ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey’s president has ordered the establishment of two new departments at the country’s most prestigious university, which has been rocked by weeks of protests over the appointment of a new government-linked rector.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision, published in the Official Gazette on Saturday, says law and communications faculties will be launched at Bogazici University. Critics say the establishment of new departments would allow the president-elect to be included in government loyalists.
For more than a month, students and faculty have largely led peaceful protests against the new rector, Melih Bulu, who has ties to Erdogan’s ruling party. They are demanding the resignation of Bulu and the university to be allowed to elect its own president.
In an open letter to Erdogan, protesting Bogazici students called the decision to open new intimidation departments and “petty tricks.”
“Your attempts to wrap our university with your own political activists is a symptom of the political crisis you have fallen into,” the letter said.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. Most were released later.
Senior government officials said terrorist groups were provoking the protests, and Erdogan called the students Protestant terrorists. The press statements of the Istanbul governor’s office listed the detention numbers with alleged links to left-wing military groups and outlawed Kurds.
Erdogan also elected Ayse Bugra, a professor emeritus at the university. Bugra is married to Turkish philanthropist and civil society leader Osman Kavala, who has been in prison for more than three years on charges of espionage and attempting to overthrow the government.
Erdogan accuses Kavala of being the “Turkish leg” of American billionaire philanthropist George Soros. On Friday, while a court in Istanbul decided to keep Kavala in prison, Erdogan said “his wife is a woman who is among the provocateurs at Bogazici University.”
Her students issued a separate statement on Saturday, saying the attacks on her must stop.
“We are deeply saddened by the personal and malicious attacks against her following the appointment of the rector of Bogazici University,” her students of more than four decades said, adding: “Ayșe Bugra is a source of inspiration for the thousands of students she mentored. … It is a treasure for both Bogazici University and Turkey. ”
Bugra said she found the president’s statement unfortunate and saddened her country.
Officials in the United States, the United Nations and the European Union criticized Turkey’s approach to the protests, as well as a series of homophobic comments made by Erdogan and other officials while denouncing the demonstrations.
By the same order, the president opened new faculties in several universities, closed others and appointed 11 rectors elsewhere.
Students in their letter to Erdogan said they knew his publication would likely lead to criminal complaints, including insulting the president, but vowed to continue speaking and protesting.