Pajic, a longtime human-rights activist, is chairing a new organization called the Experts Committee on the Crisis in Ex-Yugoslavia, which is composed of leading academics, opposition figures, and minority representatives from all the former republics.
But academics, opposition politicians, retired generals and a few cabinet members questioned the wisdom of an action with the potential to ignite the conflict and put Israel on the defensive against international criticism.
Writing in the Observer, a group of academics voiced opposition to calls from the UN for tougher action to stop children working, saying that the focus should instead be to avoid dangerous occupations and exploitation.
Symbolic protests were held by students, academics and opposition MPs in the capital Ankara and in Istanbul, where sacked professors delivered lectures.
Turkish liberties were in sharp decline even before last July's attempted coup, which, reported Freedom House, "led the government to declare a state of emergency and carry out mass arrests and firings of civil servants, academics, journalists, opposition figures, and other perceived enemies".
He remained active throughout his career, however, in a series of public controversies concerning censorship, university reform, academic freedom and opposition to religious instruction in education.
But this isn't just about the press – students, academics, artists and opposition MPs have all recently been targeted for daring to speak out against the government of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his mildly Islamist Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
