Nov 7, 2016

When the Turkish government called for a state of emergency six days after the failed coup attempt of July 15, many critics of the government, including this journalist, supported the move, given that the nation had just confronted a lethal threat. As the state of emergency unfolded, however, some of these initial supporters, again including this one, began to change their minds primarily for two reasons.

First, the crackdown against suspected coup plotters turned into a witch hunt, which sunk to the level of raiding one of the country's few remaining critical newspapers. Second, with a plenitude of executive orders and the rendering of the Turkish parliament as practically ineffective, the government hastened its ambition of building a political system based on an excessive concentration of power. A perfect example of the latter is Executive Order 676, issued Oct. 30. Among other things, it gives the Turkish president the power to appoint all rectors, the top executives of universities. In short, all Turkish universities — even the private ones — have thus been brought under the full control of the president.

This might be too mind-boggling for Western readers to fathom. In the West, especially in the United States, universities are autonomous institutions. Even if state-run, they are more or less immune from political intervention by the government. If they are private, the government has no say in their administration. What has been introduced in Turkey is the exact opposite. It is comparable to the president of the United States appointing the presidents of all universities in his nation, from Harvard to UCLA and institutions north and south.

Of course, Turkey has never had a political system as decentralized as that of the United States, and Turkish universities have never been fully independent. Before the executive order in question, all state and private universities had been under the control of the Higher Education Board (YOK), whose head is appointed by the president. The president also had the right to appoint the rectors of all state universities, based on YOK recommendations but also ostensibly on the results of intra-university elections in which academics voted for their colleagues seeking the office. Meanwhile private universities were more independent, with boards of trustees choosing rectors with the blessing of the YOK.

Two major changes have now been introduced. First, the intra-university elections at state universities are a thing of the past. The president will simply appoint whomever he wants, without a feedback mechanism involving academics. Second, and more stunning, the president will appoint the rectors of private universities. The latter’s boards of trustees will only be able to make suggestions to the YOK, which will defer the final decision to the president.