ACADEMIC freedom in Turkey and Britain must be defended at all costs, a peace conference heard yesterday after thousands of Turkish academics have been sacked and hundreds put behind bars.

The Academics for Peace UK conference at Birbeck University, London, was held in memory of Mehmet Fatih Tras who committed suicide in February having been dismissed from his university post and denied other academic positions in the country for over a year.

Since the failed coup attempt of July 2016, thousands of academics in the country have been dismissed and hundreds thrown into prison.