On Monday, Turkey’s Higher Education Board (YOK), which governs Turkey’s universities, issued a statement saying that according to amendments to the constitution, ratified by President Abdullah Gul last week, people cannot be deprived of their right to higher education for a temporary or a permanent period of time due to any reason which is not clearly written in the laws.
“The Article 54 of the Higher Education Law openly tells about the circumstances under which a person can be temporarily or permanently restricted from the right to higher education. Therefore, remarks that there is need to make a new legal arrangement to implement this provision of the Constitution are not based on any legal grounds,” the YOK statement said.
On Sunday, YOK chairman Profesor Yusuf Ziya Ozcan issued a directive saying that universities should allow headscarfed women to attend classes.
However, Professor Dr. Mustafa Akaydin, the chairman of the Interuniversity Board (UAK), said the constitutional and other experts were divided over whether the ban had been lifted.
“Universities are confused, and the Higher Education Board is facing difficulties. This is chaos,” Akaydin said Monday after attending an extraordinary meeting of UAK in Antalya. “We have decided not to allow headscarf-clad students on campuses.”
Adding to the confusion Monday, nine members of the Higher Board of Education issued a statement saying that the amendments to Articles 10 and 42 of the constitution did not remove the legal obligation stemming from Constitutional Court jurisprudence on the headscarf, which had also been confirmed by European Court of Justice.
