Transformation of academy in Turkey in the context of the 1402s issue (1980-1994)

Universities, which began to emerge in the Middle Ages, have witnessed many reforms, innovations and changes in Turkey, starting from the Ottoman period until today. In particular, higher education was significantly affected as a result of the 1980 military coup. Within this framework, a new institution (the Council of Higher Education) was created with broad powers and responsibility for the administration of the university. In a period of martial law and after the establishment of the Council of Higher Education, an institution with the authority to make important decisions regarding the careers of faculty members, many academics were dismissed. This study aims to shed light on the period following the establishment of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) for the restructuring, management and administration of higher education with the Higher Education Law No. 2547 published in the Official Gazette on November 6, 1981, and to reveal the processes experienced by academics whose work was deemed objectionable and who were therefore dismissed, resigned, reassigned, dismissed and reinstated, in short, those who were called 1402, to shed light on the period and to reveal how higher education in Turkey has undergone a transformation in this context. In the study, a qualitative research approach was adopted and data was collected through a semi-structured interview form. Interviews were conducted with academics who were suspended from their duties during the period in question, members of the press who were closely interested in the issue at the time, and university students who were continuing their education. Although many of the post-1980 developments in universities in Turkey, especially the purges of academics in connection with the Martial Law No. 1402, are generally perceived as a problem of law and the rule of law, the interviews conducted and the analysis of the sources examined show that it would be more accurate to consider all these events as the reflections of a major change in understanding regarding the general functioning of states and public administration in Turkey.