The Scientific Council of the Turkish Government refused to approve funding for a workshop dealing with evolution on the grounds that it was a controversial issue

The organizers of the summer workshop say that the rejection letter is further proof of the Turkish government's bias against the theory of evolution. The workshop, which is scheduled to take place on September 15 at the Nesin Mathematics Village in the village of Shirinca on the Aegean coast, is designed to give Turkish biology students a mathematical background.

On Friday, the ScienceInsider website reported that Turkey's National Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK) rejected a funding request requested by organizers of a summer workshop that was supposed to deal with quantitative evolutionary biology, claiming that "evolution is a controversial topic."

The decision revived the claims against the council that had previously removed a lead article from one of its journals that dealt with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and shelved the copies that had already been printed.

The organizers of the summer workshop say that the rejection letter is further proof of the Turkish government's bias against the theory of evolution. The workshop, which is scheduled to take place on September 15 at the Nesin Mathematics Village in the village of Shirinca on the Aegean coast, is designed to give Turkish biology students a mathematical background.

Erol Aktsani, a Turkish evolutionary biologist currently working at Princeton University and one of the organizers of the project says that he asked the government for a contribution of 35 Turkish lira (about 18 dollars) to cover the cost of accommodation and flights for the student lecturers.
In the rejection letter, the council wrote that it sees evolution as a controversial topic both at the national and international level, therefore it is difficult to define the activity as one where a consensus can be reached. Therefore, the ability of the organizers to represent the entire community in the country is in doubt," the letter said. Akchai says this is further evidence that creationism has become government policy.

In this context, it should be noted that the increase in harassment of science around the world indicates the fulfillment of Prof. Yuval Naaman's gloomy prediction about The end of the second scientific age. We all know what happened at the end of the age of Greek science - and no one has the desire to return to the Middle Ages.

see also: The hostility to science rears its head

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