Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has appointed Prof. Mehmet Naci İnci as the new rector of Bogazici University after the removal of Prof. Melih Bulu that sparked harsh criticisms among both the students and academics of the university as well as in the academic community.
Students and alumni as well as politicians and activists have protested Erdogan’s decision to appoint Melih Bulu, an unsuccessful candidate from Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for a seat in parliament, as the university’s rector, since the beginning of January.
In a vote held after Bulu's dismissal, Prof. Inci and Prof. Gurkan Kumbaroglu, the other vice-rector, received a dissenting vote by 95 percent and 93 percent of the academics, respectively.
Seventeen rector candidates were determined in the vote attended by 83 percent of the school's academic staff.
Releasing a statement after Inci's appointment, Bogazici academics said Inci's appointment showed that the university's will was disregarded. Strong reactions on social media sites said 'We don't accept, we don't give up'.
They argued that it was a part of Erdogan’s broader effort to centralize control over universities and that it undercuts academic freedoms and democracy.
The students and several students' clubs of the university campaigned on social media under the hashtag #We don't want a trustee-rector. The call of the students was also supported by the faculty members of the university, who released a joint statement.
The students protested the appointment of Bulu in front of the South Campus of the university in Istanbul on January 4. However, the police intervened into the protest with pepper gas and plastic bullets.
As of February 7, the Bogaziçi Solidarity platform announced that at least 560 students were detained, 25 were sentenced to house arrest and 10 were arrested.
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