Turkey’s Ministry of Interior has informed academics that they need prior approval before conducting research on Syrian refugees living in the country. In a directive dated April 10 and classified as “secret,” the Higher Education Council (YOK) told teaching staff across Turkish universities that, per the ministry’s decision, they would need permission from “relevant ministries” before conducting any type of survey or fieldwork among Turkey's 2 million Syrian refugees. The ostensible reason behind the decision is to protect the refugees' privacy.

The new regulation, however, promises to be both self-defeating and pointless. The Education and Science Workers’ Union — Egitim-Sen, one of Turkey’s largest teachers’ unions — has threatened to challenge the ministry’s decision in court because it is “a blow to academic activities and freedom.” Even if the Turkish judiciary, which is becoming an extension of the government's executive branch in recent years, upholds the policy, the ban is likely to fail for several reasons.

First, it took less than a month before YOK’s supposedly “secret” letter became public. The leak of a supposed “state secret” shows how seriously some academics view the directive.

The new policy is also pointless because social researchers in Turkey have always needed permission from provincial governors to conduct opinion polls and other surveys. However, when a study involved several thousand respondents in multiple provinces, companies and researchers would ignore the rule for the sake of convenience. The latest restriction risks reinforcing the Turkish habit of state officials imposing draconian rules only for citizens to find creative ways to circumvent them.