Abstract
The case of Prof. İştar Gözaydın is one of the most visible and tragicomic examples for academics who have been victimized in Turkey by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Gözaydın was not the first one and perhaps will not be the last because the authoritarian mindset that encapsulates the academics and scholars started long before the foundation of AKP, despite the fact that it was deepened and broadened by it. This article aims to explain the intense recrimination of academics by a repressive and hegemonic political power in Turkey in the second decade of the 2000s. It also tries to shed light on the essential weakness of the authoritarian strong state practices on the face of academic freedom.
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Notes
It would be better to read her story from her own words. The latest op-ed of Gözaydın regarding her situation is accessible here: https://newint.org/features/2017/12/01/turkey-political-prisoners (last accessed 30 December 2017).
Gülen Movement. It is a controversial Turkey-originated transnational Islamic movement active in education, media and the business world. The Gülen Movement seems to be an example of interfaith dialogue through the prism of civil society in global level. However, it also seems to have a political dimension dedicated to the expansion of its political and bureaucratic power through obtaining important positions within the state. Although the Movement has started to place its members in public positions at the beginning of 1980s, their presence in offices has reached its peak during the AKP period and the Movement became an unofficial coalition partner of the AKP governments. Furthermore, the Movement has expanded its activities abroad and worked in collaboration with the AKP. Yet, following political crises such as the 15–17 December corruption scandal and the 15 July coup attempt, this unofficial coalition was dispersed. As a result, the government labelled Gülen Movement as Fethullah Gülen Terror Organization (FETÖ). Therefore, particularly in the aftermath of the coup attempt, Turkey has been openly combating the Movement’s institutions both at home and abroad.
For one of the most detailed information regarding Gözaydın see; https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/2017/03/professor-istar-gozaydins-100th-day-incarceration-displays-deteriorating-conditions-freedom-speech-turkey/ (last accessed 30 December 2017).
The petition of ECPR Standing Group on Religion and Politics; http://standinggroups.ecpr.eu/religion/?p=518 (last accessed 22 December 2017).
One of the examples of the defamation campain against Gözaydın, see; http://www.yeniakit.com.tr/haber/aday-yaptigi-isim-fetoden-tutuklandi-250533.html (last accessed 22 December 2017).
Scholar Nil Mutluer’s story is one of the traumatic cases regarding to the conditions of the academics in Turkey, see; https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/nil-mutluer/turkish-flight-and-new-diaspora-in-town (last accessed 28 December 2017).
For all the details of the Human Rights Award of University of Oslo, see; https://defendlawyers.wordpress.com/2017/08/19/turkeynorway-turkish-law-professor-wins-norwegian-human-rights-award/ (last accessed 28 December 2017).
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Öztürk, A.E. Lack of self-confidence of the authoritarian regimes and academic freedom: the case of İştar Gözaydın from Turkey. Eur Polit Sci 19, 77–86 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-018-0170-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-018-0170-y