Students protest appointment of Erdogan loyalist to head top Turkish university
Students and faculty members decried infringements on academic independence during protests Monday after a member of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was appointed by presidential decree to head one of the nation’s top universities.
ISTANBUL — Turkish students protesting the political appointment of a ruling party member to head one of the nation’s top universities were met with chemical irritants and rubber bullets in Istanbul Monday.
Riot police dispersed demonstrators outside Bogazici University, where Melih Bulu, a long-time member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was appointed as school rector by a presidential decree issued Jan. 1.
The move has been condemned by students and faculty members in Turkish academia as an infringement on institutional independence and has sparked concerns over the increasing politicization of university administrations across the country.
“A politician as a rector, appointed by presidential decree, is unacceptable,” Zeynep Kurbanzade, a first-year political science student at Bogazici University, told Al-Monitor. “It is not democratic in any way.”
