Bulu waves from window, students demand his resignation

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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.

All entrances to Boğaziçi University were reportedly closed today (January 5). Moreover, contrary to what Prof. Bulu said yesterday on HaberTürk TV, police officers entered the campus of the university.

Melih Bulu also attended a live YouTube interview by journalist Cüneyt Özdemir today. Speaking to Özdemir, Bulu said, "As you see, I always lay claim to the children (students) protesting. But laying claim does not do; if they commit a crime, this has something."

While Bulu got on the window of his office to wave, students who gathered in the South Campus were booing and calling on him to resign.

KAYYUM BİZE EL SALLAMIŞ; UZLAŞMAK, ÇAY-KAHVE İÇMEK İSTİYORMUŞ.
BİZ SİZİ ARKANIZDAN EL DAHİ SALLAMADAN UĞURLAYACAĞIZ, KUŞKUNUZ OLMASIN! @melihbulu pic.twitter.com/05t5TZoRfY

— Boğaziçi Dayanışması (@boundayanisma) January 6, 2021

Students have been requesting that their detained friends be released. In today's protests as well, they were chanting the slogans, "Trustee university president, resign" and "Trustees will go, we will stay."

On the other side, answering the questions of Özdemir, Bulu said that he would go out on the campus after the broadcast and have tea and coffee with students. When Cüneyt Özdemir asked him, "Did you plan to wave," Melih Bulu answered, "No, why should I? You determined the hour, I did not tell the students to come at this hour."

They made him listen to Metallica

After Melih Bulu said on HaberTürk yesterday, "I am from Boğaziçi, too; I am a university president who listens to hard rock and Metallica," the students played and listened to Metallica songs at the campus.

Protest at #BogaziciUniversity | Students call on appointed university president Prof. Bulu to resign with Metallica songs https://t.co/2uqVgAeqOb pic.twitter.com/ugHy37Jjwt

— bianet English (@bianet_eng) January 6, 2021

Call for protest in Kadıköy

After the İstanbul Governor's Office banned meetings, demonstrations and marches in Beşiktaş and Sarıyer districts amid students' calls for protest today at 2 p.m., the Boğaziçi Solidarity has changed the date and place of the protest. In a message shared on Twitter, the solidarity has called on "all artists, academics, MPs and friends from other universities to come to Kadıköy Rıhtım at 4 p.m. to raise the struggle."

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.

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. (DŞ/SD)

* Photos: Boğaziçi University students