The place was Şehzadebaşı Tulumbacıbaşı Mansion and the day was Wednesday, March 14, 1827. Chief Physician Mustafa Behçet, 21 years old, had brought the idea of a Medical School up during the reign of III. Selim. However, III. Selim had refrained from doing it as he was afraid of the ulama due to the prohibition of dissection (anatomy). When he was 53 years old, during the reign of II. Mahmut, his dream came true and the first Cerrahhane was established under the name of "Tıphane-i Amire” (The Military School of Medicine) and "Cerrahhane-i Amire” (Military School of Surgery). Medicine (Tıphane-i Amire) and Surgery (Cerrahhane-i Amire) educations were started to be held separately in the same building. During this period, Medical education was determined as four years as applied in Europe. The Military School of Medicine (Tıphane-i Amire) moved to Galatasaray in 1839 and the opening of the new building was made by Sultan II. Mahmut on 17 February 1839. The education was given in French under the name "Mekteb-i Tıbbiye-i Adliye-i Şahane" (Imperial Faculty of Medicine), and the name of the school started to be written as "L'Ecole Adliyée Impériale de Médecine" in diplomas. In 1843, 67 students werethe first to graduate and Salih Efendi was the first medical doctor with a diploma. In 1848, four Medical doctors passed the Vienna Medical QualificationExam. In 1849, the first Medical Journal was published under the name "Vekayi-i Tıbbiye". Turkish education started in the "Mekteb-i Tıbbiye-i Mülkiye" (Civilian Medical School) on October 30, 1870, during the reign of Sultan Abdulaziz. First, the Military Medical School in 1903, and then, the Civilian Medical School in 1909 moved to the Haydarpaşa Medical Building, the construction of which was started in 1894 by II. Abdülhamit. When these two Medical Schools were merged, it was named "Darülfünun Faculty of Medicine" and Cemil (Topuzlu) Pasha, a Surgical Clinic Instructor, was appointed as the first Dean. Education was suspended for 6 months during the Trioli (Italo-Turkish) and Balkan wars in 1912. In 1914, when the World War I started, education was suspended again, and hard-working and successful students joined the Caucasus campaign. 765 students volunteered to join the Çanakkale campaign on November 3, 1914.
On the same day, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who returned from Adana to Istanbul, was welcomed at Haydarpaşa Train Station. They saw the ships belonging to the occupation forces, which were located in the Bosphorus and anchored in front of the Dolmabahçe Palace and had turned their cannons into the ruling palace of the ruling state for centuries. He remembered the bloodshed and all those souls who were lost in Çanakkale to prevent these ships from coming here. He answered the sadness in the eyes of his aide Cevat Abbas and medical doctor Rasim Ferit, who were with him in the "Kartal" steamboat, in an angry and determined voice: "As they have come, so they will go". On February 3, 1919, the occupation forces commander who came to Haydarpaşa Medical Building told Dean Akil Muhtar Pasha that they would use the building for their own services and that it must be evacuated. The Spirit of Medicine, which was a pioneer in every period and did not avoid self-sacrifice in all difficulties, resisted this occupation and the demand of lowering the Turkish Flag on the building and giving the building to the occupation forces. While there were occupation forces on the lower floors, medical education continued under the Turkish flag on the upper floors. On the days when meetings were prohibited in occupied Istanbul, nder the leadership of medical student Hikmet (Boran), with the support of Sırrı, Kazım, İsmail, Yusuf, Müfit, Dean Akil Muhtar Pasha, the permission from the occupation forces command has been taken - on the grounds that the day of March 14 was special. On March 14, 1919, an event was organized with the participation of Dr. Fevzi Pasha, Dr. Besim Ömer Pasha, Dr. Akil Muhtar Pasha, students, British occupation forces, and representatives. During the event, between the clock towers of Haydarpaşa Darülfünun Faculty of Medicine Building, with the organization of medical student Hikmet, the Turkish Flag, seen from all over Istanbul, was hung. This situation surprised the British. 14th March protest poverty, and bondage. It has been and will be celebrated as the day of “Medical Workers Raising the Flag of Independence Against Colonists”.
Happy 14th March!
Assist Prof. Dr. A. Yüksel BARUT
