US Vice President Joe Biden admonished the Turkish leadership over the prosecutions of the academics, who signed a declaration urging to stop the violence in country’s southeast.

Biden arrived in Turkey on a two-day visit, during which he will meet with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and PM Ahmet Davutoğlu.  

"We will continue to explain to Turkey and other countries that the ability to criticize freely is as important as to breathe freely. Freedom of speech and press are not just American, but universal values. (…) These freedoms are in the constitution of Turkey (…). The strength of Turkish democracy affects the strength of the union between Turkey and the United States," Biden said at the round table, which was attended by the Turkish MPs in Istanbul.

He also noted that the situation with the freedom of expression in Turkey will become one of the topics of the talks with the Turkish leaders, RIA Novosti reports.

1128 Turkish and foreign academics signed a petition entitled “We won’t be part of this crime,” in which they called the Turkish authorities to “stop the slaughter and massacre” of Kurds in country’s southeast. The Turkish authorities detained 24 academics who signed the petition, but later set them free.