Petition

We, the undersigned academics, write to express our deep concern about actions taken by the administration of Michigan State University against a member of our scientific community, a Turkish origin mathematician Professor Selman Akbulut. Recently, Michigan State University administration is charging Professor Selman Akbulut with "targeting faculty who have served in administrative review", which is solely based on Professor Akbulut’s writing his thoughts that are critical of actions taken by the administration; decrying racial discrimination against Middle Eastern graduate students, retaliation of faculty including himself who is critical of non-ethical treatments in the Math Department; asking corrections for the disciplinary actions he has faced as retaliation. Dismissal for Cause process was recommended by the department chair, and initiated by higher administrators.

Professor Akbulut received his PhD from University of California Berkeley in 1975. He is a well-known Turkish mathematician who devoted his life furthering mathematics, and collaboration with mathematicians throughout the world.

Intellectual freedom and expression of thoughts are non-negotiable elements of academia. We urge MSU administration to protect academic freedom and free speech, cease retaliation against its constructive critics, and prevent all kinds of discriminative actions. We urge MSU to ensure that Professor Akbulut's academic rights are fully respected. We call on the whole world mathematical community and in particular EMS and AMS to raise their voice against this shameful mistreatment and persecution of our colleague.

Respectfully,

Bu metinde imzası bulunan akademisyenler olarak, Michigan State Üniversitesi’nde, bilim camiamızın Türk kökenli üyelerinden matematik profesörü Selman Akbulut aleyhinde uygulanmakta olan işlemler ile ilgili duyduğumuz derin endişeyi ifade etmek istiyoruz. Michigan State Üniversitesi idaresi, Profesör Selman Akbulut’u "inceleme komitesinde yer alan öğretim üyelerini hedef göstermekle" suçlamaktadır. Bu suçlamaların tamamı, Profesör Selman Akbulut’un Matematik Bölümü’ndeki Ortadoğu’lu yüksek lisans ve doktora öğrencilerine karşı uygulanan ayrımcılığı dile getirmesi ve eleştirmesi, idarenin etik olmayan uygulamalarını eleştiren öğretim üyelerinin bölümde karşılaştıkları misillemeleri dile getirmesi ve eleştirmesi ve misilleme olarak kendisine uygulanmış ve uygulanmakta olan disiplin cezaları için düzeltme talep etmesi konularıyla alakalı yazılarına dayanmaktadır.

Profesör Akbulut doktorasını 1975 yılında Kaliforniya Berkeley Üniversitesi’nden almıştır. Kendisi, hayatını matematiğe ve dünyanın her yerinden matematikçilerle işbirliği yapmaya adamış olan tanınmış bir Türk matematikçidir.

Entelektüel özgürlük ve ifade özgürlüğü akademinin tartışma konusu yapılamayacak unsurlarıdır. MSU idaresini akademik özgürlüğü ve ifade özgürlüğünü korumaya, yapıcı eleştirilere karşı misillemeleri engellemeye ve her türlü ayrımcı işlemi önlemeye davet ediyoruz. MSU’nun, Profesör Akbulut’un akademik haklarına eksiksiz saygı göstermesini bekliyoruz. Tüm matematik camiasını ve özellikle TMD, EMS ve AMS’i, meslektaşımıza uygulanan bu utanç verici kötü muamelelere ve düşmanca tavırlara karşı sesini yükseltmeye çağırıyoruz.

