Exiled Turkish professor ‘leading US university’


Date posted: January 12, 2017

Jack Grove

An academic named as one of Turkey’s “most wanted terrorists” has been appointed president of a US university.

Serif Ali Tekalan, a medical professor, took charge of North American University, based in Houston, Texas, last month, according to a report by the pro-Turkish government Daily Sabah newspaper on 8 January.

Professor Tekalan, a former rector of Istanbul’s Fatih University, fled Turkey in 2010 after he was implicated in a cheating scandal, (1) in which questions and answers for Turkey’s civil service exams were allegedly leaked to supporters of the exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

He was later placed on the Turkish Interior Ministry’s list of most wanted terrorists, with a reward of 750,000 Turkish liras (£166,000) for information leading to his capture, over his alleged links to the US-based Gulen, who is accused of perpetrating last year’s failed coup in Turkey. 

According to the Daily Sabah, Professor Tekalan now leads the North American University, formerly North American College, which was founded by Gulenists in 2010 – one of hundreds of schools, colleges and universities across the world allegedly run by Gulen’s group.

More than 110,000 civil servants, academics and journalists have now been sacked or suspended over their alleged links to Gulen since a plot to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan failed on 15 July.

Those dismissed have often been placed on an official blacklist, which makes it almost impossible for them to gain future employment, while some have had their passports revoked.

More than 50,000 of those suspended, sacked or jailed are educational staff, while 37,000 have been jailed pending trial.

Turkey’s president also claimed greater powers over appointing university heads in a move that in effect “eradicates university autonomy”, critics have said.


(1) HN note: This and other accusations against individuals and the Gulen movement have never been proved in the court; and even, in many cases, indictments have not been submitted to the court although Turkish security and justice system is under Erdogan’s full control. One can only wonder why Erdogan regime keeps accusing despite lack of evidence.

Source: Times Higher Education , January 10, 2017


Related News

Turkish American ‘balance alignment’

Ali H. Aslan, Washington D.C. If, when I began working in Washington 16 years ago, someone had come up to me and said, “The day will come when nearly 50 senators and representatives from the US Congress will participate in a Turkish gathering,” I would have said he was dreaming. And if someone had also […]

Deputy Premier Arinc: We are quite happy of the success of Turkish schools in Yemen

Arinc said: “I give my thanks to all my brothers and sisters who came here from Turkey with enthusiasm to open these schools and who enjoy working here with devotion and pleasure.

Turkic Cultural Exchange and Community Dialogue

Nearly seventy-five legislators and staff attended the annual Turkic cultural reception at the State Capitol, hosted by Niagara Foundation. The event awarded attendees and guests with the chance to dialogue with lawmakers over a buffet of Turkish food and coffee on topics of interfaith, multiculturalism and global acceptance.

UN Body Asks Immediate Release Of Arbitrarily Jailed Police Chief

The United Nations’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), which works under UN Human Rights Council, has called on Turkish government to immediately release police superintendent Kürşat Çevik who are arbitrarily arrested and still kept in Şanlıurfa prison over his alleged links to the Gülen movement and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations in accordance with international law.

AK Party’s ’parallel’ election campaign

In Turkey, the term “pool media” refers to the pro-government media outlets which were created through funds raised by various businessmen to protect the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) interests.

Censored by theft: Man caught stealing copies of Zaman daily

In the video footage, the young man is seen stealing three Zaman newspapers placed in the mail boxes of an apartment building. When asked by the subscriber who was filming why he was stealing the newspapers, the thief said his father was the AK Party’s Beylikdüzü provincial chairman and that his father had initiated the campaign against Zaman because it is defaming the party.

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

‘Hizmet Movement and Fethullah Gulen inspire uniting people around spiritual ideals’

GYV announces the third international family policy conference

Turkey’s media watchdog asks Albanian counterpart to restrict Gülen documentary

Fatih University graduates receive Feb. 28-like treatment at İstanbul University

Fethullah Gulen Criticizes the Da Vinci Code

[VIDEO] Turkish philosophy teacher says wife had to give birth at home due to Erdogan’s witch-hunt

Ideal human, ideal society in Gulen’s philosophy

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News