#KabulEtmiyoruzVazgeçmiyoruz (We do not Accept, we do not give up)

di Elisabetta Brentegani, Francesca Coghi, Maria Cimino, Sara Pesenti

Academic freedom, a cornerstone of intellectual inquiry and democratic society, is increasingly at risk of being overlooked, underestimated, and undermined. Despite its critical importance, the protection it affords to educators, researchers, and students are often taken for granted, leaving this fundamental right vulnerable to erosion by political, ideological, and institutional pressures. 

The 1997 UNESCO Declaration on Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel explicitly recognizes academic freedom as 

“(…) the right, without constriction by prescribed doctrine, to freedom of teaching and discussion, freedom in carrying out research and disseminating and publishing the results thereof, freedom to express freely their opinion about the institution or system in which they work, freedom from institutional censorship and freedom to participate in professional or representative academic bodies” (UNESCO, 1997)

However, the gap between this aspirational declaration and the realities faced by academic communitiesworldwide highlights the urgent need to reaffirm and protect these freedoms.

As it can be concluded reading the statement, academic freedom is an umbrella-term which defines those fundamental principles that protect the independence of faculty, researchers, and students allowing them to explore and share knowledge without political and ideological interference. It encompasses freedom to teach, conduct research, publish research findings, and participate in open debate without fear of censorship or institutional retaliation. Equally crucial is the institutional autonomy of universities, which grants academic institutions the right to govern themselves, protects the plurality of ideas from external interference (public or private), and encourages open dialogue – all essential principles for a healthy academic environment. 

The protection of academic freedom is an everyone’s duty and carrying out this task is a collective responsibility. States play a crucial role by ensuring that teachers, researchers, and students are free to pursue knowledge and to share ideas without any fear. Ideally, constitutions and legal frameworks should enshrine these protections. Unfortunately, such protections are not universally guaranteed. Many countries lack explicit protections for academic freedom, and every year, several educators and researchers face harassment, violence or even imprisonment for their work. 

Although public awareness is increasingly highlighting the risks academic communities face, it remains challenging to identify and define clear violations of academic freedom. Restrictions can be carried out in various ways – some are obvious, such as arrest or dismissal, and others more subtle, like pressures to avoid sensitive topics, self-censorship, or administrative interference. These different forms of restriction make it difficult to measure and address these violations, underscoring the importance of monitoring and international support for academics at risk. 

Turkey constitutes a significant case study for analyzing this issue. According to the Academic Freedom Index , Turkey currently ranks 166th out of 179 countries, with a concerningly low score of 0.09 out of 1. This places the country alongside nations known for severe restrictions on freedoms, such as North Korea, Myanmar and Iran. Since 2012, Turkey has faced a marked decline in all major dimensions of academic freedom, including freedom to research and teach, share ideas, institutional autonomy, campus integrity and academic and cultural expression. As of 2023, these rights continue to face substantial backlash, reflecting a troubling trend that continues to shape the academic landscapes. (Stockholm Center for Freedom; Academic Freedom Index). 

The Turkish Constitution provides for the guarantee of freedoms and rights, such as the freedom of personal security, conscience, thought, speech, publication, travel (…), assembly and association (Art. 70); inviolability (No one may be arrested or detained except in the circumstances and in the manner prescribed by law, Art. 72; torture and ill-treatment are prohibited); the right to information and freedom of the press (The press shall be free within the limits of the law and shall not be subject to control or censorship before publication, Art. 77). However the absence of a well-established academic tradition makes higher education in Turkey inherently vulnerable.This fragility has exposed academic freedom to suppression, penalties, and even job loss whenever it clashes with prevailing political, financial, ideological, or cultural norms. In practice, these gaps have allowed external pressures to undermine intellectual independence within Turkish universities, stifling the foundations essential for a truly free academic environment. 

In the Ottoman Empire, early higher education institutions were modeled after the continental European university model and US university model as part of modernization efforts. The empire’s goal aimed primarily at strengthening the military and educating soldiers. Following the empire’s collapse, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of modern Turkey, saw education as a key to building a progressive, independent nation.

