Repercussions of appointing a loyalist to Erdogan as university rector

The arbitrary policies of Recep Tayyip Erdogan have even touched  on Turkish universities as he appointed a close associate of his and his ruling party as rector of the Bosphorus University which in turn sparked student protests that have been going on for three weeks. The Turkish media described the protest as a clear example of Turkish students and youth complaining about Erdogan’s policies and his interference in the affairs of universities.

The Turkish student protests that erupted in the various faculties of the Bosphorus University came as a direct reaction to Erdogan’s decision by which he appointed Melih Polo as rector of the university, a person who does not enjoy professional and political independence from Erdogan. A number of university students and professors are afraid of turning this appointment into a tool to subjugate the famous university and using it as one of the supplementary institutions for Erdogan’s ruling party.

The Turkish Zaman newspaper announced the mass arrests of students protesting against Erdogan’s decision. The newspaper stated that during the moments of the arrest of the students in Ankara, the police dragged them on the ground, beat and handcuffed them. The university protests were confronted by the Turkish police and security forces with ferocity, causing the injury of dozens of them.

Future Party Chairman Ahmet Davutoglu criticized Erdogan’s appointment of a person who ran several tasks in his ruling party and was a former candidate in parliament as rector of a university.

According to Turkish media, members of the educational staff of the Bosphorus University confirmed that “Polo is the first university rector to be chosen from outside the university since the military coup in Turkey in 1980”, expressing their rejection of that because it clearly violates the academic freedom and scientific independence as well as the democratic values of our university.

For fear that it would spread to the rest of Istanbul, Erdogan’s police closed the buildings and facilities of the university which the students considered as actual detention and imprisonment for them and prevented them from peaceful civil freedom of expression.

Students and professors of the Bosphorus University confirmed that Erdogan’s step was directed at the Bosphorus University, because it is considered one of the most independent Turkish universities from political life and graduates the largest percentage of the elite in the Turkish political, judicial and economic fields.

The Turkish student protests prompted Erdogan to incite his political ally, the head of the extremist Turkish National Movement Party, Devlet Bahceli, who demanded “to crush the demonstrators,” claiming “that they are part of a conspiracy targeting Turkey by stirring up unrest to cause an uprising in the country.”

Erdogan described the protesting students as terrorists, according to Ahval website.

The British Guardian newspaper published a report explaining the current political overlap between Turkish university life and the political pressures it has been subjected to by the Erdogan regime over the past five years, as thousands of academics, lawyers, journalists, civil and military employees have been arrested or imprisoned due to alleged links to terrorism and the coup.

For its part, the Swedish Nordic Monitor website also published a report explaining the detailed violations of the Erdogan regime towards Turkish universities.

Inas Abdulkareem