Turkey Beyond Borders: Critical Voices, New Perspectives

We began the Turkey Beyond Borders project in March 2020 by pointing out the severe restrictions and violations of academic freedoms in Turkey since 2015, which was reported by several international organisations such as the European Universities Association (EUA), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Amnesty International. Nevertheless, academic violations in Turkey continue in full force. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset’s Academic Freedom Index in 2020 listed Turkey in the E category, along with countries including China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Sudan.

A closer look at the historical changes in the academic freedom index in Turkey shows a sharp decline in freedom of academic and cultural expression, research and teaching, academic exchange and dissemination, institutional autonomy, and campus integrity. Turkey Beyond Borders: Critical Voices, New Perspectives 2.0 aims to continue to act as a platform for scholars to freely share their knowledge and expertise on topics, including civil-military relations, gender politics, environmental degradation, the Kurdish question, and the Alevi question among many others.


The project is led by Dr. Pinar Dinc (Lund University & The Swedish Institute of International Affairs). We collaborate with the IPS Communication Foundation (Bianet). We also have a new advisory board composed of academics from/based in Turkey, Sweden, and the rest of Europe.