BOĞAZİÇİ UNIVERSITY PROTESTS
Ankara Mayor calls on Bulu to resign, CHP Chair calls for students' release
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* Photo on the right by AA - Archive
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Since President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Melih Bulu as the new rector of Boğaziçi University in early January, students and academics of the university have been protesting this appointment from outside their community.
Just like the protests of students, the intervention of police officers and the detention and arrest of students have also been ongoing.
After the police fired plastic bullets and pepper gas at the students in Kadıköy yesterday evening (February 2), taking 104 people in custody, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has shared a video message on his Twitter account.
Emphasizing that Prof. Melih Bulu's rectorate is not desired or accepted by anyone, Kılıçdaroğlu has argued that "the political power holders have lost control and they are now drawing their strength from tension."
"Release the children of Turkey and put an end to the tension that you have created," Kılıçdaroğlu has called on the government.
"A trustee rector has been appointed to Boğaziçi University. No one wants it. Neither students and faculty members nor the alumni of the university... He cannot find a person to work with anyway," CHP's Kılıçdaroğlu has underlined and warned that "the tension has been rising."
"Violence is being inflicted on our children. Tonight, I would like to call out to not our dear students, but to their mothers and fathers: We are faced with a political power holder that has lost its control. It is feeding on tension. We need to have commonsense. We need to act in commonsense.
"I am making an open call to the government from here: Release the children of Turkey and put an end to this tension that you have created."
'You have a historic opportunity'
On the other side, Mansur Yavaş, the Mayor of the opposition-led Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, has also addressed an open letter to Bulu and called on him to resign from office as the rector.
"I write this letter to you with the responsibility of an executive," Yavaş has said in the introduction to his letter and added, "In our country which is tired of tension, you have obtained a historic opportunity. With a single move, you can do a great favor to our country and nation."
"You defined the Boğaziçi culture as a 'culture that can resolve issues without leading to a fight'. Here is the opportunity to do it: It is up to you to make a sacrifice without leading the issue to a fight, turn the university into its culture as a 'nest of science' and pave the way for 'reconciliation'."
Calling on Prof. Melih Bulu to act with commonsense, Mansur Yavaş has indicated that Bulu should resign so that "neither the young people will get hurt nor will they come up against the police." He has also stressed that "the issue is now not a discussion on his academic career, but driving the country into a new crisis through his name and position."
Yavaş has stressed that resigning from office is "his responsibility both as an academic and as a patriotic person."
"Don't deprive yourself and our country of this national duty and do the necessary without delay. In this way, you will write history with sacrifice and enable our country, which is on the verge of a new crisis, to have a sigh of relief," Ankara Mayor Yavaş has concluded his letter.
What happened?Prof. Melih Bulu has been appointed as the President of Boğaziçi University in a Presidential Decree issued on January 1. The appointment of Bulu has 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 have been campaigning on social media under the hashtag #kayyımrektöristemiyoruz (We don't want a trustee university president). 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 has 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. 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. 104 people were taken into custody by the police. About Melih BuluProf. Melih Bulu was appointed as the President of Haliç University on January 17, 2020. In office in this foundation university for less than a year, he has been appointed as the President of Boğaziçi University. He was a Dean and University President at the İstinye University from 2016 to 2019. Between the years of 2010 and 2016, he was the Head of the Business Management Department of İstanbul Şehir University's Business Management and Management Science Faculty. He was the General Coordinator of International Competitiveness Research Institute (URAK), an NGO working on economic competitiveness of cities and countries, from the year 2017 to 2019. Since 2011, he has been the Executive Board member of the İstanbul Electric-Electronic Machinery and Informatics Exporters R&D Market. In 2002, he founded the Sarıyer District Organization of the ruling AKP in İstanbul. In 2015, he was a candidate for nomination to run in the Parliamentary elections from the AKP in the first election district in İstanbul. He studied Industrial Engineering at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara in 1992. He did his MBA and PhD at Boğaziçi University's Department of Management. |
(EKN/TP/SD)