Haluk Savaş, a Turkish professor of psychiatry who was expelled from his university by a government decree, has been denied a passport despite the fact that he was acquitted by a court of charges of terrorist organization membership.
Like some 140,000 others removed from their jobs, Savaş was dismissed from his position as a lecturer at Gaziantep University over his alleged ties to the Gülen movement, which the Turkish government accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.
The movement strongly denies any involvement.
He was jailed for months for terrorist organization membership, but the court subsequently acquitted him of all charges, revoking a travel ban that had been imposed on him.
Since he was diagnosed with cancer and Turkish doctors said it was incurable, he wanted to go abroad for proper treatment.
Savaş on Monday posted a series of tweets complaining about the police department, which had refused to issue him a passport due to the government decree.
“I don’t want to spend the remaining nine months of my life mired in bureaucratic correspondence,” he tweeted.
After his tweets, a social media hashtag #HalukSavaşaPasaport (Passport for Haluk Savaş) drew support from various political figures and some purged public servants experiencing same situation.
