Purge Continues as Turkey Bans Academics from Foreign Travel

Turkey's High Board of Education has banned all academics from travelling abroad until further notice, state-run broadcaster TRT reported on Wednesday, after an abortive military coup prompted a wide-ranging purge of state institutions.

The report, which provided no details about the ban, came a day after the board ordered the resignation of 1,577 deans at all universities across Turkey. In a separate move on Tuesday the education ministry also revoked the licenses of 21,000 teachers working in private institutions.

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During an emergency session on Tuesday, which convened 165 university rectors in Ankara, the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) instructed university rectors to identify professors and administrators with ties to the Gülen movement — a religious and social organization that Erdoğan considers to be responsible for the coup — and to adopt measures to remove them of their positions.

Meanwhile, the European University Association (EUA) in Brussels issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the news of the university deans' forced resignations.

"EUA calls on all European governments, universities and scholars to speak out against these developments and to support democracy in Turkey, including institutional autonomy and academic freedom for scholars and students," said its president, Rolf Tarrach.

Many of the deans could eventually return to their posts, however many experts speculate that the recent decision is aimed at securing Erdoğan’s control over the education sector, which resembled earlier purges of the country’s military, judiciary and police.

Around 50,000 soldiers, police, judges and teachers have been suspended or detained since the attempted coup over the weekend, and even Turkey's Western allies have expressed concern over the crackdown's reach.

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In a separate development, Turkey also blocked access to WikiLeaks after the whistleblower website on Tuesday released nearly 300,000 e-mails from the AK Party dating from 2010 to July 6 this year.

In response to the leaks, Turkey's Telecommunications Communications Board said on Wednesday that an "administrative measure" had been taken against the website – the term it commonly uses when blocking access to sites.

Turkey routinely uses internet shutdowns in response to political events, which critics and human rights advocates see as part of a broader attack on the media and freedom of expression.