The fourth conference of "Challenging Capitalist Modernity", which was held in 2012, 2015 and 2017 and had wide repercussions in the alternative science world, was scheduled to be held between 7-9 April 2023. This year's conference, titled "We Want Our World Back", was set to take place in the conference hall of the University of Hamburg. Many internationally renowned scientists and academics were invited to the conference as speakers.

Earlier this week, the President of the university, Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren, has decided not to make the premises available after having received a non-public letter from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution” (Büro für Bundesverfassungsschutz).

ATTACK ON FREE SCIENCE

One of the speakers of the conference organized by the University of Hamburg General Student Committee (AStA), the Network for an Alternative Quest and the International Initiative for Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan-Peace in Kurdistan was international law expert Prof. Norman Paech. In a statement to ANF, Prof. Paech, who worked as a professor of public law at the Department of Science and Politics at the University of Hamburg between 1982 and 2005, strongly condemned the rector's decision.

Prof. Paech described the prevention of the conference, in which internationally renowned scholars such as María de Jesús Patricio Martínez and John Holloway would attend as speakers, as an “attack on free science”. Prof. Paech said: “I find the decision dreadful for free science because it prevents scientists from freely discussing the problems of the world by coming together.”

Prof. Paech, who was a speaker twice at the conference before, continued: “Contrary to the claims of the intelligence service and the rector, the PKK did not make any propaganda at the conference. In addition, solutions were offered for the major problems of our world, especially the Kurdish question at these conferences. It seems that the discussions held in these conference series frightened some people and thus the university administration felt pressure to ban it.”

STOP LOOKING AT THE KURDS WITH SUSPICION

Prof. Paech said that the decision to block the conference was made at the request of the Turkish state. He added: “It seems that the long arm of the Erdogan regime has reached the university where I worked for years. I am ashamed that the university administration acceded to the Erdogan regime's demand. I hope that the rector will reverse this decision and allow the conference to take place.”

Prof. Paech criticized the fact that the university made the decision without consulting with the student committee AStA, which has authority on many issues concerning the university. Appealing to the German state and scientific institutions, he said: “Stop looking at the Kurdish people and organizations with suspicion. The Kurds want to find solutions by discussing their problems with scientists, but you prevent it. This is embarrassing for the scientific world.”