* Photo: Can Candan
Click to read the article in Turkish
Since President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Prof. Melih Bulu as a rector to Boğaziçi University on January 2, both the students and academics have been protesting this appointment on various platforms.
While these protests have been going on for over two months now, several people, both from Turkey and around the world, including academics, artists and writers have expressed their support.
Most recently, the Senate and Rector's Office of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany's state of Rhineland-Palatinate have released a written statement of support and said:
'They are for universal values'
"Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has long maintained close partnership with world-renowned Boğaziçi University in İstanbul. Since the beginning of January this year, students and scientists have been protesting against the politically motivated appointment of a rector.
"These took place by decree of the President Erdoğan without any involvement of the university bodies and in disregard of the principles of the university, which required the election of the rector.
"Our colleagues and fellow students are resolutely against the curtailment of academic freedom and the institutional autonomy of their university and thus for universal values that represent the core of university thought.
'We observe it with outrage and concern'
"We are observing with outrage and great concern the vehemence and violence with which the peacefully protesting fellow students and colleagues are confronted: The police use violence against students; injuries and numerous arbitrary arrests occur.
"We are horrified to see how the President and the media close to the government defame professors by name and declare them supporters of terrorism, how the LGBTI+ association is portrayed as a scapegoat and the commitment to liberal thoughts and values is branded as treason.
"The massive interventions in the higher education autonomy of the Turkish universities as a whole have been going on for years. We are familiar with similar attacks on democratic structures, on freedom of expression and social plurality from our own history.
'We strongly condemn the repression'
"We consider it our responsibility to stand up for the freedom of science and universities together; we strongly condemn the repression against our partner university. We demand the immediate release of the arrested students and an end to the attacks on our colleagues and fellow students.
"We stand by their side and support their resistance and their demand for elections for the office of rector."
What happened?Prof. Melih Bulu was appointed as the President of Boğaziçi University in a Presidential Decree published in the Official Gazette on January 1, 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 rector (university president), which is a practice introduced for the first time after the 1980s military tutelage," read their statement. 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). CLICK - Why are 11 university students arrested? 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 of March 12, eight students are still arrested. |
(DŞ/SD)
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