Turkish professor commits suspicious suicide at family house

ISTANBUL

Gökhan Budak. AA Photo

A university rector commits suicide at his family home in the eastern province of Erzurum over the weekend, raising doubts about the reasons that might have led to the professor’s death.

Bayburt University Rector Professor Gökhan Budak, 45, received medicine early in the morning of Jan. 26 at his house in Erzurum, where he was living with his wife and two sons, according to media reports. He later reportedly cut his wrists and jumped from the fourth floor. Budak was hospitalized but died at the hospital despite efforts made by doctors. Budak’s wife, sons and mother-in-law were in the house when he committed suicide. Turkish police have launched an investigation into the incident.

Budak’s suicide was seen as suspicious as he was a happy person with a joyous personality, according to his friends. “We are shocked. He was not such a person [to commit suicide]. He had no problems with his family or with the university’s personnel,” Fatih Akbaş, Bayburt University’s head of the Personnel Department told daily Radikal. Akbaş also said Budak had many projects on his mind. His family also reportedly claimed Budak had no problems at all. Budak became rector of Bayburt University three months ago. His new job came after he resigned from his job as deputy rector at Ağrı University along with two other colleagues in 2010, daily Hürriyet reported.

On April 16, 2010, Ağrı Governor Mehmet Çetin resigned from his post reporting the health problems of his daughter as a reason, and he settled in Eskişehir. Two months later, three deputy rectors of Ağrı University, including Budak, resigned, citing family issues. In 2010, Budak said he had responsibilities to his two sons and that he could not accomplish them with the traffic between his job in Ağrı and home in Erzurum. Budak, who specialized in nuclear physics, had also served as the president of Erzurum Atatürk University’s physics department for more than six years. He had won many awards and published papers in international magazines as a physicist.