Turkey coup attempt: Academics banned from going abroad

Turkey has temporarily banned all academics from travelling abroad, officials say.

The move follows last week's failed coup and comes amid a wide-ranging purge of state employees.
More than 50,000 people have been rounded up, sacked or suspended, including about 21,000 teachers.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is chairing meetings of his national security council and cabinet in the capital, Ankara.
It is the first time since he has returned to the city after the attempted coup on Friday.
The BBC's Nick Thorpe in Ankara says that the meeting will be the president's first chance since the coup attempt to sit and talk in person with all key members of the government and armed forces.
Mr Erdogan's task is to re-impose stability amid the turmoil, our correspondent adds, and to reassure Turkey and its allies abroad that he is not embarking on a witch-hunt against his many critics.
So far about 1,577 university deans (faculty heads) have been asked to resign in addition to 21,000 teachers and 15,000 education ministry officials.
As soon as it became clear that the coup had failed, the purges began - first with the security forces, then spreading to Turkey's entire civilian infrastructure.
Turkey extended the clear-out to the education sector because it says it wants to root out supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it accuses of organising the attempted putsch.
The Higher Education Council has asked university rectors to "urgently examine the situation of all academic and administrative personnel" linked to what it calls the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (Feto) and report back by 5 August.
It has also told universities that academics who are already abroad on work or study missions should return home "within the shortest possible time".
A government official told the Reuters news agency that the ban on academics travelling abroad was a temporary measure implemented to stop alleged coup plotters in universities from fleeing abroad.

Turkey is pressing the US to extradite Mr Gulen and the issue was raised during a phone call between US President Barack Obama and President Erdogan on Tuesday, the White House said.
Spokesman Josh Earnest said a decision on whether or not to extradite would be made under a treaty between the two countries.
In a separate development Turkey has barred access to the WikiLeaks website soon after it posted about 300,000 emails sent by President Erdogan's AK Party dating from 2000 to early July 2016.
Wikileaks said that although the documents were obtained before the attempted coup, the date of their publication was brought forward "in response to the government's post-coup purges".
The source of the emails was not linked to the coup plotters or to a rival political party or country, WikiLeaks said.
Turkey's military also announced on Wednesday that it had resumed cross-border strikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, killing about 20 alleged militants. They were the first since the attempted coup.
F-16 jets were reported to have targeted positions of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq's Hakurk region, Anadolu Agency reported.
The Turkish military has regularly targeted suspected PKK bases in Iraq since last year.

SOURCE:BBC NEWS