An unidentified Turkish teacher with 35.5 years of experience in education, according to his own telling, has had to make a living as a farmer at a small olive grove since he was dismissed from his job by a Turkish govenrnment’s executive decree under the state of emergency declared in the aftermath of a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
A video that has recently emerged on social media shows the dismissed veteran teacher elaborating on his life after his dismissal from the job.
According to the Turkish Education Ministry, 33,074 educators and administrative staff have been dismissed from the ministry (MEB) through the arbitrary executive decrees under the state of emergency declared in the wake of the controversial coup attempt last year. 4,756 of these dismissed teachers and personnel were sent to prison.
Moreover, the licences of 22,474 teachers, who were working at private education institutions, were also arbitrarily and collectively revoked by the government. However, the licences of 2,182 teachers were restored later.
More than 130,000 people have lost their job in the government’s post-coup purge of state institutions.
A controversial military coup attempt on July 15 killed over 240 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with 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 participants of the Gülen movement in jails.
According to a statement from Turkey’s Justice Ministry on July 13, a total of 50,510 people have been arrested while 169,013 others have been the subject of legal proceedings since the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 on coup charges. (SCF with turkeypurge.com) July 13, 2017
[VIDEO] Teacher with 35.5 years of experience working as farmer after dismissal || https://t.co/jhZLZXddGI pic.twitter.com/2gW2SqPM7A
— Turkey Purge (@TurkeyPurge) July 13, 2017
