One of Our Own Who Overcame the Impossible and Achieved Outstanding Success: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet İlhan
This article celebrates Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet İlhan, a member of the Geloy community, who defied educational barriers to achieve remarkable success in medicine.
It is, of course, our sole wish that all young people succeed in life and achieve their desired career goals. However, the person I am about to introduce to you is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet İlhan, who, in a sense, achieved the impossible by shattering the education-resistant structure of the Geloy community, to which I also belong, through his intelligence and determination. He has achieved and continues to achieve outstanding successes in serving his country and humanity, and we are proud to call him a relative.
Allow me to share with you, step by step, the path taken by our esteemed Professor. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet İlhan was born in Doğubayazıt in 1980. When he was just two years old, his family moved to the village of Mezra, located in the central district of Iğdır. I know that village and the surrounding villages well. The impossibilities facing young children there are so numerous that you have to be content with wherever life takes you.
Uncle Medet, a father of ten, is a forward-thinking man. He moved to the center of Iğdır for his children's education. Soon, luck smiled upon two brothers: Mehmet and Metin began their education at Kağızman Boarding Primary Regional School between 1987 and 1985. Mehmet was diligent and determined. He finished school with outstanding success and then took the State Boarding Schools exam, winning admission to Kars Alparslan High School, from which he graduated with outstanding success from the science department between 1995 and 1998.
He continued this success in the university entrance exams, gaining admission to Istanbul Faculty of Medicine in 1998. After six years of basic education, he took the Specialization Exam in 2004 and secured his first choice, General Surgery. Between 2004 and 2009, he successfully completed his specialization training in the Department of General Surgery at Istanbul Faculty of Medicine. During this time, he served for a short period of about 2 months at Ağrı Eleşkirt State Hospital. Additionally, between 2010 and 2012, he worked as a General Surgery Specialist at Bakırköy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital. In 2012, he continued his career as a General Surgery Specialist in the Department of General Surgery at Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine.
In 2017, he passed the Associate Professorship Exam with distinction, securing his first choice in the General Surgery department, and soon after received the title of Associate Professor. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet İlhan currently continues to serve as an Associate Professor of General Surgery in the Department of General Surgery at Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine. He is married and a father of two children.
Our greatest wish is for our esteemed Professor to receive the title of Professor as soon as possible, serving as an example not only for the children in Mezra village but also for our children and young people who are drowning in the despair-filled lives of rural areas. We wish him outstanding success and want him to know that he lives in our hearts and minds as a monument of honor.
Mücahit Özden Hun
