Universities announced their support for a sustained democracy and vowed to remove Gülenists from their cadres following a failed coup attempt by suspected Gülenist military officers last week. The Board of Higher Education (YÖK) held a convention of university presidents yesterday. YÖK and university administrations issued a joint statement following the event in the capital Ankara.

"Universities and the entire academic body condemn this bloody assault on Turkey's democratic system. This was an illegal attempt to seize power by a network of terrorists that the president and the government sought to weed out from the state's structure," the joint statement said.

The statement said the Turkish public wanted democracy and rule based on the public will "that helped an increase in the number of universities, in scientific development, in investment to develop Turkey's own national technology." Academics said those who staged the coup attempt should be punished, adding the "parallel structure" within the state (a reference to the Gülenist infiltrators) had "extensions" within the academic world. "Those are the biggest enemies of free and scientific thought and they cannot be allowed to thwart the country's scientific and technological improvement." The joint statement said universities were supportive of a "democratic, parliamentary system" and would put their words "into action."

The Gülen Movement started out as a religious group before evolving into a powerful, politically charged entity and later into a terrorist organization that experts say depended on education to both advance its ideology as well as swell its funds. Gülenist academics were reported among the academic cadres of several state-run universities while the shady group is also directly linked to universities run by foundations close to the movement's leader Fethullah Gülen.

Professor Mahmut Özer, who heads the Inter-University Board overseeing the appointment of academics, said they "strongly" condemned the coup attempt and universities would always side "with the public" and "fulfill their responsibilities" to that extent. Speaking to the media, the university presidents said they would execute the necessary legal procedures to remove Gülenists from among their staff.