Dear friends,
Thank you all for your
messages of solidarity and support!
I am writing this joint
email to give you a brief update on the situation in
Turkey.
* More than 50 thousand
people from different state agencies (including police,
military and the judiciary) and institutions of
secondary and higher education have been suspended from
their positions (3000 prosecutors and judges, more than
8000 police, more than 35000 teachers and other staff
from the Ministry of Education...)
* Yesterday, no university
professor (nor any other state employee) was allowed to
leave the country, without authorization from Ankara. We
have friends who were at the airport all day, ultimately
having to return home. Today, the Higher Education
Council (HEC) issued a declaration cancelling all
academic & personal leaves and appointments
(including sabbatical leaves). It seems that none of us
can leave Turkey until further notice - including for
conferences and sabbaticals. Those who are on vacation -
inside or outside Turkey - are also being asked to
return (has not happened at Sabanci yet, but colleagues
from other state and private universities have been
recalled from their vacations and leaves hours after the
official letter from the HEC arrived at the
universities). Tomorrow, we will have a better sense of
how this will unfold.
* Will they expand the
purge to not only suspend academics but to more
aggressively pursue the case against the academics for
peace? who knows...
* Licenses for 25 TV and
radio stations (alleged to be affiliated with the Gulen
community) have been revoked
* You may have been
reading the US (and other states') warnings regarding
more ISIS attacks being expected in different parts of
Turkey. From all we can gather, the security forces, the
government and Erdogan are channeling all state
resources towards silencing all possible opposition and
controlling all institutions, at the same time as they
go after the religious Gulen community that is believed
to have been behind the coup attempt - instead of going
after ISIS cells located across Turkey.
* You may also know that
since the night of the coup attempt, people have been
called to gather in public squares to continue the
"democracy watch" (including in Taksim, which is finally
open to protests - but of course only to pro-government
protests). Most of these "people" are men, almost all
are government supporters, frequently chanting Islamic
verses and prayers, and asking for revenge and the
reinstitution of the death penalty - rather than a move
towards a more democratic Turkey.
* Several Alevi
(heterodox, non-Sunni) neighborhoods and two churches
across Turkey have been attacked by some of these
"pro-democracy / anti-coup" groups...
* The PM, Erdogan and
other officials have announced that they will "issue
arms" to civilians so that they can "protect themselves"
(and read this in line of the previous bullet)
* Erdogan, the PM, and the
ultranationalist MHP party leader have declared that
they would support the reconstitution of the death
penalty...
* Today, the PM opened the
parliamentary meeting with verses from the Quran "in the
name of Allah" (first time in Turkish history) - and
since the night of the coup attempt, special prayers
have been recited in mosques on a daily basis (in
addition to the regular prayers), in addition to calls
by imams to oppose the coup in the name of Allah and
Islam. (the mosques have been the main means of
organizing anti-coup / "pro-democracy" gatherings since
Friday.
* On the night of the coup
attempt, in his speech at the Ataturk Airport, Erdogan
called this failed attempt "a gift/blessing from God" -
indeed, he and the government are using it to suspend
even the pretense of any democratic, legal procedure...
(I should of course add that, along with many others, I
am relieved that the coup attempt failed rather promptly
- many more lives could have been lost if it had been
longer or more widespread).
* Erdogan and the
government have announced that they will be making a
"very important" statement tomorrow - the rumor is that
it will be a form of emergency rule.
* No doubt, this will be
followed by a move to change the constitution towards a
presidential regime.
This is basically where we
stand as of tonight...
I wanted to send a brief
update for you all before things get even worse - as
they might.