Saygılarımızla,

Signatories

Anar Akhmedov	University of Minnesota	Mathematics
Recep Avcı	Montana State University	Physics
Tahir Çağın	Texas A & M University	Physics
Mahir Bilen Can	Tulane University	Mathematics
Sultan Catto	City University of New York	Physics
Weimin Chen	University of Massachusetts at Amherst	Mathematics
Yakov Eliashberg	Stanford University	Mathematics
Amineh Farzannia	University of Missouri	Mathematics (PhD Candidate)
John R.Harper	University of Rochester	Mathematics
Robion Kirby	University of California at Berkeley	Mathematics
Seongchun Kwon	University of Central Florida	Mathematics
Ciprian Manolescu	University of California Los Angeles	Mathematics
John David McCarthy	Michigan State University	Mathematics
Shawna Rowe	Michigan State University	Plant Biology
Kürşat Sözer	Indiana University	Mathematics
Clifford Taubes	Harvard University	Mathematics
Derviş Can Vural	University of Notre Dame	Physics
Eylem Zeliha Yıldız	Michigan State University	Mathematics
Üstün Yıldırım	University of Rochester	Mathematics
Alexandre Ananin	ICMC Universidade de São Paulo	Mathematics
Maria Aparecida Soares Ruas	ICMC Universidade de São Paulo	Mathematics
Misha Verbitsky	IMPA (Rio de Janeiro)	Mathematics
Douglas Park	University of Waterloo	Mathematics
Dietmar Salamon	ETH Zurich	Mathematics
Bedia Akyar	Aalborg University	Mathematics
Ilia Itenberg	Sorbonne University	Mathematics
Viatcheslav Kharlamov	Strasbourg University	Mathematics
Devrim Gümral	University of Udine	Biomedical Sciences and Technologies
Kouichi Yasui	Osaka University	Mathematics
Ünal Ufuktepe	American University of the Middle East	Mathematics
Abdul Hameed Nayyar	Quaid-i-Azam University	Physics
Cenap Ozel	King Abdulaziz University	Mathematics
Ender Abadoğlu	Yeditepe University	Mathematics
Can Akkoç	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Şahin Aktaş	Marmara University	Physics
Yilmaz Akyildiz	Boğaziçi University	Mathematics
Rafail Alizade	Yasar University	Mathematics
Ruhan Alpaydın	Bilgi University	Music
Azmi Ali Altıntaş	Okan University	Physics
M. Firat Arikan	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Ali Mahir Arık	Boğaziçi University	Chemical Engineering
Metin Arıkol	Boğaziçi University	Physics
Kemâl Aydın	Selçuk University	Mathematics
Zekeriya Aydın	Ankara University	Physics
Sümeyye Bakım	KTO Karatay University	Mechatronic Engineering
Bekir Barış		Mathematics
Necdet Batır	Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University	Mathematics
Vedat Batu		Civil Engineer
Mohan Bhupal	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Ayşe Borat	Bursa Technical University	Mathematics
Mehmet Çamurdan	Boğaziçi University	Chemical Engineering
Uluğ Çapar	Sabancı University	Engineering and Natural Sciences
Hüseyin Çavuş	Çanakkale Ondokuz Mart University	Physics
Alper Cay	Ankara University	Mathematics (PhD Candidate)
Yusuf Civan	Süleyman Demirel University	Mathematics
Ece Gulsah Colak	Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University	Mathematics
Özkan Değer	İstanbul University	Mathematics
Alex Degtyarev	Bilkent University	Mathematics
Ali Sait Demir	İstanbul Technical University	Mathematics
Sultan Erdoğan Demir	İstanbul Technical University	Mathematics
Ayhan Dil	Akdeniz University	Mathematics
Doğan Dönmez	Çukurova University	Mathematics
Baris Efe	Yeditepe University	Mathematics
Melike Isim Efe	Yeditepe University	Mathematics
Yigit Erarslan	İzmir Institute of Technology	Physics (Student)
Zafer Ercan	Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University	Mathematics
Mehmet Akif Erdal	Yeditepe University	Mathematics
Saadettin Erdem	Anadolu University	Mathematics
Sergey Finashin	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Aydan Gülerce	Boğaziçi University	Education
İsmail Güloğlu	Doğuş University	Mathematics
Hasan Gümral	Yeditepe University	Mathematics
Belkis Halfon	Boğaziçi University	Chemistry
Kazim Ilhan Ikeda	Boğaziçi University	Mathematics
Sabahattin Ilbıra	Amasya University	Mathematics
Aslı Güçlükan İlhan	Dokuz Eylül University	Mathematics
Ozgur Ince	Cumhuriyet University	Mathematics
Sıtkı Irk	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Nilgün Işık	Boğaziçi University	Mathematics
Yahya Kabak	Middle East Technical University	Physics
Mustafa Kalafat	Bartın University	Mathematics
Timur Karacay	Başkent University	Mathematics
Halil İbrahim Karakaş	Baskent University	Mathematics
Mete Han Karakaş	Bilkent University	Mathematics (PhD Candidate)
Ali Karatay	Boğaziçi University	Mathematics
Tolga Karayayla	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Ali R. Kaylan	Boğaziçi University	Industrial Engineering
Barış Kendirli	İstanbul Aydin University	Mathematics
Sıla Kesimal	Bilkent University	Mathematics (PhD candidate)
Ali Ozgur Kisisel	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Mehmet Koca	Çukurova University	Physics
Şahin Koçak	Anadolu University	Mathematics
Kevser Köklü	Yıldız Technical University	Mathematical Engineering
İsmail Kömbe	İstanbul Ticaret Universitesi	Mathematics
Mehmet E. Köroğlu	Yıldız Technical University	Mathematics
Tansu Küçüköncü	Middle East Technical University	Statistics
Tuba Macun	Uludağ University	Food Engineering (Student)
Esra Mungan	Boğaziçi University	Psychology
Can Ozan Oğuz	Galatasaray University	Mathematics
Ünal Onbaşlı	İstanbul Technical University	Civil Engineer
Turgut Önder	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Hursit Onsiper	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Ercüment H. Ortaçgil	Boğaziçi University	Mathematics
Yildiray Ozan	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Mehmet Emin Özel	Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University	Mathematics
Emre Özel	Eskişehir Osmangazi University	Mathematics (PhD Candidate)
Aybike Ozer	İstanbul Technical University	Mathematics
Cihan Saçlıoğlu	Sabancı University	Engineering and Natural Sciences
Mesut Şahin	Hacettepe University	Mathematics
Celal Cem Sarıoğlu	Dokuz Eylül University	Mathematics
Oğuz Şavk	Boğaziçi University	Mathematics (PhD Candidate)
Kubilay Sönmez	İstanbul Technical University	Electrical Engineering
Bayram Tekin	Middle East Technical University	Physics
Şeyda C Tekin	İstanbul Technical University	Mathematics
Mustafa Telci	Trakya University	Mathematics
Reyhan Tellioğlu	İstanbul Ticaret University	Mathematics (PhD student)
Mevlüt Teymur	İstanbul Technical University	Mathematics
Cem Tezer	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Deniz Tipi
Betül Tolgay	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Aslı Tolun	Boğaziçi University	Molecular Biology and Genetics
Zübeyir Türkoğlu	Dokuz Eylül University	Mathematics
Davut Uğurlu	Piri Reis Univeristy	Mathematics
A. Muhammed Uludağ	Galatasaray University	Mathematics
İbrahim Ünal	Middle East Technical University	Mathematics
Hüseyin Vural	Middle East Technical University	Mechanical Engineering
Coşkun Yakar	Gebze Technical University	Mathematics
T.Hatice Yalvaç	Hacettepe University	Mathematics
Tolga Yarman	Okan University	Physics
Nagihan Yıldız	Uludağ University	Education
Erol Yılmaz	Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University	Mathematics