Education: Freedom & Turkey

In its desperate efforts to cover up its own mismanagement, the government of Turkey has curbed freedom of speech and press, has tried to suppress all channels of criticism. Last week it turned its guns on the nation’s universities. Its immediate target: Turhan Feyzioglu. the brilliant young (34) dean of the faculty of political science at the University of Ankara.

Dean Feyzioglu’s troubles began when he gently rebuked the government last month for blocking the promotion of a colleague who had founded a magazine critical of Turkey’s economic plight. To Feyzioglu, the government’s action against the professor was a serious blow “to the principle of university autonomy.” In almost any other country such a remark might have gone unnoticed. But it was too much for Premier Adnan Menderes.

On Menderes’ orders, Education Minister Ahmet Ozel shot off a letter to Ankara’s academic senate demanding that Feyzioglu be dismissed for indulging in politics. The senate investigated the case, cleared Feyzioglu and refused to drop him. The decision did not stop Ozel: he fired Feyzioglu anyway.

Though four Ankara professors resigned in protest and students walked out on a one-day strike, the government remained adamant. Police rounded up 300 students for questioning, also began badgering students and professors at Istanbul University. Finally, last week the government announced that it would push through laws virtually abolishing the powers of the university senates and thus bring the universities under complete government control. The case of Dean Feyzioglu had proved to be something of a milestone: it marked the government’s determination to end academic freedom in Turkey.