Thousands of Turkish academics fired in aftermath of coup attempt

Nature : Since the violent coup d’état attempt in Turkey in July, 2346 university staff members have been fired for suspected collusion. They are part of a larger purge, of some 40 000 civil servants, initiated by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Academics have protested the firings, saying the university personnel who have been let go were not part of the Gülen movement that the government holds responsible for the attempted overthrow. Rather, the fired staff simply disagreed with particular government policies. They are among the more than 2000 Turkish scholars who signed a petition seeking to end the violence between the government and Kurdish separatists. Turkey’s Association of University Councils has decried the government’s actions after the coup and has said that Erdoğan’s administration is “systematically harming science in Turkey.”