The Turkish Parliament will begin its new session on Tuesday, focusing on legislation and regulations related to student amnesty and the terror-free Türkiye initiative.
The amnesty aims to help students who dropped out of university for various reasons resume their studies.
All former students who were dismissed from universities at the undergraduate, associate degree, undergraduate completion and graduate levels, including preparatory classes, will be granted the right to re-enroll.
Under the regulation before Parliament, eligible students will begin attending classes in the 2026-2027 academic year. Those wishing to benefit from the amnesty will be required to apply to their former universities within four months after the law enters into force. Students who have been conscripted will be given the opportunity to apply within two months of their discharge.
Those dismissed from the Police Academy, the Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy, and military schools affiliated with the National Defense University will not be covered by the amnesty.
Parliament will also discuss measures against those who hire ghostwriters to produce their university theses. Those who use publications and works produced by others, either for payment or free of charge, without relying on their own personal effort and accumulated knowledge to obtain appointments, promotions, titles or academic degrees, as well as those who carry out such acts on behalf of others or facilitate them, will also be subject to dismissal from the profession.
Individuals who obtain an associate, undergraduate or graduate degree or an academic title through works such as theses, articles, books or projects that they have had partially or entirely written or produced by others, whether for payment or free of charge, beyond their own personal effort and academic knowledge, will be dismissed from the university teaching profession. The academic degrees and titles obtained through such means will also be revoked.
Another regulation before Parliament proposes raising the mandatory retirement age for academics from 67 to 72 in a bid to extend their contributions to the scientific community. A related bill will also pave the way for public universities in Türkiye to establish academic units, facilities or campuses abroad.
Parliament will also focus on the terror-free Türkiye initiative this week. The initiative to disarm the terrorist group PKK gained momentum last week after Parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş held separate talks with representatives of political parties on what has been described as a “framework law” to ensure the legitimacy of the process.
Kurtulmuş is expected to hold a meeting with representatives of all parties on a parliamentary committee established to advance the initiative. Throughout the week, lawmakers will work to put the finishing touches on a draft bill on the matter and hope to enact it before Parliament’s summer recess.
