Émigré Albert Eckstein’s Legacy on Health Care Modernization in Turkey: Two Generations of Students Who Have Made Major Contributions

uring the 1920s, Turkey witnessed a maelstrom of radical reforms and with the abolition of the caliphate on 3 March 1924 the country took giant steps to become a secular state with all its ramifications. On the same day, another revolutionary law aiming at unification, standardization, and secularization of the educational institutions (Tevhid-i Tedrisat kanunu) was passed. This law closed the religious schools and attached all educational institutions to the Ministry of National Education. Several other reforms in education followed with speed. The Latin based alphabet was mandated by law on 1 November 1928, significantly increasing literacy within a short time frame. The most significant reform to the subject at hand came in 1933. Turkey’s system of higher education, including medical education, was thoroughly revised when the University Reform Law No. 2252 was passed on 31 May 1933. It abolished the Istanbul Darulfunun, an academy based on the Islamic tradition of higher education derived from the medieval medrese, and turned into a university during the first decade of the 20 century. D