Protesting the appointment of Melih Bulu as their new university president since January 4, students of Boğaziçi have commemorated journalist Hrant Dink at their campus on the 14th anniversary of his assassination.
* Photo: Boğaziçi Solidarity
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Since President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Prof. Melih Bulu, an academic outside its community, as the new rector of Boğaziçi University on January 2, the students and faculty members of the university have been protesting this appointment at their campus and social media.
While the academics turn their backs to the rector’s office everyday, students’ protest has turned into a watch at the South Campus.
Today, on the 14th anniversary of the assassination of Agos Newspaper Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink in a racist murder in İstanbul on January 19, 2007, the students commemorated Dink in their tents.
Students attended this year’s online commemoration due to the pandemic from the South Campus. Students hung banners around the campus in Kurdish, Armenian and Turkish in memory of the late journalist.
“For Hrant, for Justice” and “You are here, ahparig,” read the banners.
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.
https://bianet.org/english/human-rights/237829-bogazici-students-remember-dink-for-hrant-for-justice
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