On July 23, 2016, a decree went into effect ordering the closure of 15 Turkish universities, in connection with a state of emergency declared by the government following the failed coup attempt on July 15.
The decree orders the closure of universities (among other institutions) that “belong to, are connected or are in communication with the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ/Parallel State Structure), which has been identified as a threat to national security.” More than 56,000 students from these institutions were to be transferred to state universities in the same city. The 2,808 academic personnel from the closed institutions were left unemployed; their employment records have been marked with a code indicating that their loss of position was related to an emergency decree, making future employment at universities virtually impossible. The decree also allows the government to seize those institutions’ assets. The FETÖ/Parallel State Structure refers to supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has been in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999.
Turkish authorities have suggested that supporters of the Gulen movement were behind the attempted coup, which left more than 200 people dead. Authorities have taken a range of actions against the members of the higher education community — among others — allegedly intended to identify those parties involved with the coup attempt, or to eliminate the Gulen movement’s influence within several Turkish institutions. In addition to university closures, these actions reportedly include restrictions on travel, mass suspensions, and arrest and detention of university personnel.
The universities that have been closed under the decree include:
Altın Koza (İpek) University
Bursa Orhangazi University
Canik Başarı University
Selahattin Eyyubi University
Fatih University
Melikşah University
Mevlana University
Şifa University
Turgut Özal University
Zirve University
Kanuni University
İzmir University
Murat Hüdavendigar University
Gediz University
Süleyman Şah University
Scholars at Risk is concerned about widespread university closures. While State authorities have a right to maintain order and respond to legitimate security concerns, such actions must comply with States’ human rights obligations, including those relating to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of association, due process, the right to education, and academic freedom, which are protected by international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Turkey is a party. Widespread closures of higher education institutions, particularly when they are based on alleged associations between those institutions and other parties, have a profoundly chilling effect on academic freedom, undermine democratic society generally, and may represent a grave threat to higher education on a national scale.
SOURCES
http://bianet.org/english/human-rights/177465-closed-universities-in-numbers
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-emergency-idUSKCN1030BC
http://bianet.org/english/human-rights/177194-universities-after-the-coup-attempt-1-617-suspensions-284-detentions-8-arrests
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-23/turkey-publishes-decree-to-close-gulen-linked-institutions
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/07/26/turkey-rights-protections-missing-emergency-decree
http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2016/07/20160723-8.htm
http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2016/07/20160723-8-1.pdf