Freedom for Academia, a group consisting of “British and Turkish academics/researchers who are willing to lend a helping hand to our colleagues and bring these injustices to the attention of the public and academic circles”, has just published a report on the effects of the AKP government’s purges on the research output of Turkey-based academics, titled: The short-term effects of the large-scale purges carried out by the AKP government on the research output of Turkey-based academics (click to see full article on a new page).
Firstly, as a Turkish citizen living in the UK (also a proud British citizen), I am heartbroken, disappointed and terrified, all at the same time, with what is going on in Turkey at the moment. Within the last 10 months or so, thousands of academics – as well as tens of thousands of other civil servants – have lost their jobs due to decrees issued by the Turkish government. None of them have been told how they are linked to the “15th July 2016 coup attempt” and what their crime (by international standards) was.
These large-scale sackings have undoubtedly had an impact on the state of Turkey-based research and academia. The report tries to quantify the relative decreases in the research output of Turkey-based academics in different academic fields, and speculates on the causal factors. They find, on average, a ~30% decrease in the research output of Turkey-based academics in 2017 – likely to be an underestimate because of the extrapolation method used (i.e. if there is a downward trajectory in the research outputs of Turkey-based academics – which there clearly is – then multiplying the cumulative figure on the 31st May 2017 by two is going to overestimate the 2017 figures).
Finally, I agree with the conclusions that the sharp decrease in the research outputs of Turkey-based academics in relation to the 2016 figures is likely to be due to a combination of factors, especially psychological stresses endured by academics; and not just due to the absolute number of the purged academics, as outlined in the discussion section of the report.
Addition to post (04/08/17): I gave an interview to Santiago Saez of Chemistry World and shared my views on the struggles academics in Turkey face: Turkish crackdown takes toll on academic output. You can also read my views on the mass-scale purges in my Blame anyone but the government post.
PS: Myself and Dr Firat Batmaz from Loughborough University were invited by Dr. Ismail Sezgin to give two interviews (one in English and one in Turkish) on this report and share our thoughts on the state of Turkey-based academia. You can view these below:
Darbe sonrasi Turkiyedeki universiteleri ve akademisyenleri konustuk @mesuturkiye ile#Nuriyeve Semih i de anlattikhttps://t.co/gvVXlkPOGs
— ismail sezgin (@imsezgin) June 10, 2017
We are talking about the situation of Universities and Academics after the purge with @mesuturkiye https://t.co/vo6yxZqN5D
— ismail sezgin (@imsezgin) June 10, 2017
Addition to blog (08/08/2019) – a crude analysis for 2018:
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