Expelled Turkish academic returns to Ankara University as an undergraduate

Gamze Kolcu – ANKARA

A former research assistant at Ankara University’s Faculty of Law, who was dismissed with a state of emergency decree, is returning to his university – but this time as an undergraduate student of journalism after taking the university entrance exam.

“Entering the Cebeci [campus of Ankara University] again will give me happiness, but it will also sadden me as many academics have been expelled and the university has lost its qualification as a ‘university,’” Dr. Cenk Yiğiter said. 

The former academic was expelled from the university on Jan. 6 after signing the Academics for Peace petition which criticized security operations in the southeast. 

Yiğiter tweeted to Ankara University Rector Erkan İbiş after learning he would be reentering the university as a student. 

“I have learned the result of my LYS [national university exam] Mr. @profdrErkanibis. It has become definite that I will be a student of the İLEF [faculty of communication]. How are the preparations going?” he tweeted on July 11.

“@profdrErkanibis opened six investigations against me while I was an academic. How many investigations will he launch while I’m a student in the first year, let me take estimations,” he added.

Speaking to daily Hürriyet, Yiğiter said the Cebeci campus was a “very special place for me.”

“Without any hesitation, I entered Ankara University’s Faculty of Law as my first choice. But my life on the Cebeci [campus] that started as an undergraduate student and continued as an academic ended in January 2017 with my expulsion after 20 years. Cebeci [campus] is a very special place for me,” he said.

“More than half of the academics at the faculty of communication, where I will be a student, have been expelled. So I do not think I will get a very high quality education, but I look forward to Rector İbiş coming to the campus while I’m there as a student,” Yiğiter added. 

Meanwhile, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Ceyhun İrgil, a member of parliament’s Education Commission, has presented a motion to Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz demanding that he answer how many academics have been left unemployed during the state of emergency period and how many have been reinstated to their position following the relevant investigations. 

“To rectify errors made in expulsions, how many commissions have been set up at universities and how many academics have returned to their jobs following the works of these commissions?” İrgil asked.