Academics of Istanbul's Boğazici University have filed an action for annulment with the Council of State against a decree by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that provides for two new faculties at the university. According to the decree, which was already published in the Official Gazette in the first week of February, a law faculty and a communications faculty are to be established at the university. The faculty fears that the "top-down" decision will cause serious damage that will be "difficult or impossible to repair in the short and long term." In addition, they say, the decree is inconsistent with constitutional principles, violates the Higher Education Act, and is thus "far from addressing the public interest."

In early March, seventy academics at Boğazici University had filed a lawsuit with the aim of removing controversial rector Melih Bulu from office. The state president's favorite had been appointed head of the elite university after the turn of the year. Protests against the overruling of academic autonomy have been taking place for almost three months, and several students are in prison as a result. Nevertheless, Bulu sees no reason to resign from his post.

Only a few days after the first action for annulment against his appointment as rector, Bulu appointed Naci Inci, a physicist who was devoted to him and who had also been appointed vice rector, as head of the Faculty of Social Sciences. He also appointed Fazıl Önder Sönmez as vice rector. At the same time, the latter has also been appointed as Dean of Student Affairs and Coordinator of the Financial Aid Office as well as Director of the Institute of Graduate Studies in Science and Engineering (FBE).

The academics, meanwhile, have announced that they will continue their resistance for academic freedom and university autonomy. This Monday, academics turned their backs on the rectorate for the 61st time. Students also plan to continue their protests against Bulu's appointment.