In the 1930s, Turkey adopted aspects of the Humboldtian model of higher education, which introduced the idea of academic freedom as a core principle, emphasizing independent learning, teaching and research. However, in the following decades, the Turkish government became increasingly wary about academic autonomy, gradually implementing legal regulations and oversight measures to keep universities in check. This marked the beginning of a complex relationship between the state and academic freedom in Turkey. As a matter of fact, the Turkish state began to view intellectual independence as both a tool for progress and potential threat to its authority.

In the latter half of the 20th century, Turkey went through political upheaval, including several military coups. Each of these events disrupted universities, increasing government intervention and limiting their independence. Following the 1980 military coup, the government introduced sweeping educational reforms that reinforced strict state control over universities. In 1981, the higher education council was established, centralizing oversight and granting the state authority over university appointments, governance, and curriculum, further restricting academic independence and silencing dissent. 

In the 1990s and early 2000’s, as Turkey looked to strengthen ties with the European Union, it prompted reforms to improve human rights and democratic standards, including some protections for academic freedom. For a while, this brought some changes towards greater institutional autonomy and stronger protections. However, the progress was fragile. Following the coup attempt in 2016, academic freedoms took a severe hit, with mass dismissals of faculty members, government-appointed rectors placed in power, and restrictions on research topics and campus activities

6,000 of Turkey’s 150,000 academics had been dismissed from public universities; 50,000 people had been arrested and more than 140,000 had been fired from state offices, including the civil service, the judiciary, the military, the media, and universities due to their assumed connections to the Gülen movement and/or their support for terrorist activities (Gol 2022)

Current Allegations of Violations

Following the failed coup attempt in 2016, the Turkish government launched a state of emergency (Ohal) and initiated purges in academia, reshaping higher education and research. As the Magna Charta Observatory reported in its “Statement Concerning Universities in Turkey”, 1577 university deans were forced to resign or were suspended. Academics attempted to leave for countries with more freedoms, but travel bans imposed by the government made it difficult. In the months that followed, pressure on members of the Turkish higher education and research community escalated, with 

“Investigations, arrests, interrogations, suspensions and termination of positions, in violation of internationally recognized principles of academic freedom, free expression and freedom of association” (Magna Charta Observatory, 2016).

 This wave of repression shows a deep mistrust of the academics and limits their ability to contribute independently to society (Magna Charta Observatory, 2016). 

In the immediate aftermath of the coup, a state of emergency decree (no.667) was issued. Three days after the declaration, 

“35 health institutions and organizations, 15 Foundation Universities, 1043 private education institutions and dormitories, 1229 foundations and associations, 19 syndicates and syndicate confederations were shut down through no.667 Statutory decree”

alleging links to the Gulen movement. Several academicians were prosecuted as alleged terrorists, with an initial investigation accusing 155.000 people of connections to an armed terrorist organization. This number increased to 500.000. These individuals are now blacklisted from public sector jobs. If it’s not enough, participation in protests, publishing any academic article or essay about the Government of Erdogan, or addressing sensitive topics in research can be classified as criminal acts. Linked to this is the official standpoint of 2.210 intellectuals against Turkish authoritarianism. Those scholars in 2016 signed a petition (“Academics for Peace”) that asked for the cease of the state of emergency, for the end to the violations that were carried out against the Kurdi in south-eastern and the opening of peace negotiations. The signing of the appeal cost those individuals dismissals, if not the arrest. Moreover, on the 12th of January 2016 President Erdogan defined them 

“so-called intellectuals”, “terrorist” and “traitors”. (Sevgi Dogan, Dal Fascismo in Italia all’autoritarismo in Turchia: la libertà accademica)

The signatories have been accused of committing a crime by signing, an act that was compared by the government to an act of propaganda on the behalf of a terrorist organization. This event has been taken up by Erdogan as an opportunity to “set free” higher education from the rivals, that is the opposition. 

