The informant murderer was forever protected
The incident in which four people died has left many question marks. The resumes of Volkan Bayar, who massacred four people at Osmangazi University, and his former wife Aylin Bayar are full of blemishes. The couple were expelled from Denver University and the scholarship under which they were receiving education abroad was not recorded at the Ministry of National Education. Despite returning to Turkey on 7 July 2011, the couple continued to collect foreign scholarships from the Ministry of National Education. University management and the Council of Higher Education, despite throwing many academics out of schools for paltry reasons, paid no heed to a number of complaints about Volkan Bayar.
SİNAN TARTANOĞLU / CAN HACIOĞLU“My brother’s murder was arranged for”
Mikail Yalçın’s father Ömer Yalçın and big brother Habil Yalçın vented their ire at university management while the bodies were being collected. Habil Yalçın shouted, “My brother was not murdered, his murder was arranged for. You will strangle on your consciences.” Despite attending the ceremony, Rector Hasan Gönen was met with the slogans, “Rector resign. The true FETOists are here.” The four academics bodies were brought to the rectorate building wrapped in the Turkish flag.
Supposedly his citizenship duty!
At the ceremony, academic Yalçın Bay, who had been expelled thanks to a complaint by Bayar, expressed his outrage, “Wait until you die and then pray. The governor has not inquired until today what has happened to us, but comes today. The rector and Council of Higher Education are responsible. If it goes on like this Eskişehir will burn and Turkey will burn. Let my wife Aylin Bay not be released. Because he has threatened to hold me and my wife to account. Our security of life is at risk. Even though he himself is a FETOist, he accuses nationalist and Ataturkist academics of being FETOists. He has complained about 102 academics throughout Turkey. I applied to the prosecution because he engaged in slander. The prosecution said he was ‘doing his citizenship duty.’ Is Volkan Bayar now doing his citizenship duty? On whose behalf is he doing this? The true FETOists have been protected.”
Passed on to the State Supervisory Council
The ceremony was also attended by Provincial Governor Özdemir Çakacak, AKP Deputy General Chair Harun Karacan, AKP Eskişehir MP and former Minister of National Education Nabi Avcı, CHP Eskişehir MPs Cemal Okan Yüksel and Utku Çakırözer and Metropolitan Mayor Yılmaz Büyükerşen. An academic informed Nabi Avcı that they had complained about all the events at the university to the Presidential State Supervisory Council.
Interesting information has come to light about the accused and his former wife’s past in complaint submissions made on various dates to the rectorate and the Council of Higher Education about the accused Volkan Bayar, whose educational background is enigmatic. Cumhuriyet has had access to the complaint submissions that went unprocessed. According to claims relating to Bayar and his wife going to the USA for master’s degree education on a Ministry of National Education scholarship, Volkan Bayar graduated from Gazi University in 2004, as did his wife Aylin Bayar in 2006. It is noted in the submissions that the head of the department in which they studied at Gazi University, Prof. Dr. Hayati Akyol, had said, “Volkan Bayar failed my course three times. He just managed to pass the resit the third time. It is improper for Volkan Bayar to get a Ministry of National Education scholarship. His Academic Staff and Postgraduate Education Entry Exam marks should be examined.”
Unable to submit diploma
The Bayars completed their higher education in the USA and started their doctoral education in 2007. At the doctoral thesis stage, Volkan Bayar acted violently towards his wife Aylin Bayar in the university corridors. It is stated that, also in the same period, Volkan Bayar beat up another fellow student who was taking a master’s degree course at the same school on a Ministry of National Education scholarship and the Ministry of National Education sent the victim to another country but took no action against Bayar. According to the submission, they were both expelled from their doctoral education on account of this in April 2011. However, according to the submission, Volkan Bayar went to the student affairs office immediately prior to the expulsion decision and obtained a certificate to the effect that his doctoral education would end in three months to enable the Ministry of National Education scholarship that he obtained when he went to the USA to continue. Volkan Bayar, succeeding in returning to Turkey with this certificate, submitted the certificate he had obtained from the USA to the Ministry of National Education on 7 April 2011 and started work at the Ministry of National Education on 7 July 2011. Despite the Bayars having entered Turkey in April 2011, they continued to collect their foreign scholarships. Even though they had started work, they were unable to supply the Ministry of National Education with the doctorate diploma that they were required to present three months later.
Ministry of National Education: Not in our records
Meanwhile, it has emerged that on 18 May 2017 the Ministry intimated, “Absolutely no record in the name of Volkan Bayar was encountered in our general directorate’s records” in the reply bearing the signature of department head Tuba Korkmaz serving in the Higher Education and Foreign Education General Directorate to the letter sent to the Ministry of National Education and inquiring after Volkan Bayar’s Ministry of National Education scholarship by the lawyer of the academics who made the submission, Mustafa Algam. In the submission, in which it is stated that Volkan Bayar and his wife were appointed as research workers at Gaziosmanpaşa University by Ministry of National Education Private Education and Guidance Services General Director Mustafa Baloğlu in the 2011 period, application was made for, “legal proceedings to be initiated against the two individuals for the offence of making false statement and misleading the state.” It is also noted in the submission that Baloğlu brought proceedings against the Bayars for swearing at and threatening him. With his proceedings against the Bayars in progress, Baloğlu made a complaint submission about Volkan Bayar on 20 January 2017 to the Prime-Ministry Communication Centre. Baloğlu additionally filed a criminal complaint to Ankara Republic Chief Prosecution about Volkan Bayar’s threats. According to the submission, the Bayars were unable to gain acceptance from universities in Ankara because they had been expelled from their doctorates, and they entered Eskişehir Osmangazi University through the Faculty Development Programme.
