İstanbul Bilgi University Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Durman resigned from his post after he was protested by students in response to his dismissal of an academic for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during her class.
Durman told the media that his resignation should not be associated with the recent events centering around the university and that it was a personal decision, which was the result of a process.
Durman’s position has been temporarily turned over to the university’s former Rector Remzi Sanver. Meanwhile, Durman will continue serving as an academic at the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Zeynep Sayın Balıkçıoğlu, an academic at the Bilgi University, was dismissed by the university management over allegedly insulting President Erdoğan during a lecture. The university’s students turned their backs on the rector in protest during their graduation ceremony while Durman gave a speech.
Christoph K. Neumann, another professor at the İstanbul Bilgi University, resigned after his colleague’s disharge, saying in a public letter that Bilgi is no longer a university due to restriction of freedoms.