Post-coup purge will affect Turkey’s education sector for decades

Demonstrators shout during a protest against the suspension of academics from universities following a post-coup emergency decree in Ankara (Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images)
Demonstrators shout during a protest against the suspension of academics from universities following a post-coup emergency decree in Ankara (Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images)


Date posted: November 29, 2016

Umar Farooq

With more than 120,000 public workers suspended and nearly 40,000 people in prison, the aftermath of Turkey’s failed July 15 coup is being felt across every part of society, including its highest-ranked schools.

The day after the coup attempt, 1,577 deans — working at nearly every university in the country — were forced to resign. An estimated 200,000 students were left in limbo after the closure of 15 universities and 1,043 private schools reportedly linked to Fethullah Gulen, the cleric the Turkish government blames for the putsch. More than 6,000 academics at 107 universities have since been fired as well, many accused of links to Gulen’s movement or the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

“These last few months will have an impact on our society that will last for decades to come,” said Ozgur Bozdogan, the head of Egitim-Sen, one of the country’s largest teachers unions.

At Istanbul’s Bogazici University, students and faculty members have been holding daily protests this week after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used emergency powers to appoint a new rector, bypassing a decades-old practice that saw university staff members elect their boss from among their ranks.

“The old rector was trying to defend the democratic autonomous structure of the university,” said Ahmet, a senior studying economics, who asked that his full name not be used. Founded in 1863 by American philanthropists, Bogazici has long been considered one of the most liberal schools in the country. Police are not permitted to enter the campus, and student groups regularly host conferences on largely taboo subjects such as the Armenian genocide and the treatment of the country’s Kurdish minority.


At a protest this week on the street outside the campus gates, Ahmet noticed a police officer staring at him across the crowd of 300 hundred students and teachers with whom he was marching. “He walked towards me and the crowd split apart to make way for him, before I started running,” Ahmed said.

Police grabbed Ahmet, but moments later fellow students freed him. “We all wanted to make sure no one was detained, because now under the state of emergency you don’t know how long you will be in prison,” he said.

“The government wants to end our autonomy, they have always seen Bogazici as a kind of enemy,” Ahmet said. The newly appointed rector, Mehmed Ozkan, has pledged to protect the university’s “participatory, pluralistic and free tradition.” But students such as Ahmet fear space for criticizing the government will only shrink. Ozkan’s sister is a parliament member from the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

It’s not just university students who are being affected by the sweeping post-coup measures.

When primary and secondary students returned to school this year, they spent most of the first day watching videos about the “triumph of democracy” over the coup plotters, and speeches by Erdogan that equate the civilian counter-coup with historic Ottoman victories going back 1,000 years.

Meanwhile, authorities scrambled to find replacements for the nearly 30,000 teachers at the primary and secondary levels who had been suspended and another 30,000 who had been fired under emergency rule, accused of having ties to Gulen or the PKK.

“People fear this climate, because they cannot really protest against this process; everyone fears losing their jobs,” said Mustafa Turgut, a high school literature teacher in Istanbul. Turgut has no books to teach from, because the Ministry of Education has ordered a review of all textbooks for possible links to Gulen or the PKK.

“We have experienced a coup, and right now there is a sensitivity in our society,” Muammer Yildiz, the deputy undersecretary of education said this month about the textbook restrictions. “We follow this sensitivity carefully.”  Millions of textbooks had to be reprinted for the new year, and 58 textbooks were banned.

Turgut has watched his colleagues being fired or jailed, while others have left the country. One teacher from the eastern city of Tunceli, Turgut said, fled to Canada with his two children. “I talked to him on the phone, he said ‘I don’t want to raise my kids in a madman’s hell.’”

The Turkish government has designated both Gulen’s movement — which at one point ran some of the country’s leading private universities and schools — as well as the PKK as terrorist organizations, and said the dismissals of teachers was meant to root out these groups.

The suspended teachers, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in September, “have had certain types of connections to terror,” and investigations would determine “how many of these are directly associated with the terrorist organization, and how many are not.”

The Education Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Nearly 10,000 of the teachers fired or suspended after July 15 have been members of the Egitim-Sen union, which often rallies alongside the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party, or HDP, itself now the target of an investigation for suspected ties to the PKK. About 1,800 of the left-leaning union’s members, including Turgut, are facing criminal or disciplinary investigations into terrorism and other serious crimes.

The investigations are the end result of years of efforts by the Justice and Development Party to control schools, said Turgut, who until three weeks ago taught at an elite high school in Istanbul where students must score in the top one percentile on national standardized tests to enroll. In the last two years authorities have tried to alter the curriculum to be more conservative, canceling programs such as concerts, plays and even student-run philosophy discussion groups.

“But after the coup, the [AKP] has been taking bigger steps and faster steps to make these schools more conservative,” Turgut said, “and now it is much easier to do, because you can link anyone against you to any terrorist organization, without any investigation.”

Source: LA Times , November 26, 2016


Related News

Kosovo PM Haradinaj: Deportation of Turkish citizens was hasty

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj reported to a parliamentary commission on Friday about the deportation of six Turkish citizens earlier this year.

Dogan: Gulen earned sympathy among Alevis

Speaking of Gulen’s “mosques-cemevi project” proposal, Dogan said, “Gulen is an exceptional intellectual who can identify conspiracies against Alevis and Sunnis.” Cem Foundation President Prof. Izzettin Dogan gave noteworthy statements to the daily BUGUN concerning the recent issues ranging from Fethullah Gulen‘s remarks “Let’s not sacrifice all the bridges to build one. Mosques and cemevis should […]

State government in Baden Wurttemberg in constructive dialogue with Hizmet volunteers

The nine-item inquiry proposed by five CDU (Christian Democratic Union) deputies to Baden Wurttemberg State Assembly has been responded by Ministry of Integration in cooperation with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Office of the Prime Minister Undersecretary and Ministry of Education. Through the answers, the public, once again, has been affirmed that the Turkish-initiated schools have […]

A new ring to the chain of Turkish schools in Kyrgyzstan

CENGIZ OMUKEYEV, BISHKEK/KYRGYZSTAN Seytek Grammar School, built by Sebat Educational Institution in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, started with a gorgeous opening ceremony. The opening ribbon of the impressive school building was cut by Kamila Talieva, Vice President of Kyrgyzstan. The folk dance performance of the students drew long applause from the audience. Talieva stated in her keynote […]

European Parliament calls for fair trial of suspects arrested in anti-coup operations in Turkey

Members of the European Parliament (EP) discussed developments following the July 15 failed coup attempt in Turkey at a session on Tuesday and stressed the need for the fair trial of suspects who have been arrested on coup charges.

Police, inspectors raid Gülen-inspired schools in Manisa for 3rd time

Police officers and inspectors from 15 government agencies have raided Gülen-inspired private schools in the western province of Manisa for the third time, as part of a government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement.

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

VIDEO – Was July 15 Erdogan’s Reichstag Fire?

Enforced Disappearance: Cases of Hizmet Movement members and International Law

Why won’t Obama extradite Gulen?

They want my backing for the enrollment in Turkish schools

Ugandan opinion leader refutes news report which defames Hizmet Movement

Erdogan goes after Morocco’s Gulenists

PWTD, Turkish NGO to work for cataract elimination

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News