Alaattin Duran, the dean of İstanbul University’s Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, was removed from his job several hours after Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate Muharrem İnce paid a visit to the campus on Thursday.
İnce held a public meeting at the Cerrahpaşa campus early on May 24 and vowed to abolish a government-sponsored law to establish 20 new universities across Turkey by dividing up some existing universities. Hundreds of students, academics and staff members attended the meeting, the Turkish media reported.
According to CHP deputy Ali Şeker, the dean was removed from his post by Turkey’s Higher Education Board (YÖK) for “allowing presidential candidate İnce onto the Cerrahpaşa campus.”
Among the universities planned to be split up are İstanbul University, Gazi University, Sakarya University, Anadolu University, Süleyman Demirel University and Afyon Kocatepe University. For weeks, university students and academics around Turkey have been protesting the government’s bill to split up the 10 universities, including the historic İstanbul University.
Last month, Professor Mert Savrun, vice rector of İstanbul University and a faculty member of the Cerrahpaşa School of Medicine, resigned from his post in protest of the proposed legislation. (turkeypurge.com)
