Boğaziçi University: President Erdoğan appoints new rector opposed by 95 percent of academics

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appointed Prof. Mehmet Naci İnci as the new rector of Boğaziçi University.

The appointment was made as per article 13 of Law no. 2547 on Higher Education and articles 2, 3 and 7 of Presidential Decree No. 3, says the decree issued late Friday (August 20).

İnci has been the acting rector of the university since Prof. Melih Bulu was sacked by the president on July 14 after months of protests by the school's students, academics and alumni.

Prof. İnci was the vice-rector during Bulu's tenure and has been among the main targets of the protests.

CLICK - Boğaziçi students to Prof. İnci: 'Weren't you ashamed at all when two students are arrested?'

In a vote held after Bulu's dismissal, Prof. İnci and Prof. Gürkan Kumbaroğlu, the other vice-rector, received a dissenting vote by 95 percent and 93 percent of the academics, respectively.

Seventeen rector candidates were determined in the vote attended by 83 percent of the school's academic staff.

Releasing a statement after İnci's appointment, Boğaziçi academics said İnci's appointment showed that the university's will was disregarded.

"The struggle we started against the appointment of Melih Bulu on January 2 by saying, 'We don't accept, we don't give up' was not only against the appointment of a person from outside the university.

"The main points that we did not accept were that the rector's appointment process was carried out without addressing the relevant committees of the university, by disregarding the will of the institution and in a non-transparent manner.

"After Melih Bulu was dismissed as the rector, we held a vote of confidence for all our professors who had announced their candidacy on July 30.

"The results of this vote are clear: While it was decided to support 17 academics, two deputies of Melih Bulu could not get a vote of confidence."

About Naci İnci

İnci graduated from Marmara University Department of Physics in 1987 and received his doctorate in 1992 in fiber optic sensors from Heriot-Watt University in the UK.

In 1993 and 1994, he did postdoctoral studies in the field of optical communication at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.

He became an assistant professor in 1994, an associate professor in 1996 and a professor in 2005 at Boğaziçi University Department of Physics.

Boğaziçi University Protests

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).

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, President Erdoğan appointed İnci as the new rector.

(RT/VK)