According to a Saturday report from Iran’s Organization of Student Affairs, the statement denounces the attacks as blatant violations of international conventions that guarantee the protection of educational and scientific facilities during conflicts.
The signatories stress that universities must remain safe havens of humanity beyond the reach of warfare.
The declaration warns that the targeting and intimidation of Iranian scientists threaten global academic security and turn centers of learning into battlefields.
The scholars also urged UNESCO and the United Nations to establish an emergency mechanism to safeguard universities in conflict zones.
In one of its passages, the statement criticizes the Western world’s double standards, noting the silence of Western academic communities regarding the destruction of Iranian educational infrastructure. Such inaction, the scholars argue, undermines public trust in global intellectual institutions.
The document also calls for the suspension of academic cooperation with Israeli institutions involved in the development of military technologies and suggests barring war-supporting organizations from international conferences held in Turkey.
Concluding with a message of solidarity, the Turkish academics express readiness to host displaced Iranian researchers and students and propose forming an international network of emergency academic bridges to sustain collaborative research.
According to Organization of Student Affairs, this move, signed by non-political professors from top universities including Bogazici, Istanbul, and Ankara, reflects a growing regional demand to protect educational sanctuaries during war.
At least 30 Iranian universities and research centers have been attacked by the US and the Israeli regime since the war began on February 28, 2026.
