ANKARA, 19 March 2005 — A law allowing hundreds of thousands of Turkish students thrown out of university to resume their studies came into force yesterday, despite opposition from academics and the country’s secular establishment. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has Islamist roots, has strongly backed the so-called student amnesty law, saying it will give a second chance to students forced to abandon their studies after a 2001 financial crisis.
But secularists are uneasy because it will also allow women expelled for wearing the Islamic-style headscarf to return to university. The AKP counters the strict ban on headscarves at university will remain in force so any girls returning to their studies will still have to remove their scarves.
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a staunch secularist, had originally vetoed the law on technical grounds, saying any amnesty required the support of three-fifths of the members in the 550-seat Parliament. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan personally intervened in this week’s renewed debate on the bill and helped ensure it passed unchanged but this time with sufficient support from deputies.
Sezer signed it into law on Thursday evening. He could still appeal to the Constitutional Court or even call a referendum on the issue but that now seems unlikely. He has made no public reference to the headscarf issue. But the head of Turkey’s higher education board, Erdogan Tezic, signaled his continued disquiet yesterday, saying politicians should not meddle in the universities.
Academics fear that the amnesty will dilute standards and strain universities’ limited financial resources. Critics of the bill have long argued it is a purely populist measure designed to bolster support for the AKP. Estimates suggest between 224,000 and 650,000 students will benefit from the amnesty, the 10th of its kind since a 1980 military coup which established the present structure of higher education in Turkey.
Meanwhile, the risk of fresh landslides was impeding rescue workers in efforts to find 15 people who were buried in their houses when a landslide hit a mountain village in northeastern Turkey, the Anatolia news agency said yesterday. More than 20 houses were buried on Thursday when a hillside gorged by heavy rain collapsed onto the village of Sugozu in Sivas province, a region known for its mushy ground.
Fifteen people were missing and nine were injured in the disaster, but their lives are not at risk, the crisis center in Ankara said. Dozens of rescuers were immediately sent to the area along with earth-moving machines, but they have been forced to stand by since late Thursday for fear their efforts may cause the earth to move again.
Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener told reporters during a visit to the village that water had flooded the landslide area, forming a pond 15 to 20 meters (50 to 66 feet) deep. “It looks as if an attempt to remove the earth would cause a (new) landslide,” the minister said in televised remarks. “Experts will evaluate the situation and rescuers will begin work as soon as the coast is clear, technically.”
Sener, flanked by Housing and Civil Works Minister Zeki Ergezen, said the government would help villagers pick up the pieces after the landslide, but also announced plans to relocate the village, which is located about 400 kilometers northeast of Ankara. “All the houses and barns will be rebuilt,” Ergezen said.
