On 'Yellow Envelopes'

If you wish, let us first provide a reminder regarding the question, “What is a Yellow Envelope?”

In general, in the public sector or corporate companies, a yellow envelope sent to an employee by a supervisor or human resources is the most common indicator that a disciplinary investigation has been opened, a defense is requested, or a warning/reprimand penalty may be issued. 

However, in more extreme cases, the yellow envelope is the envelope containing the letter notifying employees—especially those in public institutions who ruffle the feathers of the establishment—that their employment has been terminated.

I was reminded of the subject of yellow envelopes again because of the film "Yellow Envelopes" (Sarı Zarflar), starring Özgü Namal and Tansu Biçer. 

Because many faculty members who were removed from their universities following the September 12, 1980, Military Coup in Turkey were also introduced to the yellow envelope. 

I was one of them.

What is the film Yellow Envelopes about?

The film tells the drama faced by an artist couple, Derya and Aziz, who lose their jobs after a theater play they staged.

In the film, the couple, having lost their jobs and their home, are forced to move to Istanbul to live with Aziz's mother along with their 13-year-old daughter, Ezgi. In this temporary shelter, Aziz tries to survive with odd jobs while remaining determined not to compromise his ethical values. Derya, meanwhile, finds herself on the verge of difficult decisions while looking for a way to get the family out of their current situation. In this process filled with uncertainties, as the distance between them and their daughter Ezgi gradually grows, the couple will have to make a choice between the values they defend and their shared future.

Didn't Yellow Envelopes Happen in Universities Too? 

Almost all of the faculty members who were removed from their universities in Turkey with the September 12, 1980, Military Coup were individuals who were interested in national and global issues, who advocated for the brotherhood of all nations of the world on the basis of full independence and in the manner envisioned by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and who tried to realize this thought through their actions.

However, because of this perspective, they would be removed from their universities for a time by the September 12 Military Administration. 

Because the September 12 Military Administration was carried out with the aim of integrating the Turkish economy into the global capitalist system at a higher level under the guidance of American Imperialism. 

Universities would also get their share of the coup. 

Termination of duty was carried out in two ways. The first was through Martial Law Law No. 1402 and was applied to tenured associate professors and professors. 

The second was with the enacted Law No. 2547 on the “Higher Education Council (YÖK),” which introduced fixed-term contracts for assistants (now called research assistants), and patriotic, nationalist assistants were purged based on this law. 

It was no coincidence that İhsan Doğramacı was brought to the head of the “Higher Education Council” to implement the YÖK Law. 

In this context, I would like to summarize who the yellow envelopes were sent to at Ege University alone.

From the Faculty of Agriculture; Mustafa Kaymakçı, Tayfun Özkaya, Bülent Pekerten, Hikmet Soya, M. Süer Anaç, Tayyar Bora; from the Faculty of Science; Abdullah Kızılırmak, Mehmet Sabancı, Rennan Pekünlü, Reha Pekerten, Hale Pekerten; from the Faculty of Medicine; patriotic faculty members such as Hasan Miri and Veli Lök were removed from their duties. 

Apart from the aforementioned faculty members, a segment of faculty members resigned on their own, thinking that they would not be able to find work in the market later if they were removed from their positions.

Almost all of those whose employment was terminated were children of the people who had to look for work. However, when they were expelled from their universities, the companies they applied to would first say they would accept them, but later, after conducting their own investigations, they would not give them jobs. It was said that some of the university administrators of the period engaged in baseless whistleblowing in those days. 

Those removed from their universities would try to earn their bread through jobs such as mushroom farming, agriculture, carpet weaving, teaching in courses, and tutoring.

Mustafa Kaymakçı would also find a job in Ankara when his employment in İzmir was blocked due to the baseless denunciations of informants who found his thoughts objectionable. He left his wife and children in İzmir and opened the company's office in Ankara. In fact, the job he would do was marketing in Central Anatolia, Çukurova, and the Black Sea Region. They had given him a Kartal brand car.

