2021 Boğaziçi University protests

The 2021 Boğaziçi University protests were demonstrations that started on 4 January against the appointment of Melih Bulu by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as rector of Boğaziçi University, which is one of the top academic institutions in Turkey.

Background

Melih Bulu, who has ties to the ruling AKP, was appointed as rector by presidential decree on 2 January 2021. According to faculty, Bulu was the first rector chosen outside the university since the 1980 coup d'état. After the coup, Ergün Toğrol, who was an academician in Istanbul Technical University, had been appointed as the rector of Boğaziçi University.

Protests

Hundreds began protesting on 4 January following the appointment, chanting slogans such as "Melih Bulu is not our rector" and "we don't want a plagiarist rector". In a shared statement, faculty regarded the appointment as a violation of "academic freedom and scientific autonomy, as well as the democratic values" of the Boğaziçi.

Later on the day, one of the university's buildings was sealed off by students who were able to enter the campus. Then, protesters clashed with the police as they tried to break a barricade in front of the entry to the university, causing security forces to use pepper spray to disperse the demonstrators. Two students were detained in the course of protests. By 6 January, 36 students were in detention. Protests by students and faculty outside the rector's office have continued into February, with many other Turkish universities and Boğaziçi alumni associations abroad joining in protest against the appointment.

As part of an art exhibition organised for the protest, an artwork on campus reportedly depicting the Kaaba alongside a LGBT flag and a figure of Shahmaran led to the arrest of four students, who were in the exhibition team. Turkish Ministry of Interior Süleyman Soylu referred to the arrested students as "four LGBT perverts", causing Twitter to later restrict his tweet. After this event, Boğaziçi University LGBT Studies Club was closed by order from Melih Bulu. Bulu defended and claimed himself as a LGBT rights advocate.

On 1 February, police blocked the gate of the South Campus to prevent demonstration. Water cannon and barricades were installed. Later that night, police stormed the campus and detained 159 students. Several protestors in İzmir and 69 in Ankara were also detained. On 2 February, Turkish police arrested and detained 104 near the university in Kadıköy, and responded to demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets. Citizens of Istanbul banged pots and pans in many parts of the city to show their solidarity with the protest. On 3 February, 50 people were detained in Izmir.

On 12 March, students were arrested because they were showing rainbow flags during a demonstration. On 26 March, students protested in front of the justice palace in Istanbul for their release. During this demonstration another 50 students were detained. On 1 April, a demonstration took place in Kadıköy. 35 students were detained and they were released by night.

Reactions

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that "a routine appointment" was "being used to provoke the universities." He also named protestors as "terorists" and denounced LGBT youth. MHP chairman Devlet Bahçeli stated in his written statement that the rector was appointed by legal means and the issue was closed. Bahçeli added that the protesters should not "strain their chances" and "not get caught up in anarchist projects", describing the protests "a conspiracy that needs to be crushed." Erdoğan's Secretary of Interior Soylu stated that rector elections do not need to be democratic.

The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu from the center-left main opposition party CHP, supported the protests. Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the chairwoman of the CHP branch in İstanbul also spoke in solidarity with the protest and was named by Erdoğan "a terrorist of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front." This led to a criminal complaint against the president by Kaftancıoğlu.

23 days after the nomination of the new rector, no academic from the university had agreed to assist Bulu as vice-rector. As of 1 February, Prof. Dr. Gürkan Kumbaroğlu and Prof. Dr. Mehmet Naci had been appointed as two of his assistants. As of 24 March, Prof. Dr. Fazıl Önder Sönmez had been appointed as the last assistant to the rector.

On 6 February 2021, 2 new faculties have been opened by the Turkish Presidency. Protestors have seen this move as a creation of new staff to work with Bulu and giving legitimacy to him. In March 2021 around 70 teachers of the university filed a lawsuit to depose Bulu from his office. Meanwhile, Bulu appointed the physicist Naci Inci, who also agreed on the vice-chancellor position, to be the leader of the social-scientific center of the university. After 6 months of protest, Bulu was removed by another presidential decree.

Analysis

In a column of the newspaper İleri Haber, Baran Doğan stated that since the government could not stop the protests through "oppression, violence and threats", they claimed that most of the demonstrators were not students but provocative terror groups in order to overshadow the legitimacy of the protests.

See also

* Gezi Park protests

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bogazici University protests, 2021
Protests in Turkey
2021 protests
2021 controversies
2021 in Istanbul
Academic controversies
Boğaziçi University
February 2021 events in Europe
January 2021 events in Europe
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan controversies