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After a political science professor in Turkey was forced to resign because she took part in the advisory board of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the party’s co-chair stated support for her.
Pervin Buldan said on Twitter:
“Prof. Dr. Şebnem Oğuz, who have been forced to resign because she accepted to be a member of our advisory board, is the pride of all of us. We will stand by the courageous and determined stance of our dear professor who’s stood in solidarity with us in hard times.”
A day after Oğuz was appointed to the advisory board of the HDP at the party’s congress on 3 July, she was asked by the administration of Baskent University to submit her resignation.
Oğuz said in a public statement:
“I proudly accepted to be a member of the HDP’s advisory board to be able to contribute to the fight for democracy in the current critical phase of the economic-political-social crisis. This recent step has been only a natural extension of my political preferences that had begun with my support for HDP on the verge of the general elections on 7 June 2015, and continued with me taking part among the signatories of the statement for peace in 2016, titled, ‘We will not be accomplices in this crime’.”
She continued:
“Immediately after the congress of HDP, on 4 July around noon, the Rector’s Office in Baskent University asked me to submit my petition for resignation before the end of the day. The university administration has dismissed me because of a constitutional right I exercized. By the time I arrived at the campus, they had already prepared the official documents for my dismissal.”
Oğuz’s page on Başkent University’s Website was unaccesible on Friday.
