Turkey Arrested and Illegally Detain Carleton University LGBT2 Student Cihan Erdal

Cihan Erdal, along with 82 other people, including the opposition Mayor are being detained by the Turkish Government

The Turkish government has illegally detained Carleton University student Cihan Erdal at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Chihan is also a member of the LGBT2 community and poses additional persecution for his sexuality.

The charges stem from events back in 2014, which the Turkish government is using to continue persecuting members of the leftist HDP political party, the third largest party in Turkey’s parliament. Cihan and 81 others, including academics, activists, and politicians, have been targeted because they are all signatories to a letter from six years ago calling for the Turkish government to step in to protect a Kurdish town from ISIS attacks during a time when ISIS was quite active, and many Kurds were being killed.

Cihan was an active member of the HDP in 2014 as their youth representative. However, he has not been involved in Turkish politics since he moved to Canada to do his doctoral studies at Carleton in January 2017. He had only returned to Turkey to visit family and interview Turkish activists as part of his doctoral fieldwork.

Cihan’s research is on youth-led social movements in Europe, including in Turkey, focused on the stories of young activists about their involvement in social movements. His work is in no way critical of the Turkish state. His research passed a formal proposal defence, and his research ethics proposal was approved before the COVID-19 pandemic began. He began interviews online while awaiting approval under the new pandemic ethics process to begin face-to-face interviews in Turkey, Athens, and Paris.

The Government of Canada’s foreign affairs ministry has been in contact with the Turkish Government and Ambassador to Canada, asking for the safe release of Mr. Erdal.

More great reading