ANKARA, Turkey—Cracking down on alleged subversives in education, Turkey said Wednesday that it will close more than 600 private schools and dormitories following an attempted coup, spurring fears that the state’s move against perceived enemies is throwing key institutions in the NATO ally into disarray.
The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it has fired nearly 22,000 education ministry workers, mostly teachers, taken steps to revoke the licenses of 21,000 other teachers at private schools and sacked or detained half a dozen university presidents in a campaign to root out alleged supporters of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed for the botched insurrection on Friday.
The targeting of education ties in with Erdogan’s belief that the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whose followers run a worldwide network of schools, seeks to infiltrate the Turkish education system and other institutions in order to bend the country to his will. The cleric’s movement, which espouses moderation and multi-faith harmony, says it is a scapegoat for what it describes as the president’s increasingly autocratic conduct.
