• Interventions
  • Turkey
  • P25

More terminations and displacement for Turkish academics

Letter to PM Yıldırım and President Erdoğan concerning the two new emergency decrees (KHK) 693 and 694 issued on 25 August 2017 in the Official Gazette, the first of which terminates the positions of 120 academic personnel from 27 universities and the second of which creates the framework for forcibly transferring academics restored to their positions following earlier purges to universities other than those where they originally held positions prior to their dismissals.

Read more

TÜBİTAK memo asking for removal of dismissed academics from editorial and review boards

Letter to PM Yıldırım and President Erdoğan regarding a memo issued by the Turkish Council for Scientific and Technical Research (TÜBİTAK) on March 17, 2017, addressed to peer reviewed scientific journals listed under the National Academic Network and Information Center (ULAKBİM). The memo asks journals to remove any members who have been dismissed, suspended, and/or banned from public service on the basis of their alleged affiliation with terrorist organizations from their editorial and review boards. The memo is emblematic of the most recent wave of attacks against academic freedom in Turkey.

Read more

Peaceful protesters experience excessive police force and detention

Letter to PM Yıldırım regarding the excessive police force at Ankara University targeting peaceful protesters and the subsequent detentions that occurred at a demonstration on 10 February 2017 protesting the dismissal of academics en masse from the university. The dismissal was direct result of the emergency decree issued on 7 February 2017, Kanun Hükmünde Kararname (KHK) 686, which resulted in the dismissal of 330 academics in general, 95 of which were from Ankara University.For information on Rector Erkan İbiş’s violations of academic freedom at Ankara University see our letters dating 12 January 2017, 3 November 2015, and 12 December 2012. For more on the emergency decree KHK 686, see our letter dated 8 February 2017.

Read more

Repression of Ankara University Rector

Letter to PM Yıldırım regarding violations of academic freedom by Ankara University Rector Erkan İbiş—a nuclear medicine specialist, including the initiation of over 60 frivolous disciplinary investigations, and his apparent collusion with the government in securing the subsequent termination by emergency decree of Ankara University faculty. The faculty terminated by recent emergency decrees are those that he had previously targeted with disciplinary investigations for publishing critical research findings deemed undesirable by the government or for using social media to advance criticisms of his administration or the Turkish Higher Education Council or actions by the Turkish government.Başbakan Yıldırım’a hitaben, Ankara Üniversitesi Rektörü ve nükleer tıp uzmanı Erkan İbiş’in akademik özgürlük ihlalleri ile hükümet ile işbirliği içerisinde kanun hükmünde kararnamelerle ihraç ettiği anlaşılan akademisyenlere istinaden yazılmış mektup. Kanun hükmünde kararnamelerle işten atılan akademisyenlerin bir çoğu, Rektör İbiş tarafından daha önce haklarında, eleştirel çalışma, duruş veya yayın konuları ve/veya sosyal medyada ve başka mecralarda hükümet politikalarını, üniversite yönetimini veya Yükseköğretim Kuru

Read more

Response to Query by Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Letter to the UN office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights responding to their query about our earlier correspondence with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression concerning the cases of academics facing prosecution in Turkey on charges of denigrating the Turkish state or insulting the President.

Read more

Government Actions Against Peace Petition Signatories

Letter to PM Davutoglu (see previous letters of January 14, 2016 and February 22, 2016) concerning an escalation in government actions against Peace Petition signatories and their supporters including arrests, a deportation of a foreign academic and a declaration by the President that the Turkish Criminal Code will be amended to broaden the definition of terrorism to include academic activities.

Read more

Stay Connected

MESA offers several ways to stay connected: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, as well as listservs and trusty email notifications. To find out more, please follow the link below.

Connect Now