It turns out that Darwin is not welcome in a Turkish Science Journal.
Science-funding agency accused of removing evolution article — and its editor — from mainstream magazine.
Alison Abbott
The main Turkish government agency responsible for funding science has provoked outrage by apparently censoring a magazine article on the life and work of Charles Darwin.
There is nothing 'apparently' about it, either. The editor-in-chief of the popular science journal 'Science and Technology', Bilim ve Teknik, Dr. Atakuman, got fired from her post, because she dared to publish an article about Darwins life and research. The article got pulled from the March edition of that journal, which appeared one week late, with a hastily added cover story about global warming. She was fired by Dr. Cebeci, the vice president of Tübitak, the above-mentioned Turkish government research organization.
In an interview with Milliyet, one of Turkey's highest-circulation daily newspapers, the editor of Bilim ve Teknik, Çiğdem Atakuman, confirmed that she had been removed from her post over the affair
For those of you similarly incensed as I was, when I read that article, I would like to suggest protest letters to the Vice President and President of Tübitak, who are responsible for suppressing the Darwin article and the firing of the editor. Both have been installed last year by the ruling islamist party AKP to get the science foundation under political control.
Ii is outrageous that discussion and presentation of scientific results is no longer possible in a scientific publication. In the long run such decisions will have very negative consequences. Governments will succeed and people will prosper if their decisions are based on evidence and scientific evaluation of reality. Ideologically motivated preconceptions make for bad advice. We had that in the US for eight long years. So far Turkey has been the only predominantly Muslim country with strong secular traditions. As such, they are a beacon of hope for other Muslim countries. The ruling party AKP tries their best to change that, although they currently go for the old wolf-in-sheep-fleece trick. This story shows that they have taken over the National Science foundation of Turkey already - akin to bible thumpers leading the NSF, for example.
Addresses to send an e-mail to:
Professor Dr. Ömer Cebeci,
Vicepresident and Member of the Science Board of the Scientific and
Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK)
Contact: Handan KAZANÇ
e-mail:handan.kazanc@tubitak.gov.tr
Prof. Dr. Nüket YETİŞ, President of TÜBİTAK
Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey
Contact:
Ayşegül GÜNGÖR (ŞENÖTER), Executive Assistant to President
e-mail: aysegul.gungor@tubitak.gov.tr