ANKARA – NTV reported on Friday that Turkish security forces detained 12 academics accused of signing a declaration calling for renewed efforts to end violence between government forces and Kurdish separatists.

The declaration condemns the government’s conduct of recent violence in the predominantly Kurdish southeast and calls for putting an end to curfews. It has been signed by more than 1,000 people, including the U.S. philosopher Noam Chomsky.

Police were looking for seven other academics, also in western Turkey’s Kocaeli Province – an industrial heartland near Istanbul, NTV also reported.

Both, President Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu criticized the signatories of the declaration, which, to them, represents supporting terrorism. Prosecutors launched an investigation into the issue on Thursday.
Turkey has witnessed some of the worst violence for decades after a ceasefire with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) collapsed last July leaving a peace process to end the three-decade insurgency in ruins.

The tit-for-tat wave of violence has seen security forces carry out widespread operations in the southeast. Entire districts have been locked and PKK outposts in residential areas have been struck, while Kurdish fighters have launched attacks against military and administrative targets. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting.

Overnight on Wednesday a Kurdish militant attack on a police station in Cinar killed six, including a baby, officials said.