- Appoints a rector for a top Istanbul university in January
- Announces two new faculties at Bogazici University
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has addressed protests against perceived political interference at the country’s top university, by opening new faculties.
Announcement from the presidency has on Saturday announced the establishment of new faculties for law and communication at Bogazici University in Istanbul. Erdogan’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said the new faculties were part of the “quality-focused growth, development and internationalization” of Turkish higher education.
This is the presidents attempt to respond to ongoing protests by students and other members of the University’s over rector Melih Bulu’s appointment. Their grouse is that both actions gives the government the opportunity to influence staffing at the formerly American university, which Erdogan’s supporters see as excessively pro-western.
“Your effort to fill our university with your own political militants is an indicator of the political crisis into which you have fallen,” a group of Bogazici students wrote in an open letter to the president. “It’s legal, but it’s not legitimate.”
Opening a faculty via presidential decree is unusual: new faculties are normally opened on the university’s request after consultation with the Council of Higher Education.
Peaceful protests began in January among staff, students and alumni who want the rector to be elected rather than appointed, but Erdogan has accused the demonstrators of terrorism and linked them to broader challenges to his rule including the 2013 Gezi Park protests. Over 150 people have been arrested.
The question one is wont to ask at this point is whether the president like many other presidents all over the world has the right to the appointment of a university rector. If he has such authority, then it becomes quite obvious that this protest is sponsored and as the president says, it is sponsored achieve political scores by those in the background pulling the strings.
