Prof. Dr. Mustafa Cüneyt Hoşcoşkun, the former Ege University rector who dismissed 11 academics from the same university in post-coup purge, was removed from his job as part of the government’s new emergency decrees. The new decrees, published in the Official Gazette on Friday and numbered 693 and 694, dismissed another 120 academics from their jobs, among them is Hoşcoşkun.
The number of academics who lost their jobs since the controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016 rose to 8,693, of whom 11 were dismissed after Hoşcoikun blacklisted them after he assumed the office on August 12, 2016.
Hoşcoşkun came forth in an intra-university elections on July 12, 2016, however President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed him as the rector of İzmir’s Ege University a month after. On February 28, 2017, Hoşcoşkun was suspended over his alleged links to the Gülen movement. On Firday, he was dismissed permanently.
According to media, 39 students were also suspended from the university during his term.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup. (turkeypurge.com)
