Today in History – 15 September

Honorary professorship for İsmet Pasha

Having begun instruction in 1925 to compensate for the shortage in judge positions, Ankara School of Law was the first institution of higher learning in the Republic of Turkey. Initially, it was not an undergraduate school, but a vocational boarding school affiliated with the Ministry of Justice. The headmaster and faculty members of the school were comprised of bureaucrats working at the Ministry of Justice. The school did not have a building, but operated out of the old Assembly building in Ulus.

Convened under the presidency Minister of Justice Mahmut Esat Bey, the Education Committee conferred upon Mustafa Kemal Pasha and Prime Minister İsmet Pasha the titles of “Honorary President of the Board of Education” and Honorary Professor of Turkish Law,” respectively with its decision of September 15, 1924. Thus, the word “professor” entered the Turkish language for the very first time.

Transformed into Ankara School of Law per the decision of the Council of Ministers in 1926, the school was affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in 1940 and constituted the core of Ankara University.