Anadolu news agency reported that Turkey's Board of Higher Education has requested the resignations of 1,577 university deans at state and private universities nationwide, effectively dismissing them.
Today's news comes on the heels of an announcement by the Ministry of National Education that it has dismissed 15,200 personnel over their alleged involvement with a group the government claims is responsible for Friday's failed coup.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan clashed with academics earlier this year when more than 1,000 signed a petition calling for peace in the Southeast and criticizing the government’s handling of the its long-running battle with its Kurdish population centered there. Many were place on trial, while others lost their jobs.
Endangered Scholars Worldwide is deeply concerned about the detention of and professional retaliation taken against academics in Turkey in response to their exercise of the rights to academic freedom, free expression, and free association, conduct that is expressly protected under international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both to which Turkey is party. The ongoing tensions in Turkey have a profoundly unsettling effect on academic freedom and represent a grave threat to higher education on a national scale.
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