US Vice President Joe Biden called for a “change of attitude” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan toward critics of Turkey’s increasingly destructive military campaign against Kurdish rebels and cities in southeast Turkey.

Speaking in Istanbul on Jan. 22, Biden said, “If you don’t have an ability to express your opinion, to criticize a policy, to offer competing ideas without fear of intimidation or retribution, the country is robbed of opportunity and the country is being robbed of possibilities.” He added, “When Internet freedom is curtailed and social media sites like YouTube or Twitter are shut down and more than 1,000 academics are accused of treason simply by signing a petition, that’s not the kind of example that needs to be set in the region.” Biden said that Turkey’s commitment to free expression and democracy matter “not only to Turks but to America.”

Cengiz Candar writes of a “witch hunt” conducted by the Turkish government against academics and intellectuals who signed a petition protesting the Turkish military campaign against Kurdish towns in southeast Turkey. Erdogan slammed the signatories as “so-called intellectuals” committing “treachery” by engaging in propaganda on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a terrorist group.

Biden told Turkish lawmakers that the United States backed Turkey’s campaign against the PKK, but that its heavy use of force in southeastern villages is unsustainable.