Turkey detains 12 academics over call for peace with Kurdish militants

Turkish police on Friday detained 12 academics who signed a declaration calling for a cease-fire between the Kurdish militants and Turkish security forces, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

It said the academicians were charged with "insulting the state" and "engaging in terrorist propaganda" by signing the declaration, according to the report.

The scholars are reportedly lecturers from Kocaeli University in Turkey's Marmara region, and the police were looking for another nine.

More than 1,400 academicians from universities across the country including some with foreign nationalities, who called themselves "Group of Academics for Peace," signed a peace declaration titled "We won't be a part to this crime" days ago.

The declaration criticized the government policy as being "based on violence" and called for an end to the ongoing fighting in Turkey's southeastern region between Turkish security forces and militants with the outlawed Kurdistan workers' Party (PKK).

It also accused the state of violating human rights and of conducting a "deliberate and planned massacre" of its Kurdish citizens, who have been reportedly subjected to weeks-long curfews in some towns.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took aim at the academics, labeling them "traitors" and a fifth column of foreign powers destined to undermine Turkey's national security.

The peace process between the Turkish government and the PKK broke down in June 2015 following the killing of two police officers, and fighting resumed the following month.

The PKK, seeking an autonomous region for Kurds in Turkey's southeast, is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. Endit