GSÜ SOLIDARITY

‘When they handcuffed the gates of Boğaziçi, they handcuffed the entire academia’

Protesting Prof. Bulu, who has been appointed as the new president of their university, Boğaziçi students have expressed their support for the workers of Bimeks electronics retailer, who have been protesting their former boss still teaching at the school.

İstanbul

‘When they handcuffed the gates of Boğaziçi, they handcuffed the entire academia’

"Let Bimeks workers administer Boğaziçi" (by Boğaziçi Solidarity)

Click to read the article in Turkish

The students of Boğaziçi have been protesting Prof. Melih Bulu, who was appointed as the new president of the university by President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a Presidential decree on January 1.

While the students started keeping watch at the South Campus of the university in İstanbul yesterday (January 13), some students also met the former workers of Bimeks electronics retailer in front of the İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan.

Dismissed without their wages and severance paid, former Bimeks workers have been protesting Vedat Akgiray, one of the owners of the company who is still teaching classes at Boğaziçi University.

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Meeting in front of the courthouse, students carried a banner that read, "Let Bimeks workers administer Boğaziçi." Speaking on behalf of the students, Hüseyin Arif Sarıyaşar briefly stated the following:

"We, as the students of Boğaziçi, thank Bimeks workers very much. Because it is thanks to them that we have learned we are harboring a thief in our school. While we have been expressing our demands for our rights since the very beginning, we have also been defending the idea that workers, academics and students should stand together.

"There are thief bosses in both our universities and several other places. We say that we will stand fast against them and that this mindset is associated with the mindset of trustees. We will not harbor the pro-trustee mindset or the Akgirays in either Boğaziçi or Özyeğin University."

Support from Galatasaray University

The students of Galatasaray University (GSÜ) also protested in support of Boğaziçi University students. Meeting at the campus in Beşiktaş, İstanbul, students said, "With the handcuffs used to close the gates of Boğaziçi University, they have handcuffed the entire academia."

"The pressure on academia is the product of a mindset that wants to disturb the free, democratic and multivocal structure of universities, handicaps science and turns universities into profit-oriented institutions," stated the GSÜ students and briefly added:

"This mindset has been trying to portray the legitimate objections and protests of students as elements of crime and labeling the ones who do not think like itself as 'terrorists' and 'provocateurs'.

'We do not bow down to anti-democratic order'

"In an attempt to suppress the opposition, the government does not stop using its power in a discriminatory manner by using anti-democratic methods and trampling upon human human rights.

"What happened on January 4, 2021 and the days after is a concrete indication of this. The police violence, arbitrary detentions, the torture of strip search hurting human dignity, harassment, sexual violanece and LGBTI+phobic statements faced by our friends are unacceptable.

"The pressure of the government is reflected in the entire public sphere, from the academia where Academics for Peace and academic personnel were purged to NGOs and the vast majority of HDP municipalities.

"We, as the GSÜ Solidarity, reject this mechanism of trustees that puts aside democracy and we call on the constituents of all universities to solidarity. We do not bow down to the anti-democratic order."

"We don't want trustee university presidents"

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.

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)