University administrations, under government pressure, have intervened to ensure that academics avoid politically sensitive research areas or avoid attending controversial conferences. Topics considered off-limits include issues such as the Kurdish and Armenian questions, the headscarf topic, academic freedom, the Syrian war, immigration. These restrictions are rooted in political, social and cultural considerations, and push scholars to align their work with these “national values”. As a result, research autonomy has been compromised, and self-censorship has become a common response among academics (Doğan, Selenica 2021). 

Since 2016, the Turkish academy has been highly politicized. In an increasingly repressive regime, students, teachers, and academics have started to withdraw into isolation, turning to coping mechanisms to deal with the pressures they face. The government has also extended censorship to the media by closing many journals, newspapers, and television stations deemed critical of its policies. One of the main factors that drove to censorship and self-censorship is the Cumhurbaşkanı İletişim Merkezi/Presidential. It is an institution that emerged in 2018 as an organ targeting the transmission of wishes and complaints to the president. In this way, everything taught in class risks being transmitted, academics are surveilled and control: not surprisingly, this has caused self-censorship among academics (Doğan, Selenica 2021). Censor and self-censorship are so largely driven by fear – fear of job loss, backlisting, or other punitive measures – fostering a widespread sense of insecurity among Turkish academics. 

All in all, this aggressive approach toward scholars reflects the government’s failure to assert ideological hegemony through intellectual means, prompting a strategy of repression to silence dissent. By selectively targeting individuals, the state has tried to quiet critical voices in academia, promoting passivity and a climate of fear that encourages self-censorship and isolation. This atmosphere not only showcases the regime’s determination to maintain control but also highlights its increasing authoritarianism, which has become willing to deploy extensive coercive power to suppress both non-violent and violent dissent (Tastan, Ordek, 2020). 

To provide an extensive overview of the situation in Turkey, we have decided to interview individuals connected to the university community. We recently managed to explore more in detail the perspective of Turkish academics with Sevgi Doǧan, a senior research fellow at Scuola Normale Superiore as well as partner in the establishing of Scholars at Risk network in Italy. 

Talking about her life experience Doǧan explained us that after her doctorate at the Scuola Normale Superiore she turned back to Turkey to work in the University’s field, as she notes though, always under precarious conditions, both in in private and public universities. This led the conversation into the topic of foundation – or private – universities. 

The institution of private universities began in 1984, when Turkey’s constitution was modified. This occurred as a result of the global development and the neoliberalism spreading of the 1980s. The establishment of this new type of education institution was justified with the belief that Turkey’s higher education was not competitive on a global scale. 

When the AKP came to power the number of private universities significantly increased. Between 1984 and 1999 there were 20 foundation or private universities (Birler 2012, 145; Dogan 2020). Since the rise of AKP rule in 2002, there are now 77 foundations/private universities in Turkey (Tufan and Güran 2019). This process brought to two kinds of results: 

firstly,  “the increase of the anti-democratic character of universities, including the replacement of quality with quantity, the bureaucratization, the creation of a hierarchical system; secondly, “the intensification of repression of academic freedom”,

It goes without saying that the anti-democratic character is not just inherently in private universities. Processes of centralization, bureaucratization and hierarchization reinforce the authoritarian structure of the university (Doğan and Selenica).

As Doǧan highlighted, private universities are considered either a tool to consolidate political influence or a source of economic capital. Under Erdogan’s current government the number of universities has skyrocketed: by the end of 2023, 125 new universities have been established, 51 of these are private. The AKP has cherry picked academic personnel that were ideologically aligned with the party, shaping what has been referred to as the ‘AKP-type university model’. 

Doǧan, explaining us that a public university wanted to hire her as a philosophy lecturer, that eventually didn’t happen, says:

“I found out that they considered me not sufficiently nationalist and too close to the Kurdish party, due to some non-academic articles in which I criticized the policies of the time toward the Kurdish people, as well as my work on Marx’s texts and Marxism. This treatment led me to think that, because of my research interests, I would hardly be able to find a stable position at a university, at most only a part-time job. Both due to the precarious situation and my desire to work on topics I am passionate about without restrictions, I decided to seek a postdoctoral research position. I came to Italy with a one-year research grant and then started working on the topic of academic freedom as well.”

