Suleyman Sah University Report – Academic Solidarity e.V.

Suleyman Sah University-Istanbul

Summary

Suleyman Sah University was a foundation university that started its educational activity in 2010 in Istanbul, Turkey. In July 2016, 84 faculty members, about 2500 undergraduate graduate students were actively continuing their education in the University. University was composed of three faculties which were Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Faculty of Economics and Management, Faculty of Engineering; two postgraduate institutes and an English Language School.

During the short period of education, the university served its students who come from all over the world, with modern educational buildings and facilities of various social and sports activities. After December 2013, the University was being a target for the pro-governmental media and the local Municipality. Suleyman Sah University was closed by the government on 23 July 2016 by a decree law that was based on the State of Emergency. University employees and founders were accused of being terrorists, detained and moreover some were imprisoned.

All employees lost their jobs and were sentenced to civilian death. Some of the students could not continue und complete their education, some had to move to different departments. Their previous and been officially owned scholarships were cancelled and they suffered from many obstacles and victimizations. These unjust treatments have not been remedied in the last three years.

General information about the University

Suleyman Sah University (SSU) was a private university based in Istanbul – Turkey which was founded by a private foundation existing as a non-profit organization. The University gave education between 2010 and 2016. It was established by the Sistem Education Foundation. The foundation was formed by a group of Turkish businessmen and President of the Boars of Trustee was Mr. Dumankaya who is owner of the third biggest construction company in Turkey.

Suleyman Sah University had three Faculty and two Intuitions for graduate studies:

Faculty of Humanities and Social Science
Faculty of Economics and Management
Faculty of Engineering
Institution for Social Science
Institution for Natural Science

Education Language was in English and Turkish. At the same time the University had also an English Language School which had a big number of students and lecturers.

Suleyman Sah University had two campuses. First one was in Kartal Region which is a very popular region in Anatolian side of the Istanbul. Kartal Campus was used to service English Language School and Continuous Education Center (Picture 1). Kartal Campus had 25.000 m² closed area including conference hall and gym.

Second and main campus of the University (called as Tuzla Campus) had a huge land (120.000 m²) and its location was very close to Sabiha Gokcen Airport (only 3 km away). Tuzla Campus was used to service three faculties and 50.000 m²closed area which were used for educational purposes.

Suleyman Sah University was a very successful higher education institution, thanks to its facilities, physical infrastructure, mission and vision that were all compatible with the international higher education standards. In addition to the about 2,500 Turkish students, including graduate and undergraduate, we had about 300 international students from 52 different countries. In July 2016, 84 academics were in the University. Suleyman Sah University was also applying standards that are accepted by and compatible with the Bologna Process. SSU had been monitored and inspected every year by the Turkish Higher Education Council and was awarded as a result of those annual inspections.

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Picture 1. Suleyman Sah University Kartal Campus

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Picture 2. SSU Tuzla Campus.

The striking, remarkable features of the University

Suleyman Sah University had a remarkable collaboration with Universities from various countries from USA to UK and from South Korea to Malaysia. University sent students to USA to study in theirs final semester / year depending upon bilateral agreements and international exchange programs.

In addition to international collaboration, University has Erasmus Program and Youth Projects which were supported by EU. A big number of students had studied abroad under the EU Funds.

Pre-July 15 pressures on the Suleyman Sah University

After the December 17-25, 2013 dated corruption cases against Mr. Erdogan’s Government, an enormous political pressure had been applied by the AKP Government on SSU as well as other universities founded by similar group of

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Founders who are inspired Gulen Movement. The reason for the political pressure and unlawful interference was mainly because of the corruptions of the AKP Government that were revealed at an international level. After December 2013, numerous search warrants were issued against SSU, the construction operations were illegally stopped and interrupted by the AKP Government and the local police (managed by local municipality) waited at the student cafeteria several times with no legitimate cause.^{^[1],^[2]} It is difficult to believe but the road of the University was destroyed by working machines to ban the reach the University (Picture 3). Every possible way, mostly illegally, has been used to prevent the prospective students from choosing the University.

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Pictures 3a and 3b. Destroyed road of the SSU and news.

In addition, Higher Education Council did not let to open any new department and put restriction of student admissions. These restrictions resulted with a decrease in the number of students.

Following July 15; unjust treatment

After the unsuccessful coup attempt in 15 July 2016, which is believed to be a pre-planned and controlled by the AKP Government, 15 universities founded by different non-profit foundations, including SSU, were closed on with an Emergency Law Decree on July 23, 2016.^{^[3]} The asserted reason for the closedown stated by the AKP Government was that these universities had belonged to a terrorist organization affiliated to Gulen Movement that was declared as terrorist organization by Turkish Government, which was way too far from reality. Suleyman Sah University was approved by a primary law passed under the Turkish National Assembly and was annually inspected by the related legal organizations including the Higher Council of Education in Turkey.

After Suleyman Sah University was closed, all the academic staff and administrative staff became unemployed. The AKP Government applied a strong and unlawful pressure on all other universities not to employ any of SSU former academic and administrative staff. The unlawful interference and applications of the AKP Government was getting worse each day. In order to be in a safe country and protect their families, some of the academic and administrative staff applied for and found jobs in other countries. Those who were not able to find any job outside Turkey later lost their passports and were prohibited from leaving their country by a court order that was given under serious influence of the AKP Government.

Likewise, many of the students were also exposed to unlawful government practices. Thousands of the students lost their Right for Education. They were distributed among other universities regardless of whether they wanted to study at those schools or not. Many of the student leaders and presidents of student clubs were accused of being a member of a terrorist organization and some of them were arrested.

Arrest and Jailing

Founder of the University (Mr Halit Dumankaya – President of Dumankaya Holding) was arrested and jailed because of his donations. Not only Mr Dumankaya, member of his family and some of the company staff were also arrested and jailed.^{^[4]} During the court of Dumankaya Family, the public prosecutor used “secret witnesses” and some absurd claims from unknown sources. In the court, the charity for education was assumed “help to terrorism”.^{^[5],^[6]}

On May 5th 2017, there was an arrest warrant for 72 of SSU academic und administrative staff including all the Deans of Faculties, heads of all of departments and head of administrative departments.^{^[7]} In addition, there was an arrest order for some lecturers, regular administrative staff and even for rector’s private chauffeur.

Well known academician were arrested and sent to court (Exp. Dr Cengiz Aktar and Dr Ugur Komecoglu).^{^[8],^[9]} In addition, since Rector of the SSU was abroad, son of the rector was arrested and then jailed.^{^[10]}

The AKP Government was accusing all of the scientists / lecturers / administrative staff of Suleyman Sah University as being a member of a terrorist organization. The corruptions and unlawful practices of the AKP Government have now been heard by the whole world. This cannot be true at all and all these accusations were not more than a political lynch by AKP Government. Many of the academic and administrative staffs of the University were arrested without any legal evidence. Two of the deans (one former dean) and all of the head of the departments were arrested. Rector and vice – rector were not been arrested because they were abroad although theirs names were in the list.