Erdoğan, Bahçeli target Boğaziçi students, LGBTI+s again as protests intensify

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President Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli have said that they don't regard Boğaziçi University protesters as the "children of the country."

"We don't accept these young people, who are members of terrorist organizations, as young people of our country who are really committed to the national and spiritual values," Erdoğan told his Justice and Development Party's (AKP) parliamentary group today (February 3).

"Are you students of terrorists who attempt to storm the rector's room and occupy that place?" he remarked.

More than 200 people have been detained over the past two days in demonstrations in the Boğaziçi campus, İstanbul's Kadıköy district and Ankara, the capital. Dozens of them are still in custody.

CLICK - Boğaziçi protests: 76 of 134 people released from detention

CLICK - Boğaziçi University protests in Ankara: 83 people released

CLICK - Police fire tear gas, plastic bullets at Boğaziçi University students in Kadıköy

Both academics and students of the university started protests after Erdoğan appointed Melih Bulu, a member of his party, as the rector of the university on January 1.

"This country won't be a country where terrorists prevail, we will never allow that ... This country will not experience a Gezi incident in Taksim," he said, referring to the countrywide protests against his government in 2013.

Also speaking about LGBTI+s, who have been subjected to hate speech by government officials during the protests, Erdoğan said, "LGBT... There is no such thing. This country is national and spiritual and walking to the future with these values."

"Our youth ... is not LGBT, this or that, is not a youth that attacks the police but who walks hand in hand with the police," he added.

CLICK - Boğaziçi protests: LGBTI+ groups denounce hate speech by government officials

He also reiterated his call for a new constitution and called on "all segments of the society" to contribute to it. The ruling AKP-MHP bloc does not have the necessary parliamentary majority to amend the constitution.

Bahçeli: These are vandals, barbarians

Also speaking at his party's parliamentary group, Bahçeli said academics and students who don't accept the appointment of the new rector should be dismissed from the school.

"What they call 'kids' or 'students' are vandals, barbarians who see red," he said, adding that "Using a few unconscious students, members of terrorist organizations fuel the fire. Holding onto Boğaziçi, bandits are challenging our country."

He also urged his ally to keep Bulu as the rector, saying that if a compromise was made, it would have "grave consequences."

Also posting messages on Twitter later, Bahçeli said, "Students and terrorists are different. If these are mixed into each other, as they are at Boğaziçi University, or, in other words, terrorists masquerade as students, there will be no peace or tranquility.

Repeating the İstanbul Security Directorate's statement, he said 79 of the 108 people who were detained were members of the outlawed DHKP-C and TKP-ML groups.

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 Bulu

Prof. 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.

(VK)