As part of the crackdown following last month's attempted coup, Turkish police have raided the national science research council's offices, Reuters reports.
It cites NTV, the television broadcaster, as reporting that many people were detained in the raid on the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Tubitak), Reuters notes Tubitak employs more than 1,500 researchers and funds research at universities and in the private sector.
More than 60,000 people have been detained, suspended, or placed under investigation in the aftermath of the coup attempt, including people working in the military, judiciary, civil service, and education, Reuters adds.
ScienceInsider recently reported that teachers and academic deans in the country have been suspended and that universities have been instructed to recall Turkish academics from abroad. "They want to take the universities under their full control," Sinem Arslan, a Turk pursuing PhD in political science at the University of Essex told ScienceInsider. "Academic freedoms will no longer exist. I don't think that anybody will be able to work on research areas that are considered taboo by the government or write anything that criticizes the government."
The Turkish government says followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who lives in the US in self-imposed exile, organized the coup attempt, Reuters adds, noting that Gulen denies it and has condemned the attempt.