As it was previously mentioned, there are topics considered off-limits, which academics cannot descant on if they want to pursue their research in the Universities or whether they want to have or maintain their job and careers, without retaliation. 

All these reasons ultimately led her to take the decision to leave her country. She came to Italy in 2016, just as many academics were being expelled from their universities. 

She then started to work actively on the SAR network and doing research on the issue of academic freedom in relation to the question of intellectuals, in the context of political philosophy, especially examining the theories of Antonio Gramsci and Rosa Luxemburg on theory and practice, and the role of intellectuals in society and academia. She notes: 

“I felt guilty  because I had not been able to sign the petition. Not because I disagreed with the content, but simply because I had arrived a little late to do so. Therefore I dedicated myself to helping these academics from Italy. I met the network of Scholars at Risk (SAR) network and I started to learn about it”

The petition Sevgi Doǧan refers to is the Academics for peace petition. Originally launched in 2012 by a group of Turkish academics, it aimed to highlight unresolved issues surrounding the Turkish – Kurdish conflict. The first petition marked the beginning of efforts by academics to advocate for a  peaceful resolution. Signed by 300 academics (Tekdemir, Toivanen, Baser, 2018), it came during what appeared to be a fleeting moment of  peace between the Turkish state and the Kurdish Workers Party. However, by 2015, negotiations collapsed, and the conflict resumed, prompting the Academics for Peace  to release another petition titled “We Will Not be a Party to this Crime!”. 

This time the initiative aimed to draw attention to human rights violations under the state of emergency. While it gained significant attention from policy makers, it also sparked widespread repercussions, including the criminalization of signatories and purges in academia. By 2016 the political tensions became more intense, causing even more clashes, economic destabilization and a deteriorating security situation. The conflict caused several killings and human rights violations. According to the UN Human Rights Office, between July 2015 and December 2016, approximately 335,000 and half a million people had been displaced in southeast Turkey. 

Against this outrageous situation another petition was launched. This time calling on the Justice and development party (AKP) to end the state of violence in Kurdish-populated territories, to resume negotiations and to craft a plan to resolve the conflict. 1.1128 academics mobilized to sign the petition, followed by 1,084 additional signatories (Tekdemir, Toivanen, Baser, 2018). This act of civil disobedience remained in the government’s agenda, leading to a systematic policy of silencing opposition voices. Signatories faced criminalization and lynching in public space followed, especially after the failed coup attempt. Academics who signed the petition were targeted with criminal and administrative investigation, suspension, forced resignation or retirement, detention, dismissal, passport revocation, denial of pension rights, and travel bans (372 academics removed or banned from public service; 505 subjected to criminal investigation) (Tekdemir, Toivanen, Baser, 2018). 

The petition garnered international support from academics and institutions worldwide, underscoring concerns about the erosion of academic freedom in Turkey and the worsening situation for their colleagues. NGOs, international organizations, and institutions launched campaigns to assist and support scholars in Turkey. 

This crisis had a huge impact on scholars as well as students. In our conversation with Sevgi Doǧan, she detailed how the failed coup and the subsequent state of emergency, declared ton 21st of July 2016, and then extended seven times over two years, amplified repression. Doǧan reports how students are constantly fighting against pressure and quality of education. To avoid being pressured or accused by their peers of being ‘terrorists’ or ‘traitors,’ students refrain from expressing their opinions. This is especially true for students of Kurdish origin. The AKP uses religion as a tool of pressure and fills the academic body with individuals who share this vision and expects students, both in classrooms and courses, to give prominence to religious discourse. Doǧan shared alarming instances of students including prayers in their exams, hoping to secure better grades, even when unrelated to the subject matter. 

Limiting what students are allowed to study, to apprehend or research on is part of a broader strategy of control, aimed at reducing spaces of freedom in universities and in the academic world in general. This political strategy is hitting on a whole generation of students, whose future depends on academic life. This has been compromising their right to receive a proper education and to focus on what they are interested in. As also Doǧan observed, looking at the current situation in Turkey, a lack of freedom exists across all sectors. According to the Freedom House 2021 report, Turkey scores 1 out 4 points in freedom of the press, freedom of expression, academic freedom, freedom of assembly or association. People are afraid of expressing their ideas, especially for the possible retaliation that they can encounter. Arbitrary arrests and torture are the main possible consequences, as reported by Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV).

