Notorious criminal threatens academics calling for peace in Turkey's southeast

A notorious convicted criminal has publicly issued death threats against academics and intellectuals who called on the Turkish government to end security operations in Southeast Anatolia, just a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an labeled more than 1,000 national and international academics as "poor excuses for intellectuals."

"We will let your blood in streams and we will take a shower in your blood," Sedat Peker, a well-known convicted criminal, said in a message posted to his personal website on Jan. 13. The message was titled as "The So-Called Intellectuals, The Bells Will Toll for You First."

"If you ask my opinion, you should not try to sink this STATE for your own health. The only reason that you are alive at the moment is the presence of the STATE and its survival. As I said in the aforementioned remarks, if the terrorists, you who are their supporters and foreign countries' intelligence services - in sum, all of you - accomplish your goals and turn this STATE into a nonfunctioning situation, you should well know that you will never be shown mercy by THE CHILDREN of this HOMELAND," Peker said.

Both the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which is focused on the Kurdish issue, urged prosecutors to take legal action against the former criminal.

"Freedom of expression is one of the fundamental fields in a democracy. Opinions which do not call for violence and do not encourage terror can be expressed," CHP spokesperson Haluk Koç said. "Some third-class godfathers are casting a duty for themselves and jumping on this. Threats are around," he said.

Recalling that Article 106 of the Turkish Penal Code (TSK), which covers death threats, is "very open," Koç said...