The aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt has sparked a migration flurry among educated Turks amid crackdowns on media freedoms and free speech, arbitrary restrictions on property and work rights, and growing talk of a looming economic crisis and even a civil war. Many of those leaving the country are academics, expelled overnight from universities via legislative decrees, journalists out of work and under the threat of imprisonment, and members of non-Muslim minorities who feel increasingly insecure.

Since the state of emergency was declared soon after the botched coup, 3,500 academics, one-fifth of them professors, have been expelled from universities across the country through two legislative decrees issued by the government. They include scores of scholars who had signed a peace declaration in January, urging Ankara to stop the military crackdown in the mainly Kurdish southeast and seek a negotiated settlement to the conflict. The signatories had already faced probes for spreading “terrorist propaganda,” and some were quick to seek safety abroad before things got even worse after the coup attempt.

One of them, currently employed by a university in the United States, told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “I left Turkey because of threats and fear of imprisonment. I’m still afraid despite being so far away. I’m now worried for my colleagues in Turkey, and have been having sleepless nights since October. Primary and secondary education in Turkey was already finished, now higher education is finished as well.”

Another signatory of the peace declaration attempted to go abroad after being expelled in the wake of the putsch, but was not that lucky. Fearing unemployment and imprisonment, the academic said she sought help from the Scholars at Risk network and was offered a position at a German university. She was unable to go, however, as she was slapped with a travel ban.