Academics lay down their gowns in protest at dismissal of academics from universities, at the Cebeci campus of Ankara University, February 10, 2017. Depo/ Press Association. All rights reserved. On February 7, 2017, Turkey’s ruling party AKP (Justice and Development Party) expelled 330 academics under the guise of the “fight against terrorism” by issuing a new decree, which has the force of law (KHK) under the ongoing nationwide state of emergency. This was the last step in AKP’s assault on Turkey’s academia since the failed military coup in July 2016. In the last seven months, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party AKP have issued five KHK which expelled 4811 academics from their positions in 112 universities.
Remarkably, this purge is 20 times larger than the number of academics expelled in the 1960, 1971 and 1980 military coups (T24, 10 February 2017). Furthermore, KHKs have inflicted serious damage on the Faculty of Political Science (Mulkiye) and Communication in Ankara University – the voices of critical thinking in modern Turkish history. Currently, 38 undergraduate courses, 5 graduate courses, and 50 dissertations cannot be attained in the former, while 40 undergraduate courses, 29 graduate courses, and 99 dissertations cannot be completed in the latter (Cumhuriyet, 8-9 February 2017). While recent government actions considerably threaten academic freedom in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party AKP have long been removing democratic rights from Turkey’s political and public life. Over the last decade, Turkey’s regime under AKP leadership has devoted itself to competitive authoritarianism.
