(TBMM) - Tension rose in the GNAT National Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Commission after DEM Party member Perihan Koca called for the resignation of Commission President Ayşen Gürcan. CHP's Suat Özçağdaş reacted to the words of AK Party member Nazım Maviş, "You do not have the right to call the President to resign", by pointing to the Internal Regulations and saying, "The chairman of the commission will manage this commission according to the Internal Regulations, he cannot manage it according to his own will." When Maviş said to the DEM Party MPs, "You too will see your place," Kezban Konukçu shouted, "Get out of there."
The National Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Commission convened under the chairmanship of Commission Chairman and AK Party Eskişehir Deputy Ayşen Gürcan. Discussions of the Bill on Amendments to the Higher Education Law and Some Laws started in the Commission.
According to Article 16 of the bill, which consists of a total of 28 articles, university students who have been dismissed will be able to return to their schools in the 2026-2027 academic year, provided that they have not benefited from the same right before. On the other hand, while the bill imposes heavy sanctions on having theses written for a fee, it also allows security investigations for faculty members and the opening of campuses abroad for state universities.
AK Party Kocaeli Deputy Sadettin Hülagü, one of the first signatories of the bill, said that the proposal aims to eliminate the problems that arise in the functioning of higher education institutions, to implement the legal regulations needed in line with judicial decisions, and to strengthen the scientific and institutional capacity of universities.
Hülagü said, "This bill that we presented to our Speaker of the Parliament is the product of a comprehensive activity that focuses on the right to education of our students, the labor of our academics, the functioning of our university hospitals, and taking the quality of higher education even further. Our country has achieved an important situation in the field of higher education in recent years. It has reached a strong point in terms of the number of faculty members and students and international student capacity."
CHP Bursa Deputy Kayıhan Pala, who spoke on the unconstitutionality proposal, reminded that the first article of the bill regulates the non-payment of revolving fund additional payments to foreign specialist students and said that this proposal should be removed.
Pala said, "If this regulation is passed like this, I am telling you how much money an assistant who is not a national of the Republic of Turkey will receive in a medical faculty. I do not know if anyone knows. It is 17 thousand 900 liras. If this article is enacted like this, the total money that a foreign national assistant will receive while being a specialist student at a medical faculty and providing the same service as a citizen of the Republic of Turkey will be 17 thousand 900 liras. I leave aside the unconstitutionality. Which conscience can accept it?" he said.
Arguing that the 17th and 26th articles of the bill are also unconstitutional, Pala said that if this is accepted, it will be inevitable for the regulation to be taken to the Constitutional Court. Pala said:
"Because, according to this article, faculty members are required to be subject to a security investigation in addition to the legal processes in the legislation. This relates it to Law No. 7315. In addition to the previously determined members, such as MİT members, an exceptional practice has been brought to the agenda and faculty members are also included in this. Look, we can talk for a long time, but if you look at Law No. 7315, I would like to remind you that there is such a regulation in security investigations other than official documents. In Law No. 7315, it says security "During the investigation, this article and factual data from law enforcement and intelligence units are also taken into consideration. It is never acceptable to employ or not employ a faculty member based on such an unobjective, subjective evaluation."
After the opposition's proposals were not accepted, discussions on the bill began. Speaking on the entire bill, İYİ Party Manisa Deputy Şenol Sunat stated that the omnibus bill discussed in the Plan and Budget Commission included a regulation regarding the employment of teachers who will work in private education institutions, and reacted to the fact that the regulation was discussed in the Plan and Budget Commission instead of the National Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Commission.
