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The lesson appears to be: Turkey is not ready for pornography.
Deniz Ozgun, a film student at Istanbul's Bilgi University, had asked permission from his supervisors to make a pornographic movie as a dissertation meant to show that even amateur porn movies "are also professional productions which simulate the look of an amateur, individual and/or homemade movies," according to a statement sent to AOL News by an assistant to one of the dismissed academics.
After much discussion, the supervisors agreed -- though they said Ozgun had to make a stronger intellectual point -- and production began on "The Porn Project."
When submitted, the film was deemed not to have satisfied academic requirements or production quality, and Ozgun failed the course. The following semester he received a D grade, or a pass on probation, and graduated Bilgi with an adequate cumulative GPA.
The movie might have been forgotten had Ozgun not given an interview to the Turkish magazine Tempo six months later. Other Turkish media picked up on the story, prompting the university on Jan. 3 to fire the founder of the visual design department, professor Ihsan Derman, and lecturers Ali Peksen and Ahmet Atif Akin.
The university also filed criminal complaints with the Turkish prosecutors office against the three, and an investigation has been launched, because distributing obscene material is a punishable offense under Turkish law, reported the Hurriyet Daily News.
Students and faculty rallied today at Bilgi to demand the three dismissed academics be reinstated. Mathematics professor Ali Nesin, who attended the protest and was one of the first academics to speak up in defense of his fired colleagues, said whether the film was appropriate was not the point.
"This is not the main issue for the moment, so I refuse to answer that question. Supposing that the professor who allowed such a subject as a thesis has made an error of judgment, there are more decent and admissible ways of dealing with this problem, mainly in an academic environment," Nesin said in an interview with AOL News.
The academics' dismissal was followed by the temporary closure of Bilgi's film department last week. On Jan. 4, police carried out searches in the offices of academics, downloading the contents of hard drives and removing hard drives from the faculty's computer lab.
"Our main issue for the moment is problem of the academic freedom and civilized ways of dealing with abuses," Nesin said. "Academic freedom is not about being allowed to drink coffee in one's office. It is about being able to do research and to work on controversial issues. Academic freedom encompasses also possible judgment errors and mistakes."
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Nesin believes the private university's strong response stemmed from concerns about the reactions from tuition-paying parents. He said university officials appeared concerned that the film, which was shot on campus, would harm Bilgi's reputation."This was a financial more than an academic issue," he said.
The university has made no official statement on the matter.
Ozgun has gone into hiding, as has the actress who appeared in the two-person film. Her name was revealed by Tempo magazine despite a prior agreement of anonymity, media sources told AOL News.
An assistant to fired professor Derman said he was not giving interviews because of the criminal complaints filed against him.
Alina Lehtinen contributed reporting to this article.
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