Turkey must free Carleton student
Carleton's Cihan Erdal didn't break the law, says Jacqueline Kennelly.
The detention of Cihan Erdal, a PhD student in sociology at Carleton University, has sparked a wave of outrage from academics and members of the public across the country and the globe. An open letter calling for his release has garnered more than 1,600 signatures from Canadians. After only one day of circulation, a second letter geared toward international academics has 260 signatures, and is growing.
Erdal is a permanent resident of Canada, having settled here with his partner, who works for a Canadian HR company. He had travelled to Turkey in August of 2020 to visit his elderly parents and conduct some basic fieldwork for his doctorate when he was caught up in a sweep of arrests.
Academics, politicians and the media are understandably outraged at the ongoing suppression of political speech and freedom in Turkey, represented by the imprisonment of hundreds of academics and students there since 2016. In 2018, Human Rights Watch declared that the actions of the Turkish government are “leading to self-censorship and hollowing out academic freedom in the country.”
But Erdal's case must be viewed not only through the lens of academic freedom and human rights, but also through the rule of law.
The case against Erdal and 19 others is based on Tweets allegedly sent out by the executive committee of the People's Democratic Party (HDP) on Oct. 6, 2014. Prosecutors claim that the HDP used Twitter to incite violence when it called for people to join protests against the Turkish government in 2014. The protests, which were demanding the government assist the Kurdish town of Kobane under deadly attack by ISIL, resulted in the deaths of at least 37 people.
Erdal was neither present nor aware of the decision to send out these Tweets. He can support this claim with a letter from his MA adviser, which demonstrates that Erdal was studying and preparing for his class on the night of the meeting in question. Although he was serving as a student member of the HDP executive at this time, he was never a major player in the HDP and has not lived in Turkey since January of 2017.
Whether the Tweets broke the law is both a political and legal question. Since Erdal was not involved with this act, the question of his release is neither. If the Turkish authorities wish to show that they are following the rule of law, this is a clear-cut case. Regardless of politics or position, if a thing didn't happen then a man shouldn't be in jail for it. It is not saying, “at least let this person out because what he did isn't wrong.” Rather, it is saying, “this person wasn't even part of the situation and isn't part of this discussion over whether it is legal or not. Let's get rid of that non-issue and address the issue.”
The Canadian government is obliged to move carefully here. As a Canadian permanent resident who continues to carry Turkish citizenship, Erdal is bound by the Turkish legal system under the Vienna Convention. As its ally, Canada can and should help Turkey avoid a legal contradiction and support the release of Erdal on fundamental legal grounds so that he can continue to build his promising scholarly career in his chosen home country of Canada.