Dear David,
Thank you very much for your support. I will forward your words to my colleagues in Turkey.
I would appreciate if those of who you feel strongly on this issue can also draft a brief message of support. If you do so, please send your message to me.
As most of you'd know, Dr. Stephen Behnke is the head of the APA's Ethics Office and has been an ardent advocate of APA's policy on psychologists' involvement in coercive interrogations, commonly knows as torture.
Please note that the workshop took place on Sep 2 in Istanbul. The intended location for the workshop was Istanbul University - the venue of the Biennial Congress of Psychology. Due to the initial protest, the workshop was quickly moved to the offices of the Turkish Psychological
Association Istanbul Branch.
On Sep 3, Turkish Psychological Association circulated an e-mail arguing that the workshop was quite acceptable, followed by a statement from Dr. Stephen Behnke defending APA's policy and misrepresenting the opposition. His statement received a quick reply from the Coalition for Ethical Psychology in the USA.
Thanks for your consideration.
Serdar M. Degirmencioglu, Ph.D.
Serdar M. Degirmencioglu, Ph.D.
Psychology Department
University of Stirling
Stirling FK9 4LA Scotland
Telephone:
Facsimile: +44 (0) 1786 467641
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Professor Serdar Degirmencioglu
Executive Committee Member
European Community Psychology Association
Dear Serdar,
I understand that a senior spokesperson on ethics for the American Psychological Association, Stephen Behnke, is in Turkey and will be running a workshop on ethics and that you and colleagues are protesting at this visit.
I am writing to you in your role as a highly valued Turkish member of the Executive of the European Community Psychology Association, of which I am currently President Elect, to offer you my personal support in protesting this visit to Europe from someone representing an organisation which is certainly not in a position to run a workshop on ethics.
As you will recall those present at the final plenary session of the International Seminar ("Integrating new migrants in the New Europe: A Challenge for Community Psychology") held in Seville, Spain 19-21 September 2007 unanimously voted to send a message of support from the meeting to Australian colleagues and all those condemning the involvement of psychologists in the practice of torture. I thank Turkish colleagues for doing so.
As colleagues representing the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology have made clear, the policies of the APA in relation to the involvement of psychologists in torture are disingenuous and dishonest and the American Psychological Association has not yet taken any position unambiguously critical of the policies of the US government˘s systematic program of abuse and torture.
I wish you and colleagues in Turkey well in taking this important principled stand against the appalling involvement of psychologists in the practice of torture.
Yours sincerely,
David Fryer B.A. M.A. Ph.D. C.Psychol. F.B.Ps.S. F.S.C.R.A.
President Elect: European Community Psychology Association
___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on [log in to unmask] or Grant Jeffrey on [log in to unmask]----- Original Message -----From: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:Paul@home" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:Paul@home">Paul@homeTo: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target=_blank rel=nofollow ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 9:31 PMSubject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] urgent CPUK press release___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator Rebekah Pratt on [log in to unmask] or Grant Jeffrey on [log in to unmask]Dear CPUK listSome established CPUK list members and I met recently to discuss what action the network needs to take in relation to the crisis in the housing market. Though our views were divergent, our meeting was amicable and we were able to reach consensus through including all of our views on the subject in the following statement which we intend to issue as a statement to the press tomorrow:"We, as a network of community psychologists, support the criticism made by the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's suspension of the Stamp Duty for properties under £150,000. We believe the poor should not be encouraged to buy properties at a time of such economic uncertainty and should instead be encouraged to rent property from housing associations. Further, we believe all property is theft and that the Chancellor's decision to stimulate the property market makes him an accessory to a social crime and makes estate agents entrepreneurial pimps (though we in no way condone the recent job cuts in the sector). As a network of community psychologists, community activists and users of psychological services we encourage the government to make greater use of public-private enterprise initiatives in the housing sector to ensure the poor have increased opportunities for housing as such opportunities will provide the poor with pathways to full citizenship through legitimate economic activity in their respective communities and this will help regenerate those areas where the underprivileged and criminally minded live." (Press statement released on behalf of the UK Community Psychology Network, Sept 3rd 2008)"
Given the urgency of the issue, we intend to release the statement to the press tomorrow morning unless a significant number of list members raise substantial enough objections to us doing so.We are sending this statement because we wish to show stoicism in the face of the current economic crisis and hope that this will maintain our focus at the CPUK conference in Edinburgh on issues of import.
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