On 23 March 2024, a memorial programme was held for Cihan Yüksel, a student of our Department of Nursing, who lost her life in a tragic traffic accident, and Büşra Yavuz, a student of our Department of Nursing, who was injured in the same accident and lost her battle for life after being taken to the intensive care unit.

Rector, Vice Rectors, Deans, academicians and many students attended the memorial programme held in the Grand Library Conference Hall. The memorial programme started with a minute of silence. Then, Nursing Department students NİSA NUR ERGÜN and ONUR BÖRTAK made speeches in which they shared their feelings and thoughts about our lost friends. Then, Nursing Department Head Assist. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hazel Şahin Tarım made a very emotional speech and said, “There is no big or small death. Every death is painful. Every death is a great separation, but we have no choice but to say providence. May God make the place of our children heaven. May God honour their souls. May He give patience to all of us.” The last speech was made by our Rector Prof. Dr. İlkay Salihoğlu. While it was seen that our professors had difficulty in making a speech, those in the hall could not hold back their tears. Rector Prof. Dr. İlkay Salihoğlu said in his speech: “Today we gathered for Cihan and Büşra. We wanted to show our loyalty in this way. The grief is very great. Especially for their mothers, fathers, relatives, friends and then for us. Our students are our children for us. Our condolences to the family, their loved ones and our community. May God make their places heavenly. We have been following the incident closely since the beginning. We closely followed the developments from the moment of the accident and we will continue to do so. May God give patience to their loved ones, families and friends. May their places be heaven.”