Turkey detains government critics

ANKARA: Turkish security forces detained 12 academics accused of signing a declaration calling for renewed efforts to end violence between government forces and Kurdish separatists, NTV said yesterday. The declaration — which criticised the government’s handling of recent violence in the predominantly Kurdish southeast and called for the end of curfews — has been signed by more than 1,000 people, including US philosopher Noam Chomsky. Police were looking for seven others, also in western Turkey’s Kocaeli Province — an industrial heartland near Istanbul, NTV reported.