“Obviously, they were afraid of something here,” said Sinan Ciddi, executive director of the Institute for Turkish Studies at Georgetown University and a panelist.

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Columbia denied it succumbed to pressure, saying its decision was “a direct consequence of irregularities in the planning” for the event, including “a lack of transparency concerning panel participants and insufficient consultation in the steps taken to rectify imbalances” in the panel makeup, according to university spokesman Scott Schell.

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Schell said the Thursday evening event was only postponed, not canceled, and has been rescheduled for April 26 with all previous panelists invited.

One of those panelists, Alp Y. Aslandogan, was the source of the upheaval. Aslandogan is a close associate and frequent spokesman for Fethullah Gulen, 77, a self-exiled Turkish cleric who Turkey has branded a terrorist.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has charged that Gulen, from his home compound in rural Pennsylvania, directs a terrorist network in Turkey that is responsible for a 2016 failed coup attempt.

Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally, has denied the charges but regularly sends fiery videos to Turkey advocating social and political change. His network of about 150 charter schools in the United States, one of which first lady Melania Trump visited last month in Texas, have come under occasional investigation for alleged financial and immigration improprieties.

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A senior Turkish diplomat readily acknowledged making calls to Columbia, once members of the “Turkish American community . . . gave me a heads up” that Aslandogan was scheduled to speak. His participation “is quite unacceptable to us, categorically,” said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under rules set by his government.

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The diplomat denied making to the university any threats or reference to monetary contributions from Turkey. “I just highlighted the importance I attach to freedom of speech and expression, and gave them the background. Long story short, I didn’t threaten them.”

At first, he said, there was no reaction from Columbia. “I was told they were taking note of what we said and would examine the situation. Later on, we learned from friends in the Turkish American community that the event was postponed. Not canceled.”

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Turkey’s protest is undermined, in the view of many, by Erdogan’s record of restricting freedom of expression. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs and many of them have been arrested for alleged association with Gulen. News media outlets have been closed and scores of journalists arrested.

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Last May, Columbia inaugurated the Sakip Sabanci Center for Turkish Studies, funded by a $10 million gift from Sabanci Holding, one of the largest industrial and financial conglomerates in Turkey.

The controversy over the panel comes as President Trump has charged that “American values” are “under siege” at universities that restrict speech inconsistent with their liberal views. Last month, Trump signed an executive order mandating that publicly funded universities uphold the First Amendment and threatened to withhold federal money from those deemed noncompliant.

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The Columbia kerfuffle began last week when one of the sponsors, the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School, and others affiliated with the university withdrew from the event, saying that panel planners failed to include “the diverse perspectives required for our participation.”

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According to Sarah H. Cleveland, faculty co-director of the institute and an initial panelist, last-minute attempts to address those concerns by adding other participants — including Ciddi, the Georgetown professor; a representative from the free expression advocacy group PEN America; and a different Columbia faculty member — were done “unilaterally without consultation” and were “insufficient.”

On Monday evening, university Provost John Coatsworth emailed the Human Rights Foundation, which organized the event, saying that since “faculty are no longer participating” and “the University’s academic institutes have withdrawn their sponsorship,” the panel was being postponed.

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“Concerns raised about the range of perspectives to be presented . . . have led us to this conclusion,” Coatsworth wrote.

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As word spread late Wednesday, criticism flowed. PEN America said it understood concerns about balance, but indications of Turkish interference led to “the perception that decisions may be shaped by government pressure.”

Among the many Columbia alumni who took to social media, former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara tweeted that he wanted to see “a full and honest explanation” from the university, and that “if the Turkish government interfered with a human rights event at @Columbia & the university caved, that’s very troubling.”

Those running the university were glum and defensive, recalling that they had bucked widespread outrage by inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak there in 2007.

“From our perspective,” the administrator said of the Turkey controversy, “it became a really nasty mix of unhappy faculty, a panel that didn’t meet the expectations of the faculty, and institutions” that handled the situation poorly.