He made a career out of tip-offs
The faculty members noted the following in the said submission they made: “Despite all teachers attending, Volkan Bayar did not attend the doctorate proficiency exam out of his hostility towards the university’s institute director Prof. Dr. Ahmet Aypay, attended the second proficiency exam and, brazenly saying, ‘I have not prepared. I don’t feel well’ took the exam but was unable to pass the proficiency. Alpay launched an investigation into him because he did not perform any task he was given at the institute and the request for him to be sent back to Gaziosmanpaşa University in Tokat where he was a staff member was submitted to the university senate. The senate, for its part, suggesting he be given a further chance, resolved for his doctorate to continue. His hostility towards Aypay and the other teachers at the faculty gradually increased and, taking advantage of the 15 July coup attempt, he drafted tip-off letters against 24 faculty members at our faculty and sent them to the appropriate authorities.”
No contrition!
Following their procedures yesterday at Eskişehir Provincial Police Directorate, murder accused Volkan Bayar and his divorced wife Saadet Aylin Bayar were sent to the judicial complex. It has been learnt that Bayar’s first words were, “I’m not sorry. They ruined my life.” With three republic prosecutors continuing the investigation into the event, Eskişehir Police Directorate Counterterrorism Branch Directorate stated that it was conducting a separate investigation into the FETO allegations. Eskişehir Osmangazi University’s former faculty member, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Şişman, whom the Council of Higher Education has appointed, went to Eskişehir yesterday to conduct an administrative investigation, too.
The four lost lives and distraught families
His only child is disabled
-Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Education, Faculty Member Dr. Mikail Yalçın: Yalçın, who entered the world in 1985 in Tokat’s Turhal sub-province, graduated from Cumhuriyet University’s Primary-School Mathematics Teaching Department in 2006. Yalçın worked as a maths teacher in the years 2006-2011. Completing his master’s degree education at Gaziosmanpaşa University, Yalçın took up a post as a research worker at Eskişehir Osmangazi University in 2011. Completing his doctorate at Eskişehir Osmangazi University in the area of “Educational Management Inspection Planning and Economics”, Yalçın became a Faculty Member Doctor in 2016. Yalçın, who was appointed Deputy Dean of Eskişehir Osmangazi University’s Faculty of Education, was married and the father of one child. Yalçın wrote in a post he made in 2014 on his Facebook account, “Our daughter came into the world with the congenital hand anomaly named symbrachydactyly. I have set up a group to become acquainted with those affected with this anomaly that appears in one in 40,000 live births and share our experiences. I would be grateful if you could direct those with hand anomalies to our group.”
He had two children
-Faculty of Education Secretary Mehmet Fatih Özmutlu: He entered the world in 1970 in Eskişehir’s Seyitgazi sub-province. Having completed his degree education at Anadolu University in 2006, Özmutlu embarked on civil service life at Seyitgazi Municipality in 1993. He was appointed to Eskişehir Osmangazi University in 1994. Having served as officer, technician and supervisor in various units of the university, Özmutlu was appointed Secretary of Eskişehir Osmangazi University’s Faculty of Tourism in 2011 and Secretary of the Faculty of Education in 2012. Özmutlu was married and the father of two children.
He was only 33
-Faculty Member Dr. Serdar Çağlak: Çağlak, who entered the world in 1985 in Kayseri’s Han sub-province, graduated from the Science Teaching Department of Mersin University’s Faculty of Education in 2007. Faculty Member Dr. Serdar Çağlak, having completed his master’s degree in the area of science education at Florida State University in 2010, made his doctorate in the area of “Measurement and Assessment in Education” at the same university in 2015. Çağlak, who took up the post of Research Worker at Eskişehir Osmangazi University’s Faculty of Education in 2016, gained the title of Faculty Member Dr. in 2017.
A work-filled life
-Research Worker Yasir Armağan: Armağan, who entered the world in 1983 in Tokat, graduated from 19 May University’s Primary-School Mathematics Teaching Department in 2005. Having worked as a maths teacher in the years 2005-2013, Armağan completed his master’s degree at Gaziosmanpaşa University. Armağan embarked on his doctoral education in the Department of Education Management Inspection, Planning and Economics at Eskişehir Osmangazi University in 2012. Armağan, who took up a post as a Research Worker in 2013 at Bartın University’s Faculty of Education, was appointed to Eskişehir Osmangazi University’s Institute of Educational Science in the same year and continued his academic work. Armağan was married and the father of two children.