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Saylan became immortal
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The first "terrorist" of her sort was the young Ottoman general Mustafa Kemal, who landed in Samsun 90 years ago today to launch the Turkish War of Liberation and who was ordered to be killed by the last sultan, allegiant to the occupation forces that were unhappy with the refusal to surrender by a "handful of bandits" in Anatolia.
Ninety years ago today Mustafa Kemal launched the War of Liberation in Samsun at the expense of being branded by the Ottoman Palace as a "bandit" who could be murdered; 90 years later today tens of thousands of "terrorists" refusing to surrender to the systematic advance of political Islam aspiring to replace the modern, democratic, secular republic that Atatürk described as his biggest achievement with a conservative post-modern theocratic state will bid farewell to Professor Türkan Saylan, who spent a 74-year life defending the modern republic, gender equality and girls’ education rights, and rebelling against illiteracy, primitivism and radicalism.
Born in Istanbul in 1935, Saylan started her rebellion in 1976, a year before she became a professor in 1977, against the established alienation of leprosy patients in society. The Fight Against Leprosy Association she established that year helped Turkey to tear down the mental and physical barriers condemning leprosy patients to alienation from society while her pioneering works in that field not only reduced the much-feared condition to negligible names but also earned her the prestigious International Gandhi Award of India in 2006. She was a founding member of the International Leprosy Union and an active member for decades of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology and the International Leprosy Association. From 1981 to 2002, for 21 years, besides her work at Istanbul University, she was the voluntary chief doctor of the Health Ministry Leprosy Hospital. From 1982 to 1987, she was the director of the Istanbul Medical Faculty’s Leprosy Research and Application Center while at the same time she actively contributed to the national program against leprosy as chief coordinator.
An outstanding struggle for modernity
In 1989 she started actively taking part in the fight for the defense of modernity and a modern, democratic and secular republic when she and a group of intellectuals established the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life, or ÇYDD, which she led until she passed away yesterday after a long and painful fight against cancer. Since then, the ÇYDD has provided grants to thousands of poor students, especially girls, and built schools in Turkey's impoverished regions.
In 1990, Saylan was among the founders and deputy chairperson of the Association of Academics. The same year she participated in the establishment of the Research and Application Center for the Problems of Women within Istanbul University. Until 1996 she served at the center as a deputy director.
After she retired from academic life in 2002, Saylan devoted her entire time to activities of the ÇYDD, as well as the Fight Against Leprosy Association while at the same time continued serving as a member of the Social Services Consultative Council, where she was named a member by 9th President Süleyman Demirel and as a member of the Higher Education Council, or YÖK, between 2001 and 2007, where she was named a member by 10th President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Besides she was active in various associations and foundations dealing with human rights, gender equality and girls’ education.
She never gave up. Even when her house was raided several weeks ago by police on orders of the prosecutors conducting the so-called Ergenekon probe, despite her frail health condition, she did not hesitate raising her voice in full confidence that the fight must continue because the sad developments underlined the need to work harder to achieve independence of judiciary, to defend those subjected to character assassination and of course to support the supremacy of law in the country.
She was a committed supporter of the modern Turkish Republic and an ardent fighter of gender equality, particularly girls’ education rights. She was definitely a "terrorist" who never accepted to surrender to primitivism or tyranny and who never accepted to compromise the values and norms of the modern Republic.
She became immortal yesterday.
Born in Istanbul in 1935, Saylan started her rebellion in 1976, a year before she became a professor in 1977, against the established alienation of leprosy patients in society. The Fight Against Leprosy Association she established that year helped Turkey to tear down the mental and physical barriers condemning leprosy patients to alienation from society while her pioneering works in that field not only reduced the much-feared condition to negligible names but also earned her the prestigious International Gandhi Award of India in 2006. She was a founding member of the International Leprosy Union and an active member for decades of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology and the International Leprosy Association. From 1981 to 2002, for 21 years, besides her work at Istanbul University, she was the voluntary chief doctor of the Health Ministry Leprosy Hospital. From 1982 to 1987, she was the director of the Istanbul Medical Faculty’s Leprosy Research and Application Center while at the same time she actively contributed to the national program against leprosy as chief coordinator.
An outstanding struggle for modernity
In 1989 she started actively taking part in the fight for the defense of modernity and a modern, democratic and secular republic when she and a group of intellectuals established the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life, or ÇYDD, which she led until she passed away yesterday after a long and painful fight against cancer. Since then, the ÇYDD has provided grants to thousands of poor students, especially girls, and built schools in Turkey's impoverished regions.
In 1990, Saylan was among the founders and deputy chairperson of the Association of Academics. The same year she participated in the establishment of the Research and Application Center for the Problems of Women within Istanbul University. Until 1996 she served at the center as a deputy director.
After she retired from academic life in 2002, Saylan devoted her entire time to activities of the ÇYDD, as well as the Fight Against Leprosy Association while at the same time continued serving as a member of the Social Services Consultative Council, where she was named a member by 9th President Süleyman Demirel and as a member of the Higher Education Council, or YÖK, between 2001 and 2007, where she was named a member by 10th President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Besides she was active in various associations and foundations dealing with human rights, gender equality and girls’ education.
She never gave up. Even when her house was raided several weeks ago by police on orders of the prosecutors conducting the so-called Ergenekon probe, despite her frail health condition, she did not hesitate raising her voice in full confidence that the fight must continue because the sad developments underlined the need to work harder to achieve independence of judiciary, to defend those subjected to character assassination and of course to support the supremacy of law in the country.
She was a committed supporter of the modern Turkish Republic and an ardent fighter of gender equality, particularly girls’ education rights. She was definitely a "terrorist" who never accepted to surrender to primitivism or tyranny and who never accepted to compromise the values and norms of the modern Republic.
She became immortal yesterday.
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