AKP Authoritarians Trying to Dominate Higher Eduction: A Threat to Secularism and to Academic Freedom

Today I saw that the AKP government in Turkey is still trying to impose its will on higher education, by appointing the rectors of new public universities in Turkey.  A lot of such universities are opening and this is an important issue.  It is well established that faculty vote for the Rector in any public university.  AKP is trying to encroach on academic autonomy in order to find jobs for its friends and impose its ideology on Turkish society.  They are good at flying below the radar, in a stealth approach to increasing the social and political influence of religious conservatism in Turkey.