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By Campaign for Public University
Nov. 26, 2016
In Turkey, critical scholars have never enjoyed full academic freedom, owing mainly to the authoritarian tendencies of the political establishment, but 2016 proved to be the year in which the worst assault on academics and universities of all times was carried out.
The year began with the criminalization of the 1,128 initial signatories of the Academics for Peace petition calling for an end to military operations in Turkey’s Kurdish region. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the signatories from 89 universities across Turkey of “treason.” [i] A few of those academics have now left Turkey, but those who haven’t are still waiting to be brought to court under Article 7 of the Anti-terror Law (TMK) for “making propaganda in favor of a terrorist organization” and/or under Articles 301 and 216 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) for “insulting Turkishness.” [ii]
The table below indicates the number of academics, teaching assistants, lecturers and researchers who were dismissed, suspended, detained or forced to resign for signing the peace petition before the 15 July, 20016, coup attempt. [iii]
Following the failed putsch, more than 121,000 civil servants were expelled from public service, 74,000 detained, and 34,000 arrested. Expulsion from public service results in being banned from taking up office in public institutions or corporations, the confiscation of passports, and, if deemed necessary, the confiscation of property. Expulsion from a university deprives the academic of the right to submit an associate professorship application, which in Turkey can be obtained without institutional affiliation.
In addition to those dismissed before the coup, 83 signatories of the Academics for Peace were expelled from public service through State of Emergency decrees on Sep. 2, Oct. 30, and Nov. 22. Although the decrees claim to target the purported followers of Fethullah Gülen, the religious leader accused of plotting against the government, some of the expelled academics are renowned leftists, union members, and progressive intellectuals. They are being accused of supporting Kurdish terrorist organizations.
In addition, sixty-eight Turkish students studying abroad with a stipend by the Scientific Research Council of Turkey (Tübitak) have also been stripped of their student status. Even before the coup, reports said that there were nearly 500 imprisoned students in Turkey. [iv] The Emergency Law decrees have deprived these students of their right to education, by taking away their right to enter exams. [v]
Again according to various reports, as many as 249 academics are now behind bars. Search warrants have been issued for 103 others this past week. [vi]
In sum, 3,961 academics have been dismissed as of Nov. 22 in post-coup purges.
A total of 15 private universities have also been shut down by decree in the post-coup period. The students are now being absorbed into public universities throughout the country, but the 2,808 academics formerly employed in these universities were left without any public assistance whatsoever. [vii] They, too, have lost their right to apply for associate professorship.
The repression of academia does not consist only of dismissals and criminal and/or administrative investigations. On Oct. 29, the government issued two new State of Emergency decrees. Among other measures, the decree abolishes the right of academics to choose their rectors. It gives authority to the President of the Republic to nominate any professor he wishes to any university as rector. [viii]
The decree was immediately applied to Bogazici University, where the former vice-rector was appointed instead of the candidate who had gathered 84% of votes. Although the new rector is full-time faculty at Bogazici University, his sister is an MP in the ruling party. Bogazici is among the top three Turkish universities [ix] and has always been a democratically ruled and intellectually progressive institution that has persistently defied nationalist and conservative pressures, as well as court orders. [x]
To conclude, the direct criminalization of academics and academic activity opens a new page in the long history of troubles that have weighed down universities in Turkey. [xi] Even before the coup, GIT-Turkey reports that there were “severe limitations to the materialization of principles of academic freedom, as highlighted in international documents such as the Lima Declaration (1988), the Magna Charta Universitatum Declaration (1988), or the Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel adopted by UNESCO (1997). Detentions and arrests of instructors and students, the unlawful hindering of academic appointments, promotions, and employee rights, administrative investigations against teaching staff, the discouragement or punishing of research in certain fields via direct or indirect obstacles, the elimination of job security in the academic profession due to insecurity and vulnerabilities created by the commercialization of education, all lead to the discrediting of academic activity as well as of academics themselves.” [xii]
But with prosecutions against the Academics for Peace and the post-coup purges in 2016, academic freedoms have been curtailed to an unprecedented degree.
Universities are now under a direct political chokehold that is bound to curb critical research and ban academics from participating in public-opinion formation. Progressive universities are expected to be disbanded, and their academic staff shuffled or forced to resign, since the intent is clearly to make universities comply to “national” objectives as defined by the ruling party. [xiii] What remains of scientific and institutional autonomy will be forfeited. This is already taking its toll on international academic collaborations. [xiv]
There is no reason to believe that the intimidation of scholars and higher education institutes will cease in the near future, since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has systematically disregarded calls from Turkish and international academics and institutions, among them SAR, EUA, ISA, MESA, and numerous human rights organizations. [xv]
[i] http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-president-vows-treasonous-academics-will-pay-the-price.aspx?pageID=238&nID=94128&NewsCatID=339
[ii] http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-academics-investigated-on-same-charges-as-jailed-pkk-leader.aspx?pageID=238&nID=94169&NewsCatID=339
[iii] http://barisicinakademisyenler.net/
[iv] http://bianet.org/english/freedom-of-expression/137180-searching-for-nameless-students
[v] http://gazetekarinca.com/2016/11/son-khk-tutuklu-ogrencilerin-egitim-hakkini-da-elinden-aldi/
[vi] http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/prosecutors-seek-detentions-for-103-academics-of-istanbuls-yildiz-technical-university.aspx?pageID=238&nID=106268&NewsCatID=509
[vii] http://bianet.org/english/human-rights/177465-closed-universities-in-numbers
[viii] http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/president-given-power-to-directly-appoint-rectors-to-universities-in-turkey-.aspx?PageID=238&NID=105519&NewsCatID=338
[ix] http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/turkey
[x] https://bianet.org/english/human-rights/67779-armenian-conference-held-in-defiance-of-court
[xi] Cf. for a very comprehensive report of pre-coup violations of academic freedoms in Turkey: http://gitturkiye.org/images/GITT_dosya2013-2015_ENG.pdf
[xii] http://gitturkiye.org/images/GIT_Turkiye_Brosur_en.pdf
[xiii] http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160827072957454
[xiv] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/07/29/how-crackdown-turkey-affecting-international-academic-collaboration
[xv] http://internationalsolidarity4academic.tumblr.com/archive
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