Dismissed civil servants continue fight to restore rights in Turkey
In recent weeks, Ankara has eased travel restrictions for some citizens prosecuted in Turkey’s post-coup crackdown, yet thousands of dismissed civil servants continue to struggle for their right to work.
ISTANBUL — Ali Riza Gungen has been fighting to get his job back since he was dismissed in November 2016. Once a professor of economics at 19 Mayis University in Samsun, he was among more than 800 academics prosecuted for signing a peace petition opposing military operations in the nation’s southeast that year.
Gungen and many other signatories were acquitted of terror-related charges in September, but he has been unable to recover his former position. Like most civil servants dismissed after the 2016 coup attempt, he was also restricted from traveling abroad. He has been pursuing legal avenues to get his passport reinstated.
“I applied for the reinstatement [of my job],” Gungen told Al-Monitor. “It’s been almost three and a half years. I went to the inquiry commission on state of emergency measures. I applied to the European Court of Human Rights. I applied everywhere and I am still trying, but I could not stay in Turkey under such conditions.”
In early February, Gungen was issued a valid passport and days later joined his wife in Vancouver, Canada, where she has relocated for work after facing similar difficulties in her academic career in Turkey.
