Censorship of Evolution
Despite the acclaimed role in promoting scientific thinking among Turkish public as well as in shaping nation’s scientific policies, the Council has been increasingly criticized for taking an anti-evolutionary attitude since the late 2000’s. In the March 2009 issue of Council’s popular scientific periodical “Bilim ve Teknik”, the initially planned cover story commemorating the 200th Birthday of Charles Darwin was retracted after a last minute decision by the board of directors and subsequently, editor in chief Çiğdem Atakuman was forced to resign. The board of director member Dr. Ömer Cebeci stated that the “Darwin” cover was prepared without the board’s consent. Upon publicizing of the matter in the media as well as strong reaction by scientific community, in June 2009, the periodical had evolution theory as its cover, but this time illustrated by a less provocative butterfly picture than the initially planned Darwin picture. In January 2012, upon asked about the Council’s view on the Darwin’s theory of evolution during a press conference, TUBITAK’s head director Yücel Altunbaşak stated “Turkey needs integrity. We’re talking of planes and missilies. This is our focus. There are some who believe in evolution and there are some who don’t. We rather need unity”. In January 2013, the Council was once again criticized in the media for not publishing new editions of sold out popular science books on evolution and natural history, among them “The Selfish Gene” (R. Dawkins), “Gun, Germs and Steel” (J. Diamond), “The Blind Watchmaker” (R. Dawkins), “The Triple Helix” (R. Lewontin), “Ever Since Darwin” (S.J. Gould), “Darwin and The Voyage of Beagle” (A. Moorehead). The Council denies censorship and claims this matter to be a result of copyright disagreement and disputes in publishing rights within Turkey with the third parties. The organization has thus far not made any clear statement regarding its position on evolution.
Read more about this topic: Scientific And Technological Research Council Of Turkey
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“... censorship often boils down to some male judges getting to read a lot of dirty books—with one hand.”
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