Removal from duty would also cause trauma for most faculty members.

There were also faculty members whose health was affected. Mehmet Sabancı, a friend of Mustafa Kaymakçı from İzmir Atatürk High School, was one of them. He returned to his post by court order and earned the title of professor through his own merit, but he was sent to eternity due to an illness brought on by the stress of the years.

A portion of those whose employment was terminated at Ege University by the September 12 Military Coup returned to their universities 5-6 years later with court decisions.

Resisting Yellow Envelopes

Like most faculty members who encountered a yellow envelope, I also showed resistance and tried to carry out the following stages together with my lawyer.(*)

What are these?

I learned my legal rights and tried to record the process. I requested written documents regarding the accusations directed at me or the grounds for my removal from my job. 

I used my right to a concrete defense by applying to the administrative court. In this context, I learned the relevant laws and expressed that the principle of continuity in civil service should be taken into account. I prepared an objective defense text containing concrete evidence that research and courses would be disrupted by my removal from my institution.

I maintained professional and ethical boundaries. I learned that the strongest way to stand against the pressures or unlawful orders of institutions is not to compromise your professional principles. I remained strictly loyal to written rules while performing my duty.

I was in material and moral solidarity with my friends and professors who shared the same fate against despondency. I came together with them. I exchanged ideas.

I filed a criminal complaint against the Ege University administrator who did not comply with court decisions. At the end of a 5-year period, the administrative court reinstated me. Because the courts had requested concrete documents from the institution regarding the dismissal. For instance; “Is he doing irregular work in his duty, is he unsuccessful? Has he done things contrary to the institution's laws?” The institution could not show concrete documents. When these were not the case, a reinstatement decision was made.

The university did not reinstate me at first. Upon this, I requested the implementation of the court decision with a petition to the Public Prosecutor. I had learned this: ”According to Article 138 of the Constitution, implementing a court decision is a legal necessity for legislative, executive, and administrative bodies and all citizens. Not implementing or delaying court decisions is a crime.”

Will There Always Be Yellow Envelopes?

Let us conclude our article as follows. Whether in bourgeois democracies or in externally dependent peripheral countries, “Yellow Envelopes” seem to always continue their existence. In this context, the job of those who take a stance against imperial capitalism in peripheral countries is more difficult.

However, let us know how to resist and not lose our conscious hope. There is no other way to create a beautiful, livable world.

*******

(*) Following my removal from my post with the “Higher Education Council (YÖK)” Law No. 2547 brought by the September 12 Military Coup, I carried out the stages I mentioned in my resistance with my friend and lawyer İbrahim İşsever and, as a result of a 5-year struggle, obtained the opportunity to return to my university with two court decisions. However, the university administrator of the period did not implement the court decision. There was only one thing left for me to do. In those years, with the guidance of my friend Kemal Anadol, whose parliamentary membership was terminated by the September 12 Military Administration, I filed a criminal complaint and a compensation lawsuit against the Rector who did not want to implement the court decision to Bornova Prosecutor Ayhan Sun, who was a classmate from Ankara University Faculty of Law. The subject also found space in the newspapers. First, the Law Warrior Professor Mümtaz Soysal mentioned the subject in his column titled “Açı” (Angle) in Milliyet under the headline “Anarchy.” Soysal wrote that Ege Faculty of Agriculture Dr. Mustafa Kaymakçı had been fired twice, that he had been reinstated by the İzmir 1st Administrative Court, but that the Ege University Rectorate did not comply with the decision, and that the greatest anarchy would arise from the state not implementing court decisions. After a while, the administration had to reinstate me. (See: Mustafa Kaymakçı, 2023, Memories and Thought World of a '68 Immigrant Scientist from Rhodes to İzmir. Dağarcık Türkiye Publications, İzmir, pp. 111-120)