On 3 October 2016 Bilim Akademisi (The Science Academy, Turkey) Executive Board issued a statement on academics dismissed from public service following the attempted coup d’état in Turkey last July.
To access the statement please visit the academy’s website here
ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, rejects all non-constitutional and violent attempts to threaten the democracies in the Council of Europe region, which is the host region to the ALLEA member academies, and indeed all over the world. Consequently, ALLEA strongly condemns the attempted coup d’état by factions of the Turkish military on 15 July 2016 against the democratically elected institutions of the Republic of Turkey.
In the meantime ALLEA has closely followed the subsequent and on-going developments and is alarmed by the repressive and excessive nature of recent measures against several public sectors in Turkey, including the academic and research community, carried out by the Turkish government and compliant civil servants in response to the coup.
In particular, we learnt with grave concern and alarm that apparently all 1577 university deans were suspended, thousands of licenses of teachers cancelled, all academics banned from leaving Turkey, and Turkish academics were being called back from abroad.
We strongly condemn these and any other punitive or preventive actions taken without distinction, depriving academics and researchers from their fundamental rights, particularly the right to freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly as well as the right to exercise their profession without politically or ideologically motivated constraints.
We urge the Turkish Government to halt these measures and to return to, respect and safeguard the principles of academic freedom and autonomy for both individuals and institutions in the science and higher education sectors in Turkey.
We stand in solidarity with our Turkish colleagues in these difficult times and we particularly support the academicians and staff in our member academies located in Ankara and Istanbul.
We call upon the European Institutions, national Governments as well as fellow scientists and scholars across Europe and beyond to express their support for the academic and research community in Turkey.
Click here for pdf version of the statement
ALLEA fully supports the following declaration of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies, as published on 19 January 2016, on the recent developments involving Turkish academics:
‘The International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies (H.R. Network) supports and defends the rights of fellow academics, anywhere in the world, to peacefully express their lawful opinions and concerns. We, the members of the H.R. Network’s Executive Committee, are alarmed by the increasingly repressive and inflammatory reaction by Turkish government leaders, many university officials, and other intolerant individuals toward hundreds of our Turkish colleagues, solely because they publicly expressed humanitarian concerns about the grave crisis in south eastern Turkey. Surely, citizens of a democratic country such as Turkey, and its academics in particular, have a civic duty to remind their government, when deemed necessary, of its obligations to respect Turkey’s constitution, adhere to humanitarian standards for all of its citizens, and give priority to peaceful solutions in crisis situations.
We condemn any threats, false accusations, and incitement to violence against our colleagues by the government of Turkey, which is obligated, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to allow its citizens the “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” In addition, we urge the government of Turkey to protect the rights of its citizens, to desist from threatening academics who are performing their civic duties by participating in governance, and to call its operatives to order – thereby discouraging hostile action against our colleagues.’
The original declaration of the International Human Rights Networks of Academies and Scholarly Societies can be accessed here.
To download this press release please click here.
