GAU VICE CHANCELLOR OF BOARD OF ADMINISTRATORS USTUN MAKES IMPORTANT STATEMENTS AFTER THE DECISION OF SUPREME ADMINISTRATIVE COURT

Vice Chancellor of Board of Administrators Olgun Ustun made significant statements in the TV show he attended with the participation of Girne American University (GAU) Board Members, Rector Members and academicians.

In the statement, it was referred that GAU is a university which was established in 1985 and has many accreditations and campuses in many countries, and it is known with this name by the whole world. Ustun emphasized that especially Islamic countries use the name of Girne University by removing the ‘American’ part and continued: “The so-called university made an application to establish a thematic university with the same name, The Ministry of National Education (MEB) provided this opportunity for them without their registration and YODAK gave approval for the establishment of this thematic university. However, we have immediately made our objections to the related authorities, and obtained no result. Under these circumstances, the only thing we could do was to solve this problem through the legal means. The case we opened in 2013 concluded after 2 years and the court decided in favor of GAU; that such a name, including both Girne and Kyrenia, cannot be used and should be ignored. Therefore, the court made a decision on cancelling the approvals of these names. This decision was eventually implemented and the name of Kyrenia was removed. However, the so-called university still uses the same name and YODAK pays no attention to this. Moreover, some of our ministers attend the ceremonies of this university. We also went to the Council of Higher Education (YOK) for this and received the answer of ‘the institutions we recognize are YODAK and MEB, we can only meet the case if a paper is given to us by them’ and they do not send a paper. Our fight to seek justice was arisen from this; administration needs to perform these decisions in every field. Another issue is removing the signboards which are under the control of Municipalities or highways commission. Although the court made a decision that they cannot use the name of Girne/Kyrenia on these signboards, they are still used.”

Prime Minister meant to say ‘solve your problems in the court’, by referring that “court’s decision is implemented by the court”. However, we have no problem with the court; it had already given its decision and announced it to the government. It is the authorities of the so-called university who do not perform the decision. Authorities that should follow the court’s decision are obvious. There is no other court above the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court. Municipalities try to avoid the decision by referring that they will ask their lawyers. We have no objection for the so-called university to locate in Kyrenia. We only objected to its name which needs to be changed as it is nearly similar to our name and all documents of the university are sent to us. Besides, there are other universities in Kyrenia and we do not have any objections against them.”

At the visit we performed to our President Akıncı, we had the chance to talk with him for nearly an hour. Akıncı listened to us very carefully and stated that he wanted to learn the problem because of the promises he had given in front of justice to the public. It was referred that Attorney General did not gave an answer to Akıncı.

GAU will pursue this issue. If we do not obtain any results from our attempts, we will perform a walk with bigger crowd. If we still do not get results, we will carry the decision of Supreme Administrative Court to the European Court of Human Rights. We will file a lawsuit against the authorities who do not perform the court’s decision. We are the oldest educational institution in our island and give great importance to education. We show respect to the decision of the court and our government. We have a structure who considers our government as a highest foundation. We walk on the way to justice and we will end this with justice. We met with the opponent party to find a compromise in 2013, the answer we received was “Such a thing cannot happen”.  They do not take a step back. We consider ourselves as a victim. We went to the court and it decided in favor of us. What else can we do? Our only demand is the implementation of the court’s decision. I believe that the justified decision of the court will be eventually performed.”