Spare a thought for Turkey’s scientists and other academics, who are still being made scapegoats after an attempted coup last summer.
Another 300 were dismissed just weeks ago. Their crime? They had signed a petition for peace in a country where growing authoritarianism and the renewal of conflict with minority groups are a worry.
They include 82-year-old professor , who set up the country’s first neuropsychology clinic. A has been launched. All this is harming Turkey’s science scene.
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Since last July’s failed coup, the government has purged more than 140,000 public employees, including nearly 5000 academics. It tries hard to portray these people as having links to the Gülen movement it says was behind the coup and to terrorists. On the contrary, the 330 ousted most recently include many from (AfP), who strongly oppose violence.
The truth is the government is using last summer’s events to try to silence progressive academics who may be critical of it. Those academics from the AfP – as well as many others from the education and science union – who have been removed are struggling to get by. They have lost their jobs, pensions and the right to travel abroad.
Emergency fund
Some of them have started academies outside the universities to continue teaching their students. However, with no financial and logistical assistance this may be short-lived.
This is why an to support those affected has been set up, initiated in the US and Canada. It will be made available to purged faculty via Eğitim Sen and other associations assisting them.
Turkey is on a perilous path. Next month, there is a pivotal referendum on reforming the country’s constitution. A “yes” vote would hand more executive power to President Recep Erdoğan, who has vowed that one of his first acts if he wins will be to reinstate the death penalty. A “no” would keep hopes for a more democratic future alive.
The government and president are campaigning hard for a yes, sending representatives to European Union nations to drum up support from Turks there, causing friction with authorities in countries including Germany and the Netherlands.
Make no mistake, Turkey is being dragged towards a darker place. It is one in which academic freedom faces an existential threat.
