Resistance of Boğaziçi academics on day 75

The protest vigil of the Boğaziçi University's academics marks its 75th day.

The resistance initiated by students and academics against president Erdoğan’s appointment of Melih Bulu as rector of Boğaziçi University is continuing. The academics, who gathered in front of the rectorate building to protest Bulu by turning their backs to his office, once again demanded his resignation on the 75th day of their protest.

In a statement the academics said that the blockade around the university was continuing:

“The guests of the appointed rector can freely enter the university. We request that these discriminatory restrictions on university entrance are lifted and that our graduates and guests enter the school with a HES code as before. Despite the bans imposed on the entrance of our graduates and our guests to the campus, the 100th day events were a vivid expression of the pluralistic, liberal and creative social environment of Boğaziçi University.”

The academics do not also accept the new appointments by the trustee rector, said the statement and continued:

"Based on the traditional election process, which has been effectively implemented for years and the rules of which are recognized by our senate, faculty members have determined the new director at the Institute of Science, as in the example of the Institute of Social Sciences. We expect the appointed rector to respect the institutional integrity of our university and the results of the legitimate election process. We demand that Prof. Naz Zeynep Atay, who was elected by the free will and majority of votes by all department members affiliated to the Institute of Science and Technology, be appointed as the new director of the institute. A few hours ago, we learned that Aysun Balkan was appointed as the director of the School of Foreign Languages ​​(YADYOK). This appointment, which was made without the consent of the YADYOK lecturers, has not been officially announced to the YADYOK staff.

YADYOK and its lecturers that form the basis of our university are the primary interlocutors of the issue. We condemn this unfair interference in their will.

We demand the resignation of appointed Melih Bulu, Gürkan Kumbaroğlu, Naci İnci, Fazıl Önder Sönmez and Selami Kuran, who was appointed to the newly established Faculty of Law overnight."