We finally asked Doǧan what her expectations about the future of academic freedom in Turkey are. She seems very concerns, saying that: 

“Unfortunately, the human rights situation has worsened and does not seem likely to improve soon. The withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention clearly demonstrates the attempt to gradually strip women of the gains they have achieved. The mentioned human rights organizations highlight how democracy and human rights are being violated in Turkey, documenting a continuous deterioration rather than any improvement.”

This hopelessly thought leads us to conclude that the loss of academic freedom is both a symptom and a tool of a repressive regime that seeks to stifle dissent and critical thought. While international solidarity and the activism of Turkish academics provide some hope, prospects for immediate improvements remain dim in the face of escalating political and social repression. 

The state of academic freedom in Turkey today represents a complex and concerning reality. While academic freedom, as outlined by international frameworks like the 1997 UNESCO Declaration, is essential for the advancement of knowledge and the protection of intellectual independence, Turkey’s history and recent political developments paint a stark picture of its erosion. The country’s position near the bottom of global academic freedom rankings signals a dramatic decline in the autonomy of its academic institutions, beginning from the 2016 coup attempt and continuing into the present. A once-promising trajectory towards greater academic freedom, shaped by reforms in the late 20th and early 21st century, has been reversed as authoritarianism has tightened its grip over universities.

The government’s crackdown on academia after 2016 is marked by mass dismissals, politically motivated investigations, and a pervasive culture of self – censorship. University deans are removed, faculty members face arrest or suspension for simply exercising their rights to free expression, and academic discourse has been reduced to safe, government-approved topics. The pressures on Turkish academics, researchers, and students—both institutional and societal—reflect a wider climate of fear and repression. Those brave enough to push back against this authoritarian tide risk losing their jobs, right to education, and overall their academic freedom. As seen in the case of sensitive topics such as Kurdish or Armenian issues, the Syrian war, or government policies, intellectual independence has been stifled, leaving Turkish academia on the brink of intellectual paralysis.

What can be concluded by this article is that education can be a double-edged sword: it can either support a political system or encourage critical thinking and drive social change. This transformative potential of education often unsettles governments, particularly those authoritarian tendencies. Professors and researchers are a scare for these types of governments, who just seek control over their population. Academics, indeed, have the power to, and are in the position, to influence beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. However, this is not what authoritarian regimes look for. Such regimes typically want a compliant population, one that is less inclined to question authority. To achieve this aim they seek to suppress the development of individual perspectives and critical viewpoints.

In this light, scholars and students represent a real challenge to authoritarian governments. They hold not only a unique and influential role within society, but they possess the expertise as well as the platform to shape beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, encouraging students to think analytically and independently. This capacity to foster open inquiry and critical thinking places educators at odds with authoritarian objectives, which favor conformity over curiosity. Consequently, in societies where power is centralized and dissent is discouraged, academics are often seen as threats because they empower individuals to question the realities around them. 

Raising awareness of these issues is crucial. Academic freedom is not just a matter for academics but a cornerstone of any democratic society. It is a collective responsibility to protect the right of educators, students, and researchers to pursue knowledge, express dissent, and challenge ideas without fear of retribution. International organizations, foreign governments, and civil society groups must continue to monitor and support academic communities at risk in Turkey and elsewhere. The challenges faced by Turkey’s higher education system are a reminder of the fragility of academic freedom and the ongoing need for vigilance in protecting this fundamental right.

The future of Turkish academia depends on the responsibilities and courage of individuals and the global community’s commitment to defending academic freedom and human rights. Only through concerted efforts to restore institutional autonomy, ensure the safety of intellectuals, and foster open discourse can Turkey hope to reclaim its place in the global academic community and contribute to the vibrant exchange of ideas that drives progress and innovation.