Turkey coup: 15,200 education staff suspended

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: BBC

More than 15,000 education staff in Turkey have been suspended after last week's failed coup, as a purge of state officials widens still further.

The Ministry of Education accused them of links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric the Turkish government says was behind Friday's uprising.

Mr Gulen denies any involvement with the coup attempt .

Turkey's High Education board has also ordered the resignation of over 1,500 university deans, state media reported.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36838347

[6chars]

1. Hey, it's a democratically elected government

Who are we Americans to sit in judgment of the will of another people?

We didn't mind when they did this
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/15/turkey-rounds-up-academics-who-signed-petition-denouncing-attacks-on-kurds
so why complain now?

[forest444]

5. So good to see they're showing "restraint" too.

Guatemala on the Bosporus.

[JonathanRackham]

30. Sounds like Democracy gone bad.

When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia the first people they executed were the intellectuals and academics.

Democracy needs diversity.

[MissB]

2. First the judges and now the educators.

This should go well.

[fleabiscuit]

3. I think you could be describing a Trump election as well. eom

[DetlefK]

4. Erdogan has been waging a war against critical professors for a while now.

He's angry that they teach their students stuff like critical thinking instead of practical skills like, quote, "using a computer".

[Democat]

6. Obama and Kerry say we must support this

It's a shame.

[karynnj]

11. Actually both urged Erdagon not to do this

The problem is that they are located in a pretty strategic place and there are no real options for the US to do otherwise.

What would you prefer that they do? We do not give a lot of aid to Turkey. There is a big NATO base located there that has nuclear weapons that we have used to send planes to fight ISIS.

Turkey has been a terrible ally on ISIS - doing a poor job for a long time on closing the border and pushing the US to instead attack Assad. Not to mention prioritizing attacking the Kurds, who have helped us fight ISIS.

Are you advocating for the US backing a coup?

[Democat]

12. Obama could have stayed out of it for longer

At least until it was clear what was happening. Jumping in to support the person purging judges and teachers before it was clear if he was gone only helped him to consolidate his power.

[bemildred]

13. It appears to me they stalled about as long as they could.

It wasn't very long, true, but it wasn't a very long coup. "Some say" it was a setup as it is already, because it was so lacking in effect.

But in any case you don't want to say anything to encourage people to keep fighting once the outcome is clear.

[karynnj]

14. He spoke out before there was purging of anyone

It was also a very generic statement.

Likely because they KNEW the US was going to be scapegoated as having backed it - because the cleric lives in the Poconos. This is not the first time that was raised. The clerics followers were blamed for corruption charges against Erdogan a few years ago.

I am sure the US was considering the 1000 plus US troops located there, the fact that Turkey has absorbed much of the refugee stream, and they are critically located in the actions against ISIS. As it is, Erdogan has pushed a wave of anti-American sentiment and is trying to black mail Obama into extraditing the cleric

The US statement did not have an impact on the coup succeeding -- it seems pretty clear that the coup was very very poorly planned or possibly something that was a set up.

[6chars]

7. Boycott Turkish universities!!!

[The Second Stone]

8. They certainly used the coup as a Reichstag fire

and it strongly suggests that it was staged.

[bemildred]

9. Turkey demands resignation of every university dean in country after dismissing 15,000 education sta

Turkey’s post-coup crackdown took on unprecedented dimensions on Tuesday as the government’s purge reached the education sector, with tens of thousands of teachers and all the country’s university deans facing suspension.

Tens of thousands of civil servants have lost their jobs as Turkey tries to root out supporters of Fethullah Gülen, the US-based cleric accused of orchestrating the failed coup, whose movement is said to have infiltrated state institutions.

The Education Ministry suspended 15,200 employees while the state-run Higher Education Council demanded the resignation of 1,577 university deans — amounting to all of Turkey’s state and private university administrators.

