According to Lederach there is three types of peace building leadership, which are top leadership, middle-range leadership and grassroots leadership. However, no single peacebuilding approach will bring peace on it’s own in modern intra-state conflicts, or post-conflict situations. The participation of people from and at grassrootss/middle range levels is vital for the long-term and positive peace. Middle-range leaders are respected in sectors ethnic/religious leaders, academics/intellectuals and NGOS, who are applied problem-solving workshops, training conflict resolution and peace commissions for peace building.
The paper will examine, first of all, the general framework of middle range leadership during peace building. Then, the role of academics during Turkey’s Kurdish peace process will be discussed. ‘Academics for Peace’ Initiative was established at 2012 before Peace process started. The initiative has organized some peace workshops and conferences, however, its great activism is signing the statement “We will not be a party to this crime,” which urged the Turkish government to cease hostilities against its Kurdish population and return to peace talks. The academics are faced the harassment, investigations, and detentions as a response to the basic act of petition. As one of this academics I will try to discuss ‘Academics for Peace’ Initiative’s petition which is called as “We will not be a party to this crime,” as an activism of peace building and its role during peace process.
