‘We are against all unlawful acts and proceedings’

* Photo: Boğaziçi Solidarity/Twitter

Click to read the article in Turkish

Since early January, when President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Prof. Melih Bulu as a rector to Boğaziçi University, both the students and faculty members have been protesting this appointment at their campuses and on social media platforms.

However, these protests are met by police intervention and violence, as in the recent case of Boğaziçi University protests in İstanbul's Kadıköy, where the police fired plastic bullets and pepper gas at protesters as well as journalists. One day before this intervention, the police also stormed the South Campus of Boğaziçi University and detained 51 students.

Against this backdrop, the chairs of 35 bar associations across Turkey have released a joint statement denouncing the police violence against students.

The statement has noted that the interventions against the students who use their democratic right of protest have no place in a democratic state of law. Referring to Turkey's Constitution and Constitutional Court's settled case-laws as well as to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), they have briefly said:

"It is against the Constitution and the ECHR as well as the settled case-laws of the ECtHR and Constitutional Court. We demand an end to all types of pressure on citizens who use their democratic rights that do not constitute a crime. As was also the case in the past, we are against all unlawful acts and proceedings, no matter where they come from."

Reiterating their call for an end to pressure on citizens who use their democratic rights that do not constitute a crime, the bar chairs have also called on the authorities to "abandon their statements and acts standing in contrast to Turkey's traditions of tolerance and humanism."

What happened?

As part of the protests against the appointment of Prof. Melih Bulu as the new rector of Boğaziçi University and against the arrest of two students over a picture on display in an exhibition at their campus, students protested in front of the South Campus in İstanbul on February 1. The protests continued in front of the Rector's Office later in the evening.

While the police detained 108 people during the day, they also stormed the campus and detained 51 others in front of the Rector's Office, which brought the total number of the detained to 159 people.

108 people were released after they gave their statements at the police station. Of the ones released a day before, 10 were taken into custody again and placed under house arrest by the court.

After another protest was held in Kadıköy on February 2 within this context, several people were also detained there. 22 of them are still held at the İstanbul Security Directorate on Vatan Avenue in Fatih.

Two students were arrested and two others were placed under house arrest on January 30 on the alleged ground that they "degraded or provoked the public to enmity or hatred" with a picture of the Kaaba with four LGBTI+ flags on its corners on display at an exhibition at the South Campus of the university as part of the ongoing protests against the appointed rector.

Five other people were also detained in the early morning hours on February 4 over their participation in the protests in Kadıköy. The security forces are reportedly searching for three other suspects.

(SO/SD)