Boğaziçi University resistance enters its second year

On January 4, 2021, students launched resistance against the trustee rector, Melih Bulu, who was appointed to Boğaziçi University by the government. On August 23, President Erdoğan appointed Prof. Mehmet Naci İnci as the new rector of Boğaziçi University, replacing Melih Bulu.

“What has been happening at Boğaziçi University for a year shows that Turkish universities have been rapidly undermined as democratic, free and autonomous scientific and educational institutions in Turkey,” the University Faculty Members Association said.

“Under the management of trustee rectors Melih Bulu and Naci İnci, new faculties were opened and appointments were made without the decision of the legal and elected boards of Boğaziçi University. Several faculty members were dismissed, investigations against staff and faculty members, disciplinary proceedings against students exercising their democratic rights were launched. We also saw the arrests of the students based on the complaints of the rectorate, and finally a new complaint against 16 academics by the rector himself,” the statement said.

The statement emphasized that the struggle of academics for the last 365 days promotes free and autonomous universities. “As the University Faculty Members’ Association, we support this struggle for a well-established public higher education institution and the principles that form and define it. We hail the resistance of our Boğaziçi colleagues as they enter the second year of the protests,” the statement said.