Doctor of Medical Sciences, neurosurgeon, Professor Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil passed away on June 11, 2025, at the age of 99.
Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil was born in 1925 in Diyarbakır, Türkiye, and received his primary and secondary education in Ankara.
In 1944-45, he pursued medical education at Friedrich Schiller University in Germany (two semesters), then at Basel University in Switzerland, where he earned his medical doctorate degree in 1950. From 1953 to 1993, he worked intermittently in Switzerland, primarily at the University of Zurich and the university hospital, becoming a professor and head of the Neurosurgery Department in 1973.
From 1965 to 1967, he worked at the University of Vermont (in Burlington) in the United States. Since 1994, he worked in America, primarily at the University of Arkansas Medical School, conducting neurosurgical research and teaching. He performed 7,500 surgical operations and taught the secrets of his craft to more than 3,000 professional surgeons. He performed brain operations using medical instruments he designed himself. He is the author of numerous monographs and articles. He has been awarded numerous prizes, medals, and honorary titles. In 1999, he was declared "Neurosurgeon of the 1950-1999 Period" by "Neurosurgery" journal at the annual meeting of the traditional Neurosurgeons Congress.
Professor Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil returned to his homeland in 2014. Until the end of his life, he headed the Brain Surgery Department at Yeditepe University in Istanbul.
The staff of Khazar University expresses its sorrow over the death of Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil and extends its deepest condolences to his family and the leadership of Yeditepe University.