Three new lawsuits by academics of Boğaziçi University

* Photo: Can Candan

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Boğaziçi University academics have filed three new lawsuits against the decisions of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) and the new administration of the university, demanding that the execution of the related decisions be halted and the decisions be annulled.

'Their aim is to have the right to vote'

The first application has requested the annulment of the appointment of Melih Bulu as the acting dean of the Faculty of Communication.

Appointed as a rector to Boğaziçi by President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on January 2, Bulu was also appointed by the YÖK as an acting dean to the Faculty of Communication, which was itself founded by a Presidential decision.

Applying to the İstanbul 12th Administrative Court in this context, the academics have noted that "while the Faculty of Communication should have been established by law and though there was no relevant infrastructure or academic staff, the faculty was founded by a Presidential decision."

They have further underlined that "even though there are dozens of Boğaziçi University academics who had the knowledge, accumulation and experience to fulfil the related duty and even though there was no such obligation, the rector himself was appointed as an acting dean."

"The aim is not to establish a faculty or to manage that faculty, but to use the authority and right to vote of the dean by circumventing the law, thereby seizing the university," they have indicated further.

A permanent staff member somewhere else

The second application has been submitted to the İstanbul 9th Administrative Court and requested the annulment of the assignment of Dr. Muzaffer Eroğlu, a faculty member of Kocaeli University Faculty of Law, at the Boğaziçi University Faculty of Law, which was founded by the same Presidential decision establishing the Faculty of Communication.

The academics of Boğaziçi University have also made a statement about this application and announced that "Dr. Muzaffer Eroğlu, who later turned out to be a member of the permanent academic staff of Kocaeli University Faculty of Law, was temporarily assigned to work at the newly founded Faculty of Law as per the Article 40/b of the Law no. 2547."

The academics have noted that "his assignment was revealed when he attempted to attend the Senate meeting dated April 21, 2021 and numbered 2021/02 as the Faculty of Law Senate Representative."

According to the statement of the academics, Dr. Eroğlu was "unlawfully assigned without a decision of the University Executive Board."

The academics have stressed that "the aim of all these is again to have the majority at the Senate, albeit unlawfully, and to seize the university."

Raising concerns that "the customary practices and internal directives of the university have been suddenly made nonfunctional in an unlawful manner", the academics have underlined that "unlawfully undertaken temporary assignments to an unlawfully founded faculty to change the balance of votes at the Senate do not comply with the overriding public interest."

Senator by the decision of the YÖK

The third application of the academics has been submitted to the İstanbul 8th Administrative Court and requested the annulment of the appointment of Muzaffer Eroğlu as the senator of Faculty of Law.

The application has stressed that "Dr. Muzaffer Eroğlu, who has been temporarily assigned by the decision of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), has been appointed as a senator, which is null and void."

'It is obviously not legitimate'

Speaking about the lawsuits, attorney Fırat Kuyurtar has emphasized that they expect the execution of the related decisions to be halted urgently and all related actions to be annulled by the courts.

Referring to the above actions, he has underlined that "what almost all of them have in common is that they were taken 'suddenly one night'."

"The aim is to seize! The aim is to have the majority of votes, first at the Senate, then at the University's Executive Board. Such an aim is obviously not legitimate. We will not stay back from exercising out legal requests and rights of defense in the face of this!" (DŞ/SD)