So far, 1,475 university professors, teachers, researchers and research fellows from universities and high schools across Serbia, have signed the so-called University Support document, stipulating their support for the anti-government #1in5 million protests – N1 reported on Monday.
“We, the teachers, researchers and fellow researchers from the Belgrade University, Belgrade Arts University, the universities in Novi Sad, Nis, Kragujevac, Pristina (temporarily moved to Kosovska Mitrovica), other universities, institutes and high schools across Serbia, join our colleagues from the Belgrade faculties of Law, Philosophy and Political Sciences in support of the civilian protests which are spreading across Serbia,” it was published on an official blog of University Support.
Professors said they believed their moral obligation was to teach their students about free thinking, freedom of expression, the rule of law, right to accurate information, and the culture of dialogue.
“We think that at this moment it is necessary to support all kinds of resistance to this autocratic regime which abuses power and deepens the social differences imperilling the social security of all citizens. We see the current protests as an expression of citizens’ disobedience aiming at the structural change of the regime and the democratisation of the society,” they said.
After the first 600 academics signed the message of support, the Minister of Education Mladen Sarcevic said it was an insignificant number and that there were no prominent names, only pensioners and people only a few years of experience.
That angered the academic community, the opposition and most of the people in Serbia with the list subsequently growing to include almost 1,500 names.
The announcement was signed by Dejan Mijac, Srdjan Karanovic, Goran Markovic, Egon Savin, Alisa Stojanovic, Nebojsa Romcevic, Janko Baljak, Milena Dragicevic Sesic, Ivan Medenica, Srdan Golubovic, Stefan Arsenijevic, Ljubomir Madzar, Milos Djajic, Dusan Petricic, Srbijanka Turajlic, Zarko Trebjesanin, Mrdjan Bajic, Sonja Loncar, Srdjan Verbic, Ivan Klajn and many other professors.
A list of all signatories can be seen here.
(021.rs, 25.02.2019)
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