JOINT STATEMENT BY ALUMNI

‘Boğaziçi University condemned to the administration of the unelected’

The Boğaziçi Alumni have lashed out at the dismissal of three elected deans by releasing a statement: “We will not abandon our school, where we witness a projection of Turkey’s current governance crisis, to this lawless, totalitarian mentality.”

İstanbul

‘Boğaziçi University condemned to the administration of the unelected’

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The Alumni of Boğaziçi University from Turkey and abroad have released a joint statement and harshly criticized that three elected deans of the university have been removed from office by the appointed Rectorate upon the decision of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

In their statement, the alumni have said, "Our university has been condemned to the administration of unelected figures. We have been going through the darkest days of the struggle that we have been waging as all constituents against the trustee mentality in our university for a year" and stressed that they do not accept the related intervention in their university.

CLICK - Boğaziçi University | Three deans removed from office

The graduates have demanded the reinstatement of Prof. Özlem Berk Albachten, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Prof. Metin Ercan, the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and Prof. Yasemin Bayyurt, the Dean of the Faculty of Education.

The dismissed deans Prof. Özlem Berk Albachten, Prof. Metin Ercan, Prof. Yasemin Bayyurt

The joint statement of Boğaziçi University Alumni is as follows:

'It is time to raise our voices'

"Trying every way to take hold of our school, but failing to do so, the trustee mentality has made an intervention against the law and the principles of participatory governance by cooperating with the state institutions and abusing public authority, thereby aggravating the destruction and dismissals that have been going on for a year in our university, which is one of the most valuable public universities of our country.

"It is time to raise our voices higher, to extend our agency and to multiply our struggle in the face of this mindset which embraces normlessness and lawlessness as their mantra, attacks every legitimate objection with threats and brute force and thinks that it can govern the most valuable institutions of our country by hollowing them out.

'Struggle together'

"If we do not want to completely lose our university, which is almost held captive by those who have no other aim than destroying what is good and true and live in peace with this politics of destruction, we must, without losing time, build constructive collaborations with the ones who share the same ideals as us and struggle together for the development of right policies.

"We should not forget that no one's future can be safe in a country where arbitrary and unlawful practices are insistently kept in place for political ends, the law is used as a tool of oppression and intimidation, there is a desire to destroy autonomous and free universities and even the banners that voice this demand cannot be tolerated even for a day.

'We will enlighten this pitch-black darkness'

"We will not abandon our school, where we witness a projection of Turkey's current governance crisis, to this lawless, totalitarian mentality and we will make every effort to ensure that every unlawful act that we face will definitely be brought to account before the law one day.

"Solidarizing for a year to ensure that all universities of Turkey can produce science freely, we, as the Boğaziçi constituents, have been deriving our strength from our rightfulness and we have been resisting with the dream of a country where we can offer a valuable future to our young people.

"We believe that as we come together with the ones who wage a struggle like us in several fields and encourage one another, we will grow in number and definitely enlighten this pitch-black darkness."

What happened?

Prof. Melih Bulu was appointed as the rector of Boğaziçi University by a Presidential Decision published in the Official Gazette on January 2, 2021. The appointment of Bulu sparked harsh criticisms among both the students and academics of the university as well as in the academic community.

Appointed to Boğaziçi, one of the most prestigious universities in Turkey, from outside its community, Bulu was a candidate for nomination to run in the Parliamentary elections in 2015 for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which is chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The students and several students' clubs of the university campaigned on social media under the hashtag #kayyımrektöristemiyoruz (We don't want a trustee-rector). The call of the students was also supported by the faculty members of the university, who released a joint statement on January 3.

"An academic outside Bogazici University community was appointed as a rector, which is a practice introduced for the first time after the 1980s military tutelage," read the statement of the faculty members.

Amid harsh criticisms of students and faculty members, Prof. Bulu shared a message on his Twitter account, welcoming his appointment to the position, saying, "We are all in the same boat."

The students protested the appointment of Bulu in front of the South Campus of the university in İstanbul on January 4. However, the police intervened into the protest with pepper gas and plastic bullets.

Next day, it was reported that there were detention warrants against 28 people for "violating the law on meetings and demonstrations" and "resisting the officer on duty." Later in the day, 22 of them were detained.

40 people in total were detained over the protests. All of the detained were released on January 7 and 8, 2021.

The protests of students and faculty members at the South Campus of Boğaziçi University have been going on since January 4.

Taken into custody over a picture of the Kaaba, a sacred site in Islam, with a Shahmaran figure and four LGBTI+ flags on its corners, two students were arrested and two were placed under house arrest over this picture displayed at an exhibition as part of the protests at the South Campus.

On February 1, police stormed the South Campus and intervened into the students' protests. Earlier in the day, the students gathered in front of the campus for the protest. Police hindered the protest while also preventing the students inside the South Campus from joining their friends outside.

With the 51 students taken into custody inside the campus in the evening, the number of detained increased to 159. In a statement released by the İstanbul Governor's Office in the early morning hours on February 2, it was announced that 98 students were released from detention.

On February 2, Boğaziçi University students gathered in Kadıköy Rıhtım for another protest, which was attacked by the police with plastic bullets and tear gas. 134 people were taken into custody by the police. Two of the protesters were arrested by the court afterwards.

On February 6, four more people were arrested and two others were placed under house arrest over their participation in Boğaziçi protests in Kadıköy.

On the same day, Erdoğan issued a Presidential decree to open two new faculties at the university. In response to this, the Boğaziçi Solidarity platform addressed an open letter to the "12th President of Turkey."

A day later, student Beyza Buldağ was taken into custody for allegedly administering the "Boğaziçi Solidarity" Twitter account and arrested for "provoking the public to hatred, enmity and hostility" and "provoking to commit crimes" over both the letter and other Twitter posts.

As of February 7, the Boğaziçi Solidarity platform announced that at least 560 students were detained, 25 were sentenced to house arrest and 10 were arrested. Students have been arrested on charges of "degrading or provoking the public to hatred and hostility" and "resisting to prevent fulfilment of duty" as per the Articles 216 and 265 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

On February 10, one more student was arrested. With the release of Beyza Buldağ and Muhammed Önal on February 12, there remained nine students arrested over Boğaziçi University protests against the appointed rector.

On February 22, two more students were placed under house arrest on the grounds that they distributed the letter of an arrested student to citizens.

As the protests continued, President Erdoğan on July 15 sacked Melih Bulu. The Council of Higher Education (YÖK) appointed Vice-Rector Naci İnci as the acting rector one day later.

On August 20, 2021, President Erdoğan appointed İnci as the new rector. As of January 5, 2021, two students were arrested for protesting the appointment of Naci İnci. They were released on probation at their first hearing on January 7.

On January 19, 2022, the academics of Boğaziçi University announced that in line with the decision taken at the meeting of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) on January 18, Prof. Özlem Berk Albachten, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Prof. Metin Ercan, the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and Prof. Yasemin Bayyurt, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, have been removed from office by the rectorate.

(TP/SD)