‘We won’t abide by any bargaining, we want free universities’

"We don't want a trustee university president" (by Dilek Şen - bianet)

Click to read the article in Turkish

The protests of students and academics against the appointment of Prof. Melih Bulu, an academic outside its community, to Boğaziçi as the university president by President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan still continue today (January 11).

Most recently, the students of the Atatürk Institute have announced that they will hold a demonstration march against the appointment.

Ahead of today's march, the students of the institute released a written statement titled "We do not accept, we do not give up" and said:

"We will not abide by any bargaining with any of the trustees. We want egalitarian, democratic, free, and autonomous universities that produce knowledge for the sake of society, not the markets."

The full statement of the students reads as follows:

'We imagine free, egalitarian universities'

"We, the students of the Ataturk Institute of Boğaziçi University, call out to you from the depths of the abyss where the state of emergency, statutory decrees and the trustee regime have been dragging us to, all the while we have been imagining egalitarian, democratic, free, and autonomous universities.

"What kind of university do we seek? A place where one can think, discuss, and engage in scientific inquiry freely. Not just a place where students are formally educated, but also a place where they get to have encounters of the kind that teaches them the beautiful and joyful complexity of life.

"This is why we regard the existence of egalitarian, democratic, free, and autonomous universities as an utter necessity.

"We have been longing for the day when the right to have a voice and to be involved in the decision-making process encompasses all the components of the university indiscriminately.

'We have not ended up there in a single day'

"What were we stricken with? They want to persecute all of our dreams and efforts in the same manner they used handcuffs to close the gates of the university during our protests.

"We have not ended up in this situation in a single day. Hundreds of academics were expelled from universities by statutory decrees under the state of emergency. The appointment of rectors as trustees replaced the execution of democratic and lawful precedents. The pre-existing election process which constituted the bare minimum of democracy at university was abolished without any concerns about legitimacy.

"Our university, our neighborhood and our dreams are under the shadow of police blockade. They face police brutality as the doors of our friends are broken down in midnight police operations!

'We will not abide by any bargaining'

"What do we want? We want all constituents of universities across Turkey to preserve their right to elect their rectors.

"We will not abide by any bargaining with any of the trustees. We want egalitarian, democratic, free, and autonomous universities that produce knowledge for the sake of society, not the markets.

"We do not accept, we do not give up!"

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.

40 people in total were detained over the protests. All of the detained were released on January 7 and 8, 2021. (RT/SD)