The International Association of Health Policies (IAHP) stands in support of two of their board members of the European region and members of ‘‘Academics for Peace’’ and Education and Science Workers Union (EğitimSEN), who were discharged...
moreThe International Association of Health Policies (IAHP) stands in support of two of their board members of the European region and members of ‘‘Academics for Peace’’ and Education and Science Workers Union (EğitimSEN), who were discharged from their positions at public higher institutions in Turkey! Turkey experienced a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, and the Turkish government holds the religious group led by the US resident cleric Fethullah Gülen responsible. In the aftermath of the failed coup the Government and university administrations have ordered for the dismissal of 42,881 state employees, especially in the Ministry of Education, but also at universities, where 2,346 employees were discharged. The latest mass purge imposed on the basis of a cabinet decree within the context of the state of emergency rule (September 1, 2016), included more than 41 Peace Petition signatories that were deemed ‘‘supporters of terrorism’’ and banned from public service. In January 2016, 2,218 scholars from Turkey signed a petition titled ‘‘We will not be a party to this crime,’’ also known as the Peace Petition, which demanded Turkey’s state to abandon its deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region. Since then the signatories (‘‘Academics for Peace’’) have been subject to heavy pressure and persecution and have faced criminal and disciplinary investigations, custody, imprisonment, or violent threats. The dismissal of the 41 Peace Petition signatories and Education and Science Workers Union (Eğitim-SEN) members in the latest mass purge, among them International Journal of Health Services 2017, Vol. 47(2) 382–383 ! The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0020731417692662 journals.sagepub.com/home/joh