Advisor to Boğaziçi University President resigns

* Photo: https://haberler.boun.edu.tr/

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In a statement on social media, Zafer Yenal, a professor from the Department of Sociology at Boğaziçi University, has announced that he has resigned from office as the advisor to the university president.

CLICK - Police attack students with pepper gas at Boğaziçi

After President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Prof. Melih Bulu, an academic outside its community, as the president of Boğaziçi University, it has sparked criticisms and protests among both students and academics.

In response to this appointment, a group of students protested in front of the South Campus of the university on January 4. However, the police intervened against the group, using plastic bullets and pepper gas. The gates of the campus were also closed by using handcuffs by the police.

The resignation of Yenal came amid these criticisms, protests and interventions on January 5. Indicating that he has been in office as an advisor to the university president since 2016, when the elected president of the university Gülay Barbarosoğlu was in office,  Prof. Zafer Yenal has indicated that he has resigned from office as of January 2, 2021.

Sharing details about his works at the university over these past four years, Prof. Yenal has said that through a series of projects such as Boğaziçi Lectures and BOUN 101 High School Summer and Winter Schools, he "worked to make a contribution to Boğaziçi University's cultural and scientific richness in its entire plurality and to share this accumulation with the public."

Reiterating his "efforts to ensure that the relations between the university and its alumni get much closer and to enrich and institutionalize these close relations," Yenal has thanked the alumni for their support.

Extending his thanks to his colleagues as well, Prof. Yenal has said, "Let's keep working harder for goodness, for beauty so that we will not see a university with its gates handcuffed again."

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.

As of 1.30 p.m. on January 6, 36 people were in detention.

After the İstanbul Governor's Office banned meetings, demonstrations and marches in Beşiktaş and Sarıyer districts amid students' calls for protest, the Boğaziçi Solidarity changed the date and place of the protest, calling on people to come to Kadıköy at 4 p.m. on January 6.

(AÖ/SD)