Turkish NTV television also reported that the ministry cancelled the teaching licences of 21,000 staff working in private institutions.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/19/turkey-demands-resignation-of-every-university-dean-in-country-a/

[6chars]

17. Uh oh.

[KingCharlemagne]

22. turkish students mught cinsider a student strike and occupation

of University campus facilities. Easy for me to advocate, I know, since my ass isn't in the line. Students need to seize the vanguard, both I Turkey and worldwide

[NWCorona]

24. Erdogan and his goons don't care. They'd probably welcome it.

[bemildred]

27. I don't think that is going to work there.

Those guys that came out and saved Erdogan were not students, and they would make short work of students.

[Kahina_Loren]

10. Teacher

As a teacher I find this deeply troubling.

Why is Nato, the EU, and America silent when all this is going on?

I believe Erdogan had negotiated visa free travel for Turks in the Schengen area this summer.

Since it seems like more than 50 percent of Turks are autocratic islamists, this seems like a very bad idea.

[yeoman6987]

31. I thought we wanted to stay out of other countries business

We can't have it both ways.

[Javaman]

15. First they came for...nt

[NWCorona]

25. Yes indeed!

[lovuian]

16. What's next burning books?

He's cleaning house and "dictator" status

[ancianita]

18. I'm so glad you're following this so closely. All your important effort is very much appreciated.

The whole idea that a parallel Islamic economy would get ready to bump off the military's commander is pretty slick.

The hawala money system that obscures and confounds Western digital money trails is how the Saudis have established footholds in otherwise secular countries. Erdogan's and the NATO intel community sorted out Gulen's system of siphoning cash from government there, as well as it has here in the US.

Their Ministry of Education is right to demand a more secularist commitment to schooling youth, since the mosques already make the Quran the center of their religious culture.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

19. .

[Matthew28]

20. He wants his population to be stupid and poor

The guys evil and needs to be removed.

[ancianita]

23. You're not getting it. He wants schools to be secular, not fronts for madrasas.

There's a context for what Erdogan's doing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atatürk%27s_Reforms

[NWCorona]

26. Erdogan isn't about being secular.

As someone who's been to Turkey a few times I can tell the difference. The last time my partner didn't feel comfortable without a head scarf and that was a first.

[ancianita]

28. Sure, he's Muslim and has made concessions. He's getting outnumbered. That doesn't mean

he's Islam's guy.

He's NATO's guy. And so he is about making secular systems dominate theocratic ones.

[NWCorona]

32. Are you Turkish? Just wondering looking at your name.

I'm not saying he's Islam's guy as there's definitely more hardliners out there but Turkey pretty Erdogan was very secular and IMHO now it's moving in the other direction.

[ancianita]

33. My name comes from Spanish. I think he's staying in the same direction he's been in, but

just seems to going in "the other direction" because many of us in the West get confused when the Islamists claim leaders don't want their brand of democracy.

The ummah is the democracy of Islamic theocracy.

One doesn't have to be Turkish to understand their history, systems, or actors of the international arena.

[NWCorona]

35. It's not just the West thinking this though

There is zero room for decent against Erdogan. Even if you live in a different country. He wants to bring back the death penalty after it was abolished decades ago. Erdogan is also in the process of changing the Constitution.

[ancianita]

36. Could you please elaborate? This is interesting to many.

[NWCorona]

39. On what aspect?

[ancianita]

37. I think the word you mean is 'dissent,' right? Although 'decent' is ironic.

[NWCorona]

38. Yes dissent and a bit for sure

[TubbersUK]

29. I'm no expert

but from what I read Erdogan has presided over a huge rise in non-secular education, often sparking protest.

Enrollment in religious schools has increased from 63,000 to over a million (2014 figure) under his control apparently.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36573914
http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-education-idUSKCN0JG0CK20141202
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/world/europe/turkeys-religious-schools-rise-as-erdogan-exerts-sway.html?_r=0

[ancianita]

34. He's allowed the school system to draw extremists from within its moderate cover. Then he

has identified them and clamped down on them and their sympathizers. That's his pre-empting extremist actions.

The Gulen prosecution connections to Turkish police's jailing of journalists is another indicator to Erdogan. The bombing in Istanbul was his trigger point.

I'm no expert, either, but his actions don't take place in a coup bubble. There is historical context for his actions.

[Duppers]

40. Exactly!. This is EXTREMELY TROUBLING.

[LeftishBrit]

21. Horrible.