Erdogan boasts of academic freedom, cracks down on Bogazici

On Friday, Turkish Presient Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that there is not any university in Turkey where there is no academic freedom.

The announcement comes as Student Loans and Dormitories Institution (KYK) canceled the loans and scholarships of at least 100 students for protesting Prof. Melih Bulu, Bogazici University's appointed rector. The students have been asked to start paying back their loans as of July 2023.

Students, academics and alumni of the university have been protesting Bulu since his appointment by a Presidential decision issued on January 2, demanding his resignation and elections for a new rector.

The academics of Turkey's Bogaziçi University released a report addressing problems that emerged following pro-government, Prof. Melih Bulu‘s appointment to the university. The damage assessment report of the academics listed 40 damages done to their university, including appointment of an unelected rector to the university.

Academics and students of the school have been protesting against the appointment, demanding elections for a new rector within the school's academic community. Marking the sixth month of the protests , academics marched from Abdullah Kuran Library to the South Campus while students demonstrated support to them with applause and slogans.

Hundreds of Turkish students ignored police warnings and marched across Istanbul on January to protest President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of a loyalist as the head of the university. 

The protests spread in Istanbul and other cities in February, leading to the detention of 600 people and some clashes with police. As students from Bogazici and other universities continued protesting around the campus and online, Erdogan rallied to Bulu's defense.

The presidential appointment of university rectors has long been a source of conflict in Turkey’s academic world, which has long struggled for independence. 

The battle became more difficult in 2016 in the aftermath of the failed coup, when a decree gave the president the right to appoint anyone as a rector. Since then, many members and cronies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had been named to the top posts of universities across Turkey.

Politicians and academics point out that corruption and cronyism, including Erdogan’s ill-fated appointment of his son-in-law Berat Albayrak as the country’s economy tsar, is one of the main reasons the ruling party is losing votes.