"Why is such an important regulation, which directly concerns the teaching profession, being discussed first in the Planning and Budget Commission and not in the National Education Commission? Was it deemed unnecessary, Mr. President? Let us tell you. Because it will tell the usurped rights and base salary rights of private school teachers, which were promised but not kept in the National Education Commission. It will reveal how thousands of teachers in the private sector are turned a blind eye to being employed at the minimum wage or even below, in a modern slavery system. They are dragged on the ground, batoned, detained. "It will draw attention to the cries of the private school teachers who were recruited and seek the rights of hundreds of teachers whose rights were usurped, whose hopes were stolen, and who were waiting for appointments through the unfair and unfair screening mechanisms you set up under the name of interviews. It is not a coincidence that the understanding that has almost kept the National Education Commission from working for 2 years has brought the basic regulation regarding teaching to the Planning and Budget Commission. This is also a result of the wrong legislative understanding that neutralizes the specialized commissions of the Parliament."
This proposal does not touch the fundamental problems of higher education. It is not a comprehensive reform package. It is a technical regulation that tries to find solutions to administrative problems and brings different issues together in the same bag. This regulation reaffirms the tutelage of YÖK. This proposal expands the powers of the central administration rather than giving universities more freedom and institutional capacity. Universities are not the backyard of governments. If you are afraid of critically thinking academics, critical thinking young people will not grow tomorrow.
Dem Party Istanbul Deputy Kezban Konukçu criticized the student amnesty regulation in the bill and argued that the concept of "alliance" with terrorist organizations was defined broadly and could lead to arbitrary practices.
Reminding that he was dismissed from teaching with a statutory decree, Konukçu stated that there was no final judgment against him and said, "Although there was no final judgment against me and I did not have a case when I was expelled, I am someone who was dismissed with a decree for having ties to terrorism. Such a condition has been introduced for the amnesty of students, as if it were a continuation of the regime of decrees."
Reacting to the security investigation and archive research foreseen for faculty members in the bill, Konukçu said, "The main criterion here is security, but the security of what? The fact that these definitions are not really framed, that they are not clear, and that this law is not in compliance with the norms and the Constitution paves the way for arbitrariness. While appointments to universities should be based on scientific competence and academic success at the academic level, we think that an absurd practice such as security investigation and archive scanning is one of the steps taken to prevent universities from being scientific places."
Konukçu, who also criticized the incentive regulation for universities, said:
"Taxes that are constantly collected from citizens are given as incentives to the rich. The money from the workers' unemployment fund is given to the bosses as incentives. We receive many complaints from small tradesmen. Tax debts are not erased in any way, seizures are imposed immediately. But big companies can have their taxes forgiven immediately if they are big bosses. See, universities will be encouraged. The real incentive that should be given should be given to university students. Because university students cannot shelter, feed, or make a living. They get into university, but do not go to university because they cannot settle. After graduating from university Then they cannot find a job or if they are very successful, they choose to go abroad. Those who do not go abroad but stay in our country become comedians and are arrested. So, no matter what they do, these university students cannot get out of trouble. That is why we think that these incentives, which are based on the logic of making the rich even richer, are not right."
Dem Party Mersin Deputy Perihan Koca listed her criticisms of the Commission President, AK Party Eskişehir Deputy Ayşen Gürcan, over the petitions submitted for the convening of the commission during the protest of private sector teachers and teachers who were victims of interviews. At the end of his speech, Koca called on the chairman of the commission to resign. Thereupon, the Spokesperson of the Commission, AK Party Sinop Deputy Nazım Maviş, said, "What an outrageous sentence this is. You do not have the right to call on the President to resign."
CHP Istanbul Deputy Suat Özçağdaş also participated in the discussion. Özçağdaş waved the GNAT Internal Regulations in his hand and said, "The chairman of the commission will manage this commission according to the Internal Regulations, he cannot manage it as he wishes." The chairman of the commission took a five-minute break from the commission as the discussion continued.
When AK Party member Maviş said, "We will not learn the internal regulations from you," Özçağdaş replied, "If you read it, you will learn it." While leaving the commission room, Maviş called out to DEM Party Mersin Deputy Perihan Koca and DEM Party Istanbul Deputy Kezban Konukçu, "You too will see your place." Upon these words, Konukçu shouted, "Get out of there."
Responding to DEM Party member Koca, commission Chairman Gürcan said, "If you think I committed a crime, you can file a criminal complaint."
After the break, the talks continue.