Statement

We are viewing with alarm the latest news from Turkey, where there is persecution of the academics at colleges and universities.

Based on the available information the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) passed decision to ban academics from traveling abroad until further notice. The purges of universities after failed coup attempt in Turkey last week touched more than 50,000 people in state institutions who are most likely to end up in custody or lost their jobs and their positions. More than 15,000 employees of the Turkish Ministry of Education have been suspended, and 21,000 schoolteachers working in private institutions have lost their licences to teach. YÖK has ordered more than 1,500 deans of state and private universities in the country to tender their resignation.

We encourage our colleagues and friends at the Turkish universities or colleges and we are showing solidarity in their present situation threatening both academic freedom and institutional autonomy. We disagree more with the persecution that we have to see at the present time. We support their efforts for the rights to a life of freedom and democracy. We endorse the statement of the European University Association (EUA) and we appeal to all people of good will or manners regardless of their religion and political orientation to share our statement and to support freedom and democracy in Turkey.

Prague, 20 July 2016