Protest against actions

Siegen University is following the actions by the Turkish government against academics and universities with great concern.

In agreement with the European University Association (EUA) and the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), Siegen University protests against the measures taken by the Turkish government against academics and the serious curtailment of the universities’ academic freedom. “Universities are places of free thought, of intercultural exchange, of the critical public. This freedom must be protected” says Prof. Dr. Holger Burckhart, Rector of Siegen University.

According to media reports, universities have been told to dismiss deans. Turkey’s official news agency Anadolu states that 1176 deans at public universities and 401 deans at private universities are affected. The Turkish university council has instructed the universities to prohibit official trips abroad by their staff. Scientists who are currently abroad should return. All employees of the universities, both academic and administrative staff, who have links to the movement of the preacher Fethullah Gülen are to be investigated. More than 15,000 employees in the education sector have been suspended and in some cases incarcerated, 21,000 private school teachers have had their teaching licence revoked.

“The German universities are appalled by the current developments at Turkish universities. We are all stunned by the deep, seemingly ruthless curtailments of academic freedoms by the Turkish government. We condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms” states the President of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), Prof. Dr. Horst Hippler.

The EUA, with 850 members from 47 countries the most important organisation of universities in Europe, appeals to all European governments and universities to take a stand against the repressions in Turkey and to support academic freedom.

“I am appalled and alarmed that academic freedom is being severely restricted by the travel prohibition for Turkish scientists and the resignation demands for deans and university rectors. Turkey is clearly leaving the democratic path here” says Svenja Schulze, minister for science of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Read here: EUA Statement condemning the forced resignation of 1577 university deans

Read here: Response from the Council of Higher Education Turkey