of the
movement that the government believes was behind the coup._

That's crazy.

But why is he already out when he was sentenced to six years in prison on
December 20, 2017?

~~~
HappyDreamer
The text reads: _".. in July 2016. Theoretical physicist Ali Kaya is one of
them. He was arrested three months after the failed coup and held for more
than a year before his trial took place. On 20 December ..."_ — that sounds
like December 2016 to me, not 2017.

~~~
shafyy
No, it reads: " _He was arrested three months after the failed coup and held
for more than a year before his trial took place. On 20 December, a court
declared him guilty of being a member of a terrorist organization and
sentenced him to six years of imprisonment_

The coup was in July 2016. He was arrested after 3 months (October 2016) and
after waiting for more than a year in prison, the sentence was declared. This
makes it December 2017. Anyway, that doesn't even matter. 6 minus 1 year is
still 5 years, and the articles reads as he's already out. What am I missing?

------
lolc
Most people I meet from Turkey have a story of state persecution. One guy
wrote two books in prison before being released awaiting trial. He fled when
the verdict came down.

