Messages of solidarity from Oxford to Boğaziçi University

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Academics from Oxford University have denounced the appointment of Prof. Melih Bulu as a rector to Boğaziçi University by President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and shared their solidarity message with the Boğaziçi University students and faculty.

As the academics could not come together due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) measures, they held their messages of support, had their pictures taken and put a collage of these pictures in front of the Radcliffe Camera, the library of Oxford University, with photomontage.

Releasing a statement of support as well, the Oxford academics have underlined the importance of Boğaziçi University for the academia of both Turkey and the world, emphasizing that the universities coming under the control of the political regimes will lose their significance.

Some messages of support from Oxford academics are as follows

'For academic freedom'

"Recent developments at Bogazici University constitute an assault on the role that universities should play as guardians of the rational process. The peaceful protests which they provoked, which have been met with violence, represent, in essence, a demand and fight for academic freedom."

Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith FRS,

Emeritus Professor Oxford University, former Director General of CERN

'It exposes them to ridicule'

"As a long-term friend of Turkey and sincere admirer of its universities, I have observed with the greatest concern the rapid decline of Turkish universities in world rankings since Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected president in 2014. Boğaziçi, for example, has slipped from the rank of 139 in the Times Higher Education list for 2015 to its current rank of 601.

"The appointment by presidential decree of Melih Bulu reaches a new low. His appointment is almost universally opposed by the staff and students of Boğaziçi, and is approved by only Erdoğan and his supporters.

"Bulu's proven reputation as a homophobe and a plagiarist exposes Boğaziçi and, indeed, Turkey to ridicule. More importantly, his appointment abolishes at a stroke the academic freedoms and democratic values that Boğaziçi has cherished and protected for forty years. It is the duty of all of us fortunate enough to enjoy the freedoms and privileges denied to our Turkish colleagues to stand up and protest against this latest assault by President Erdoğan against Turkey's educational system."

Prof. Jeremy Johns, Director of the Khalili Research Centre;

Professor of the Art & Archaeology of the Islamic Mediterranean

'A grave damage to standing of education'

"The Philosophy Department at Boğaziçi has a strong international reputation. Philosophers worldwide are watching with horror the violations of university autonomy there and the brutal treatment of students. The government's behaviour is doing grave damage to the standing of Turkish education."

Professor Timothy Williamson

Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford University, Fellow of the British Academy, Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

'Achievements are in grave danger'

"At Oxford, we benefit greatly from the excellent publications of our colleagues at Bogazici and work with them at many international research projects. Our students specializing in Turkish spend their year abroad at Bogazici and return with excellent academic training.

"Also, there are a number of Bogazici alumni among the faculty, postgraduate students, and postdoctoral fellows at Oxford. Bogazici's achievements and academic reputation, made possible over the course of many years of painstaking labor, are now in grave danger because of the regime's brutal efforts to impose its political control over the university."

Assoc. Dr. Aslı Niyazioğlu 

Oxford University Early Modern Ottoman History

'It aims to punish'

"We have many Bogaziçi alumni who are now our colleagues and postgraduate students at Oxford. The excellent education they received at Bogaziçi University and its culture of academic freedom helped them flourish as brave thinkers who are able to question established paradigms and be critical of the world they live in.

"Bogaziçi University is not the only one. The appointment of unelected rectors to prominent Turkish universities (including my alma mater, Istanbul Technical University) in the recent years aims to supress the critical voices of numerous academics against its oppressive policies, and to punish them.

"As academics we must insist that being critical is good – something to be encouraged, not punished. There would be no good scholarship without criticism, and no good education without encouragement to question the systems we live in. This is why I stand with our colleagues at Bogaziçi and their students. Their defeat would mean the loss of possibly the last bastion of academic freedom in Turkey."

Zeynep Yürekli-Görkay

Faculty of Oriental Studies / Wolfson College, University of Oxford

'It is like a poison for democracy'

"I stand for Boğaziçi because I believe in academic freedom. Universities lose their purpose when placed under the control of a regime. A rector appointed by the president is like poison for a democracy."

Dr. Umberto Bongianino

Departmental Lecturer in Islamic Art and Architecture

'Resistance is inspiring'

"Our friends and colleagues at Bogazici are fighting so that education there remains pluralistic, comprehensive, and delivered in an environment of openness and free exchange.

"It's inspiring to see so many students and academics stand up, even at such great personal risk, and I hope that they receive the widest possible support from the international academic community."

Dr. Alexandra Vukovich,

Junior Research Fellow in Byzantine and Slavonic History and Literature

British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow

'A priceless asset'

"With its high academic level and pluralist institutional culture, Boğaziçi University has been making unprecedented contributions to science, welfare and peace in Turkey. I support Boğaziçi resistance because this success can be sustained only with an administration democratically elected from inside the institution. If Melih Bulu remains in office as the rector, the principle of meritocracy and freedom of thought will be destroyed and Turkey will lose a priceless asset. Turkey cannot entrust this wealth to those who disregard fundamental human rights, the health of students and the education resources of the country for their own interests."

Dr. Melis Laebens

Oxford University, Department of Politics, Prize Research Fellow

'Our identity is taken away from us'

"I am really sorry for my university where I spent five years of my life, which made me who I am and taught me the ethics of scientific thought and approaching everyone with respect and love.

"I feel as if our identity and history is taken away from us."

Dr. İrem Sepil

Oxford University, BBSRC Discovery Fellow, St Hilda's College Lecturer

'Threat to free expression'

"The freedom of expression is one of the most important principles in the pursuit of knowledge. I might disagree with what other academics have to say, but I defend and fight for their right to say it.

"When someone with close connections to a government, company, or any other external organisation enters into the university in a position of power, they can threaten that very foundation of free expression, especially if they have an external agenda that might pose a conflict of interest."

Peter Young

DPhil candidate in Population Health of University of Oxford

'Political interference, ideological constraints'

"Bogazici is rare top tier academic institution in Turkey that provides world class teaching and nurtures independent critical thinking.

"Political interference and ideologically motivated constraints on its mission to provide such first-rate education only make Turkey a more intellectually impoverished place."

Dr. Vazken Khatchig Davidian

Oxford University, Oriental Institute, Postdoctoral researcher

(EKN/SD)