A Seized University: The Canik-Basari University-Samsun

A Seized University: The Canik-Basari University-Samsun

Abstract

Canik Basari University is a foundation university which started in 2012 in Canik district of Samsun. In July 2016, it was service with 70 academics and 2220 students. The University had four faculties; Faculty of Education, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Faculty of Architecture and Engineering; two postgraduate institutes and four research centres. The University was serving the national and foreign students with its modern buildings and well-prepared educational programs. The University became a target for Erdogan supporter after the police operations in December 2013 against corruptions of the Government. Pro-government national and local media made much fake and fabricated news against the University. In June 2016, the Trustee Board of founding foundation of the university was dismissed and on July 21, 2016, the Rector was dismissed and replaced with a new one.

Canik Basari University was closed on 23 July 2016 by a decree based on the State of Emergency. Numerous operations were conducted targeting university founders, managers and employees. Almost all academics were detained and some were imprisoned. In two separate court cases, 48 university employees were sentenced to a total of 2781 months and 19 days (231 years and 8 months). The detention of some employees, including the Rector, continues. All employees lost their jobs and were sentenced to civilian death. Students had to move to other universities and some of them could not continue their education. Many students had to move to different departments. The scholarships granted by Canik Basari University were discontinued and they were excluded from their new universities. These victimizations have not been remedied in the last three years. The University Buildings were empty for two years. Two years later, a new state university was established in the university buildings, but all the equipment and movables of Canik Basari University were pillaged by the guarantor university.

General Information about the University

Canik Basari University was founded in the Canik District of Samsun, a city on the Black Sea, and served as a foundation university between 2012 and 2016. The Basari Education, Culture and Health Foundation merged with the Tanriverdi Education, Culture and Aid Foundation and together they laid the foundations for the foundation of this university on 10 June 2009. The founding members were the minister Suat Kilic, Fuat Köktas, club chairman of the soccer club Samsunspor and at the same time a Parliament Member, the Tanriverdi Brothers (well-known businessmen), Yusuf Ziya Yilmaz (Mayor of Samsun Metropolitan Municipality), the Mayor of the Canik District Osman Genc and many well-known personalities from different professions. The campus was established in 2012 in the eastern part of Samsun, Canik, overlooking the sea. In the same year, the campus was put into operation. More precisely, in Gurgenyatak, where blue and green meet. The campus housed modern educational and administrative buildings as well as sports and social complexes. In its short history, many foreign students were also enrolled at the university. Exchange programs and cooperation took place with numerous foreign universities.^[1]

When the doors of the university were locked on 23 July 2016, 70 academics and 2,220 students were present. Erasmus projects actively involved exchange programmes with European countries.^[2]

After the closure, the university buildings were transferred to Samsun Ondokuzmayis University which is the guarantor university and kept empty for about two years. Later, university buildings were allocated to the newly established Samsun University. In the meantime, the distribution of goods in the university’s all movable assets of the university was plundered by the management of the University revealed.^[3] The state’s mind has succeeded in rebuilding a new university in the same buildings after having closed a highly successful university and wasted all its equipment!

Educational units:

Faculties
- Faculty of Education
- Sciences and Literature
- Economics
- Engineering and Architecture
Units Subordinate to the Rector
- Centre of History and Atatürk Principles and Revolutions
- Centre of Turkish Language Teaching
- Department of Informatics
- School of Foreign Languages
Postgraduate Institutions
- Institute for Social Sciences
- Institute for Natural Sciences

Research Centres
- Centre for Permanent Education, Application and Research
- Research and Application Center for the Alliance of Civilizations
- Application and Research Centre of Honey
- Application and Research Centre for Children’s Literature

The Pressures before Closure

Since 2014 enormous attacks and smear campaigns have been carried out against this university through the media controlled by Erdogan. Numerous negative written and visual reports were made. These media were based on the statements of a mafia boss.^[4],^[5] The university’s legitimate claims were denied by state authorities and services were suspended by the state. It was decided that this institution, like many others, would disappear of its own accord. However, until its closure, the university has allowed itself to be attacked.

Front view of the Rectorate building

After June 2016, trustees were appointed by the government to take over the management of this foundation university. On the 21^st of this month, a court in Samsun appointed a new Trustee Board for the Tanriverdi Foundation and nine days later for the second founding foundation, Basari Education, Culture and Health Foundation.^[6] The university was also handed over to a trustee. The pro-government media announced these decisions to the public with great enthusiasm.^[7] On 21 June 2016, the trustees removed Rector Prof. Dr. Yunus Bekdemir from office and replaced him with another academic.^[8]

Canik Başarı Üniversitesinin son Facebook sayfası

The Victimizations after 15 July 2016

Immediately after the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, the rector of the University, Prof. Dr. Y. Bekdemir, published a statement defending democracy and deeply condemning the coup attempt. But for whatever reason this has depressed the Erdogan-related media.^[9]

A decree dated 23 July 2016 closed 15 foundation universities, including Canik Basari University, and transferred their assets unconditionally to the tax authorities. In addition to this strange form of expropriation, the decree also stipulated that the debts of these universities would not be borne by the state. The staff employed at these universities not only became unemployed.^[10] They were also marked with a special code at the social insurance agency SGK, thus preventing them from taking on new jobs. Their demands and compensation were not met. The university building has already been hermetically sealed off by the police. The regime media reported in these days that the police prevented that the rector Prof. Dr. Bekdemir could not flee abroad.^[11]

A view of university buildings

Arrests, Imprisonment and Prison Sentences

The first raid on the university took place in September 2016, when 25 members of the Board of Trustees of the Education, Culture and Health Foundation were taken into custody and the Rector Prof. Dr. Bekdemir was arrested.^[12],^[13] The freedom of movement of the 21 members of the Tanriverdi Foundation’s Board of Trustees was also restricted and six of them imprisoned.^[14] Of the 39 academic staff members of the university whose freedoms were deprived in October 2016, 12 were imprisoned.^[15] Exactly one year later, the wife of the deputy rector, Prof. Dr. Resit Kanca, was imprisoned. Last but not least, O. A., head of the student affairs of this university, was also imprisoned.^[16]

The rector Y. Bekdemir in custody

The trial of these 39 people ended in November 2017 with 5 arrests, 25 detentions and 14 releases.^[17]

In conclusion, in only two trials, 48 people were sentenced to a total of 2781 months (i.e. 231 years and 8 months) and 19 days in prison.

Victimizations of Students

Prior to the closure, graduates of this university were also denounced with irrelevant accusations and their diploma certificates were included in the investigations.^[18] Students transferred to state universities after the closure were exposed in the media as terrorists.^[19] These graduates, who had completed the two-year Master’s courses during the standard period, were discredited.^[20]

Academics and founders of Canik Basari University on the prison way

Conclusion

The members of the university board of trustees, who were highly respected in society, were accused of terror against all logic, although the university was administered by legal means. They were arrested and their property confiscated. Some, such as the rector Prof. Dr. Bekdemir, are still in prison. Numerous businessmen, academics and representatives of other professions are still waiting for probation in this trial.