Turkey dismisses another 330 academics, brings total to 7,316
Date posted: February 8, 2017
A total of 330 academics were dismissed in a new government decree, issued on Tuesday, bringing the total number of academics who lost their jobs after a failed coup on July 15 to 7,316.
Professors, associate professors and lecturers from nearly all universities in Turkey were targeted in the government’s post-coup crackdown. Academics were accused of links to the Gülen movement, which the government pinned the blame on for July 15 coup attempt.
US law professor: Gülen extradition would be unlawful
Seval Yıldırım, a professor of law at Whittier Law School, said in a statement to Today’s Zaman on Wednesday that for the US to extradite Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen without a formal case against him would be an infringement of US law.
Turkey’s permanent state of crisis
However, Erdogan has a problem: Whereas Ataturk came to power as a military general, Erdogan has a democratic mandate to govern. Ataturk’s Turkey was rural and only 10 percent of the country was literate at the time, with most educated people supporting his agenda. Erdogan’s Turkey is 80 percent urban and nearly 100 percent literate, and many well-educated Turks oppose his agenda.
Despite blocking accounts, Kimse Yok Mu able to collect donations
Despite the latest step in a government crackdown on Turkey’s UN-affiliated aid organization, Kimse Yok Mu, in which two banks blocked the organization’s accounts, administrators for the charity have said they are still able to collect money through their other accounts.
Canadian Journal Interviews Erdogan’s Victims in Greece: Fleeing oppression in Turkey
A father runs across the park, his seven-year-old daughter in tow and all his worldly possessions crammed into two overloaded backpacks, one on each shoulder. This scientist and assistant professor is one of many stateless souls making do in Athens, where they landed by inflatable raft after escaping persecution, incarceration and psychological, sometimes also physical, torture in their beloved homeland of Turkey.
Turkish PM Erdoğan’s chain of mistakes
“There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must be not be attacked, towns which must not be besieged, and positions which must not be contested.” Erdoğan’s most serious problem is this. Based on the fact that he has come out successful in every crisis he has encountered, he always uses the same strategy to overcome difficulties. I call this the “curse of winning every battle.”
Graduation ceremony of the Turkish school in Senegal