President Erdoğan appoints personal doctor as rector of new health university

Meltem Özgenç - ANKARA

DHA Photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appointed his personal doctor, Prof. Dr. Cevdet Erdöl, who is also a Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy, as the rector of Turkey’s newly opened Health Sciences University.

The new Istanbul-based university will control all training and research hospitals across the country, but the appointment of Erdöl has drawn criticism over attempted “politicization” of university administrations. 

The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) strongly criticized the appointment, saying such decisions are examples of the AKP’s efforts to rule over every aspect of life. 

“The naming a political figure as the rector of a university is a typical example of the AKP’s moves to control everything. The people who study in the Health Sciences University will be appointed to training and research hospitals across the country and these hospitals will therefore come under the control of the party,” TBB head Beyazıt İlhan told daily Hürriyet. 

"The Health Sciences University has been designed to be under the political will of the government … The hospital’s board of trustees will be headed by the undersecretary of the Health Ministry, while the management board has been designated by the political authority. The naming of Cevdet Erdöl, who has been part of the AKP since its founding, who participated in parliament as a deputy for three consecutive terms, who headed parliament’s heath commission, and who enabled this university to be established despite all criticisms, openly shows that the AKP has designed the university as its backyard,” İlhan added.