Turkish university rejects hosting evolution workshop

DENİZLİ – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photos

“The Evolution School,” a two-day workshop organized by a university club and a local doctors’ chamber, was held at a social hall of tradesmen after the club’s university refused to hold the event. 

While the Pamukkale University in the province of Denizli did not officially refuse to host the event, it verbally stated the event would not be held on its campus, the organizers told Doğan News Agency.

Prof. Gökhan Önem, the head of the Denizli Chamber of Doctors, thanked the university’s Populists Health Group, the co-organizers, at the opening of the event. 

“Of course we received criticism over the meeting but as a person who believes in science, this criticism means nothing,” Önem said. 

The workshop covered presentations on the mechanisms of evolution, the evolution of viruses, reproduction and aging, bringing together Turkish scholars specializing in the subject. The workshop concluded on Dec. 20. 

Evolution is a sensitive issue in Turkey, with some Islamic scholars defending that the theory contradicts with the tenets of Islam.