A former teacher dismissed under a government decree following a failed coup in Turkey in 2016 has been barred from working as a school bus driver, in a move attracting sharp criticism from human rights advocates and opposition lawmakers, the Velev news website reported.
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a member of parliament from the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), posted a government letter on social media ordering the removal of Burhan Çelebi, a former teacher, from his job as a school bus driver in the southern town of Manavgat in Antalya province.
Gergerlioğlu condemned the latest incident in a strongly worded post on X.
“This is disgraceful. Are you Nazis? This is a document of insult to the nation,” he wrote. “What should this teacher eat, rocks? Shame on you!”
School buses are private businesses; however, their methods of operation are determined and regulated by the Ministry of Education. According to the regulations, the ministry does not have authority over who can work as a driver.
The official document, signed by Manavgat District Education Director Ali Hakan Öz, cited a “previous dismissal from public service” as justification for the decision. It called for Çelebi to be “urgently replaced” from his role transporting children to a special education school.
Following the abortive putsch, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as some 24,000 members of the armed forces, were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
While the charges against Çelebi that resulted in his conviction are unknown, the post-coup purge targeted members of the faith-based Gülen movement, a sizeable number of Kurds and a small group of left-wing activists.
Former public servants were not only fired from their jobs; they were also banned from working again in the public sector and getting a passport. The government also made it difficult for them to work formally in the private sector. Notes were put on the social security database about dismissed public servants to deter potential employers.
