‘There are still trustees, the struggle is just beginning’

* Photo and video: Melisa Elçin Özçelikel

Click to read the article in Turkish

After Melih Bulu, the appointed rector of Boğaziçi University, was removed from office by a Presidential decree, the students of Boğaziçi University, who had been protesting his appointment and demanding his resignation for 6 months, have made a statement about the issue.

Gathering in Rumelihisarüstü in İstanbul and marching from the South Campus to the campus gate yesterday (July 15), the students of Boğaziçi University chanted the slogans, "We won't, we won't, we won't turn away from this path" and "You will never walk alone."

CLICK - Boğaziçi students 'to continue struggle' after sacking of rector

The statement of the Boğaziçi Solidarity briefly read:

"There is nothing that has changed today! We will continue to struggle in a more determined manner.

"Today, the victim of the trustee appointments, which started with the Statutory Decrees of the State of Emergency, is Melih Bulu, who entrusted his will to the palace.

CLICK - Boğaziçi University's appointed rector removed from office

'We will not take a step back'

"We, as the constituencies of Boğaziçi University, did not take a step back during this process and we will not take a step back until the democratic demands that we raised while setting off are fulfilled.

"We know that no gain can be achieved in the name of democracy from the Presidential decrees, which are responsible for the annulment of the İstanbul Convention, the discharge of the Academics for Peace and the appointment of trustees to the municipalities of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

"Today, there is no sign of an end to the policies of violence and pressure that were started against those who raised the motto 'We will not make you the President' in 2015.

CLICK - Boğaziçi University | Vice rector appointed as acting rector

'Trustees are still in place'

"There has been an attempt to intimidate the people from the HDP, whose will trustees have been appointed to, with a party closure case and attacks. While dozens of academics have been discharged from the Ankara University, [rector] Erkan İbiş is still in office.

"Today is July 15; İzmir Dokuz Eylül University Rector Nükhet Hotar, whose name is involved in the FETÖ exchange, is still in office.

Melih Bulu'nun görevden alınmasının ardından öğrenciler açıklama yapıyor. "Dönmeyiz, dönmeyiz biz bu yoldan dönmeyiz" @boundayanisma pic.twitter.com/KBC35gdPMA

— ruken (@ruken_tuncel) July 15, 2021

"The pressure of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), an institution of coup, on universities is still in place. The blockade on Boğaziçi University, as in the case of all universities, is still ongoing.

'Nothing has changed'

"There is nothing that has changed today! Amid an administrative crisis, the government wants to dominate all segments of the society.

"Justice has not been served for the ones massacred in Suruç. The ones responsible for the October 10 Ankara massacre have not been brought to book. [Jailed former HDP Co-Chairs] Selahattin Demirtaş, Figen Yüksekdağ and political prisoners have not been freed.

"There are still thousands of university students in prisons, including Boğaziçi University students Adalet Karataştan and Tahsin Barutçu.

'We are calling for a struggle'

"The lives of LGBTI+s and women are in danger. The exploitation of nature and labor has been continuing at full speed all across Turkey. The only arrested person in the Soma case is lawyer Selçuk Kozağaçlı, who defended the rights of the massacred miners!

"For this reason, we today say that there is nothing to be happy about and that the struggle has just begun. We call on all groups whose democratic rights have been usurped to wage an independent and joint struggle." (MEÖ/RT/SD)