‘We owe this country, we owe this people’

* Photo: Can Candan

Click to read the article in Turkish

Prof. Melih Bulu was appointed as a rector to Boğaziçi University by President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on January 2, 2021. This appointment from outside the university's community and without any electoral process has been rejected by all constituents of the university since the very first day.

The first protest was staged at the South Campus in Rumelihisarüstü in İstanbul on January 4. Following the police intervention on that day, the academics started to "turn their backs" to the Rector's Office at Üstün Ergüden Quadrangle in protest. Since then, they have been "turning their backs" to the office and demanding one thing: Resignation.

Most recently, over 70 academics applied to the Council of State on February 26 and requested the cancellation of Bulu's appointment. This time, the request is to cancel the appointment and to take the necessary steps to ensure that Turkey's universities are autonomous institutions.

Speaking to bianet about the last two months of Boğaziçi University and the future of Turkey's academia, Prof. Yaman Barlas from the Department of Industrial Engineering says, "We will solve this problem of appointment. Maybe in five months, maybe in five years... But we will definitely solve it. Autonomous and free university will definitely win in the end, definitely!"

'It is against the essence of law'

After two months of protests against the appointment of Melih Bulu, we can now talk about several different protests. But the public did not know that an application was made to the Council of State and how it was decided. Can you talk about this process?

Since we heard about the rector appointment, we had known that there was a legal problem with this process. We thought that there was something unlawful about the appointments in other universities as well. But we regarded this statutory decree issued right after the coup attempt as a temporary situation peculiar to the State of Emergency environment; we perhaps considered it to be "normal" in a sense.

As for the method of appointing university rectors, which has now become permanent, it is against the provisions of the Constitution, university autonomy and the essence of law in several respects. We talked to the most experienced legists about this. They came to the conclusion that "it was a very sound and necessary application, it needed to be abolished in the end."

And we made the application. In fact, above all else, we fulfilled our civic duty. Because it is a problem which is much more comprehensive than the appointment of an unsuitable rector to Boğaziçi.

The universities of Turkey cannot accept the appointment of rectors in this way, they do not deserve this. There are very different systems of determining rectors around the world. Let's discuss these systems. But, in order to talk about what needs to happen, let's first agree on what must never happen. Such a system of appointment is totally unacceptable. No civilized country of the world has such a system. This system needs to be abolished immediately. Neither Boğaziçi nor other public universities deserve such a system. We, in fact, made our application for all universities.

* Photo: Science at Boğaziçi website

'University cannot be administered'

After the appointment of the rector, it took quite a long time to determine the vice rectors. It was also criticized that Naci İnci from the Physics Department accepted the position. However, most recently, İnci has been appointed to the Institute of Social Sciences as a substitute. What would you like to say about this state of inability to administer the university, as revealed with the appointment of İnci?

We have been saying over and over again for two months that university cannot be administered with this attitude, but we cannot make it understood. The system, in the end, has started to manifest its own handicap. The university cannot be administered now. If you appoint a person who does not know the university and knows nothing about its boards, rules, culture and customary practices from outside its community, if you can hardly find only two vice rectors in 1,5 months, if you establish two faculties without any consultation and appoint a dean from outside, this baby is born handicapped in all aspects. It comes apart at the seams.

At last, a physics professor is appointed to the Institute of Social Sciences. It comes to such a point that the rector uses almost the only person he can find. It is not a coincidence that the university cannot be administered. If you do not recognize and understand the institutional autonomy of the university, this is what happens. Turkey's universities have developed their own boards, rules and customs for tens, even hundreds of years. When you step out of this, you cannot administer the university.

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A serious step

What do you think about the struggle of Boğaziçi today, what does it say about the future of Turkey's academia?

We owe this country, we owe this people. We have been striving to give the best education and do the best research for years. This is the cause, this is our duty. And this requires an autonomous, free, self-governing university. We will solve this problem of appointment. Maybe in five months, maybe in five years... But we will definitely solve it. Autonomous and free university will definitely win in the end, definitely! No problem can linger forever.

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The universities of Turkey will leave behind their infancy and be no longer the civil servants of the government, they will give modern higher education and do modern science. The universities of Turkey will win, sooner or later. Political power holders, no matter who they are, will learn it. What I am saying is independent of the current political power holders.

But we will not hide behind an excuse until this problem is solved. The faculty of Boğaziçi will keep on giving the best education and doing the best research under these circumstances as well. We, as the academics of the university, guarantee this. The parents and students who hear us will also better understand that it is a real university. The quality of students will increase even further. And, more importantly, all public universities of Turkey will take a serious step to be autonomous and free universities in the end.

(DŞ/SD)