‘We claim our pluralistic campus life in the face of all attempts to make it gray’

* 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 from outside its community on January 2, its students, academics and alumni have been protesting this appointment.

Turning their back on the Rector's Office at the South Campus in İstanbul since January 5, the academics' protest has been ongoing for over 14 weeks now. Today, on April 9, 2021, they once again turned their back on the appointed rector and read out their joint statement.

"Today is April 9 Friday. We are on the 96th day of our resistance and 70th day of our watch. We are addressing you from our campus where the press and our alumni are not allowed to enter and around which heavily armed police officers are patrolling," the academics said.

Noting that "the appointed rector and vice rectors kept undermining the elected boards and commissions of the university this week as well," the academics raised concerns that Cemre Baytok, the Coordinator and the only employee of the Commission on Prevention of Sexual Violence (CİTÖK), has been put on unpaid leave at the excuse of short-time work allowance.

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Cemre Baytok has recently announced that the email address where she replies to the appointment requests and applications has been transferred to the secretary of Vice Rector Fazıl Önder Sönmez, who was himself appointed by the appointed rector Melih Bulu. The related email address contains all applications since 2013, Baytok has indicated on Twitter.

One more position to Sönmez

Referring to the CİTÖK in this context, the academics of Boğaziçi underlined that "this decision has made the commission de facto non-functional." They noted that "the need for a full-time coordinator is indispensable to ensure that the meetings and applications will be handled with expertise, without any conflicts of interest and in compliance with confidentiality."

Sharing details about the activities of the CİTÖK, the academics underlined that "while it is openly written in the CİTÖK's Directive that its chair shall be elected, Fazıl Önder Sönmez, appointed to this position, apparently does not have the related experience and qualifications."

"This situation will lead the incidents of sexual harassment to be faced by the constitutents of the university to remain unknown and cause the victims to be deprived of the necessary institutional support."

"We find this decision, which is in accord with the government's decision of withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention, unacceptable," the academics of Boğaziçi University said, expressing their demand that CİTÖK Coordinator Cemre Baytok return to her job immediately.

5 thousand alumni demand resignation

Referring to their protests over the weeks, the academics said, "We have kept on struggling together for a democratic and autonomous university with all constituents of our university this week as well. On Wednesday, the members of the Alumni for Boğaziçi University (BÜİM) initiative put the petition signed by our 5,000 alumni against the rector appointment on display at the South Campus and held a statement for the press."

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Announcing that the alumni have also involved in the court case filed by the academics against the rector appointment, the academics reminded the public that the Education and Science Laborers Union (Eğitim-Sen), the union authorized to represent the Boğaziçi University personnel, also appealed to the Council of State against the opening of two new faculties.

CLICK - Boğaziçi University: New faculties taken to Council of State

Solidarity among universities

Underlining the solidarity among the universities within this context, the academics concluded their statement briefly as follows:

"Ahead of the 100th day of our resistance, we keep on claiming our free and pluralistic campus life with its all colors in the face of all efforts to make it gray. We once again demand that elected Melih Bulu, Gürkan Kumbaroğlu, Naci İnci, Fazıl Önder Sönmez and Selami Kuran, who was appointed to the Faculty of Law established one night, resign from office.

"We don't accept, we don't give up." (DŞ/SD)