'Resign if you have honor': Boğaziçi students continue to protest new rector

Students in front of the courthouse show a banner that reads, "Defending the university is not a crime."

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Students and academics of Boğaziçi University continue protesting the appointment of a pro-government rector.

Academics gathered in front of the rector's office, turning their back to the building.

They stated they will do the same protest every day between 12 and 1 p.m.

Meanwhile, students gathered in front of the İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan, demanding the release of their friends who have been detained during the one-week protests.

Reading out a statement, students said, "You can't divide, scare and intimidate the youth with detentions, oppression, arrests ... Our friends will be free, the trustee rectors will go."

Afterward, students gathered in the university's South Campus. Addressing rector Melih Bulu, they chanted, "Resign if you have honor."

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What happened?

Prof. Melih Bulu was appointed as the President of Boğaziçi University in a Presidential Decree issued on January 1. The appointment of Bulu has sparked outrage 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 has also been supported by the academics from 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 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."

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 the International Competitiveness Research Institute (URAK), an NGO working on the 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.

(DŞ/VK)