The arguments that Barlas used in his article only detracted from the issue at hand. The groups, which include students of various backgrounds who have voiced their concerns regarding this chair's proposed establishment, are not insulting UCLA's integrity as Mr. Barlas's article suggests.
Turkey is one of the worst human rights violators in the world.
It has more journalists and scholars in prison than any other country in the world. Guess the government of Turkey has yet to warm up to the right of freedom of speech. The conditions that the government has placed upon the chair are not only restrictive and confining, but further prove Turkey's attempts at disrupting academic research and filtering out those professors and scholars who do not share Turkey's political views. The above-mentioned points are all backed by facts available from the United Nation's archives, Amnesty International, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists and numerous petitions signed by hundreds of scholars condemning Turkey's attempts to infringe upon the academic integrity of our universities. This issue is important to UCLA because if this money is accepted from a tainted source such as the Turkish government, it will set a precedent for others to donate money in order to further their agendas as well.