Petition for dismissed academic: Can Candan should be reinstated

* Photo: Christian Bergmann

Click to read the article in Turkish

A petition has been launched for academic and documentary filmmaker Can Candan, who has been dismissed from Boğaziçi University by Naci İnci, who was appointed as the acting rector following the dismissal of appointed rector Melih Bulu and is appointed as the rector later on.

CLICK - Acting rector dismisses academic Can Candan

Titled "Can Candan Should Be Reinstated", the online petition has demanded that "this wrongdoing be amended immediately."

Detailing the process that started with the appointment of Melih Bulu as the rector of Boğaziçi University, the petition reads as follows:

'The power of resistance'

"On January 2nd, 2021, Melih Bulu was appointed as the rector of Boğaziçi University with a Presidential decree without consulting or informing any of the faculty members. For the last eight months, all the constituents of Boğaziçi University have been astutely resisting the appointed rector and his administration as this new administration blatantly impedes the academic freedom, autonomy, and democratic processes that Boğaziçi University was founded upon and have been operating on for decades.

"As a result of this resistance, and the will to seek justice that fuels it, the appointed rector Melih Bulu was dismissed on July 15th, 2021, by yet another Presidential decree. That's the power of resistance!

'Dismissal based on non-academic grounds'

"However, after Melih Bulu was dismissed, his vice-rector Naci İnci was appointed as the acting rector (and as of August 20th, he was appointed as the rector by a Presidential decree). The day after he was appointed as the acting rector, Naci İnci started his job by not approving the summer courses that lawyer-academic Feyzi Erçin was set to teach at the Department of Western Languages and Literatures. Feyzi Erçin has been teaching courses at Boğaziçi University for the last eight years.

"He then sent a letter to Can Candan, a full-time faculty at the same department, informing him that he has been dismissed from the university 'by proxy.' Naci Inci's letter clearly shows that the dismissal of our professor Can Candan was solely based on non-academic reasons and is a part of a smear campaign against him. It is important to note that the said letter has also been defined as 'legally problematic' by the Boğaziçi University Faculty.

'We don't accept his dismissal'

"As the students of Can Candan, we would like to emphasize that we are very proud of our professor.

"Can Candan is a brilliant academic and a documentary filmmaker, who has been recording and archiving the faculty vigils as well as other resistance against the appointed rector and his administration since day one. He shared many instances of this process that the appointed rector and his circle did not want the public to witness.

"As his (life-long) students and colleagues who continue to learn from him every day, we are honored to stand in solidarity with our beloved professor. The smear campaign that the appointed rectorship conducts against Can Candan is unacceptable.

"Just like Can Candan himself, we do not accept his dismissal from Boğaziçi University with the signature of an appointed rector and we continue to stand in solidarity with all the constituents of the university.

'Reinstate him to his position'

"Boğaziçi resistance showed us one more time that the appointed rectors and administrations are temporary. What is permanent is to cultivate an administrative culture that is based on democracy, merit, and academic freedom, all of which the current administration is operating against.

"The current administration should know that, contrary to their belief that 'they can dismiss him from teaching,' Can Candan will continue to offer his well-loved courses and mentor many more students just as he mentored us.

"With his grace, humanity, fairness, wisdom, and presence that gives us hope and power to go on, he is one of the most precious scholars and artists of this country. As his proud students and colleagues, we are following our professor as he rightfully seeks justice.

"We demand that this wrongdoing be amended immediately. We demand that Can Candan be reinstated to his position at Boğaziçi University.

#CanCandanIsNotAlone
#WeDoNotAcceptWeDoNotGiveUp
#CanCandanShouldBeReinstated"

CLICK - 'We object to Can Candan's dismissal from Boğaziçi University'

About Can Candan

Documentary filmmaker, academic.

He has a BA from Hampshire College (USA) in film and video, and an MFA from Temple University (USA) in film and media arts. As a filmmaker since 1989, his works have been screened internationally at festivals, conferences, schools, universities, in galleries, cinemas, and on television. He has taught film courses and workshops, both in universities and media education centers in the United States and in Turkey. He is a founding member of docIstanbul Center for Documentary Studies, which organized the 2010 Visible Evidence International Documentary Studies Conference at Bogazici University in Istanbul.

During the academic year, he teaches on documentary history, theory and criticism; documentary cinema in Turkey and mentors film-related projects and theses. In 2016, he published (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK) an edited book entitled "Kurdish Documentary Cinema of Turkey" with Suncem Koçer (PhD) and has been collaborating with her on a new edited book entitled "Documentary Cultures in Turkey." He is also working on a new book (in Turkish) in collaboration with Sonay Ban (PhD), about the history of documentary cinema in Turkey.

He has three feature length documentary films in international distribution. He is also developing and fundraising for his new feature documentary film entitled "Nuclear alla Turca" on the nuclear stories of Turkey.

In 2005, he resigned as the chair of the film and television department of Istanbul Bilgi University after the university administration refused to take action on a sexual harassment case and he was subsequently fired. In 2012, he helped establish Boğaziçi University's Sexual Harassment Prevention Commission (CİTÖK).

In 2014, he resigned as the head of the jury of the national documentary film competition at the Antalya International Film Festival, Turkey, calling attention to the censorship scandal regarding a documentary about the Gezi Park Uprising.

In January 2016, he was one of the 2,212 signatories of the Academics for Peace declaration "We will not be a party to this crime", calling on the Government of Turkey to end the violence against the Kurdish population and resolve the conflict through peaceful means. Along with other signatories, he was accused of "propagandazigng for a terrorist organization" and tried in a heavy penal court under the anti-terror law, facing a minimum jail sentence of 15 months. Following the Constitutional Court's ruling in favor of freedom of expression in 2019, he was acquited of all charges.

He continues to actively advocate for peace, conflict-resolution, human rights, freedom of speech and expression as well as environmental protection.

He is the academic advisor of Boğaziçi University's LGBTI+ student club, which was closed following the appointment of a rector by a Presidential decree.

Recently, he has received The Turkish Film Critics Association's 2021 Honor Award.

*Source: Can Candan Academia account

(EMK/SD)

BOĞAZİÇİ UNIVERSITY