To: The Turkish Ministry of Justice
      Turkish Council of Higher Education,

Endangered Scholars Worldwide is deeply concerned over recent reports from Turkey regarding the plight of the academic community. Since July 15, in the days following  the attempted coup, we have received numerous reports that Turkish officials have taken harsh measures against universities and other educational institutions of higher education. Universities are being shut down and faculty and administrators taken into custody and denied the possibility of leaving the country.

Endangered Scholars Worldwide is deeply concerned about the detention of and professional retaliation against academics and human rights activists in Turkey in response to their exercise of the rights to academic freedom, free expression and free association, conduct that is expressly protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to both of which Turkey is a party. The ongoing tensions in Turkey have a profoundly destructive effect on academic freedom and represent a grave threat to higher education on a national scale.  

We at Endangered Scholars Worldwide urge Turkish officials to honor their constitutional obligations to protect the institutional integrity of universities and the academic freedom of scholars and academics. 

Endangered Scholars Worldwide calls on the United Nations General Assembly, and member governments, to put pressure on the Turkish government and express concern over the actions taken by Turkish officials against universities and higher education establishments in Turkey.

Please join The New School, the home of the original University in Exile and Endangered Scholars Worldwide, in calling on Turkish authorities to:

• cease their attacks on Turkish academics and universities;
• free those who have been arrested without cause;
• allow those who wish to travel freely outside the country to do so; and
• make Turkish universities once again the havens of freedom of inquiry and free expression that all great universities must be.


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cc: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey
cc: United Nations General Assembly
cc: Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C.
cc: Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations