100th day of Boğaziçi protests: ‘We won’t give up even if it takes 1,000 days’

* Photo: Boğaziçi Solidarity

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Today marks the 100th day since the Boğaziçi University constituents have been resisting against the appointment of Prof. Melih Bulu as a rector by the decision of President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in early January 2021.

Meeting once again at the South Campus today (April 13), the students, academics and alumni reiterated their demand for Bulu's resignation.

'Anti-democracy not limited to appointment'

Boğaziçi University students made a statement to mark the 100th day of their resistance. "We, as all constituents, have been resisting for 100 days against all anti-democratic practices attempted to be normalized at the university and in the country," the students said, adding:

"The anti-democratic practices have not remained limited to the trustee-rector appointment to the university. Two trustee-faculties were established at the university one night in order to secure the position of Melih Bulu, who has not been accepted within the university.

* Photo: Elçin Özçelikel

"In this process, the trustee-rector has allowed our campuses and neighborhood to be terrorized by police blockade, he has closed the LGBTI+ Studies Club upon the request of the sexist and phobic mindset, which he is himself a representative of, and he has made the Commission for Prevention of Sexual Harassment (CİTÖK) nonfunctional.

'It is not independent of patriarchy'

"Again, as was expected from him, he has not failed to appoint his vice rectors and deans as trustees. 

"The trustee-staff composed of Melih Bulu, Naci İnci, Fazıl Önder Sönmez and Gürkan Kumbaroğlu and all these steps that we have listed show that the trustee-oriented mindset is not independent of patriarchy.

"Trustee-rector Melih Bulu wants to make our school unsafe for all constituents, especially women and LGBTI+s, and he tries to intimidate the students, whom he wants to be the rector of, with detentions and unjust investigations because they want a democratic rector election. Our resistance will continue until the trustee-rector and the trustee-staff leave!

"We will take back what you have stolen from us" (by Elçin Özçelikel)

"For 100 days, the government has been crushing up against the Boğaziçi Solidarity with its all forces, which does not intimidate us, but shows how right and legitimate we are. We were tested with detentions and arrests, because they know what we can achieve when we are together.

"We were strangled, because they are aware of how our voice resonates. We were faced with battery and torture, because they thought that they could dissuade us from our rightful struggle with violence, while we had shown over and over again that we would not do so.

"However, for 100 days, we have overcome them all, deriving our strength from our rightfulness and one another.

"Our resistance has been growing with the support from all parts of the country and the world and it will keep on growing as well."

Over 900 people detained

Further in their statement, the students also noted that over 900 people were detained during protests or in house raids. 

"Our 13 friends were arrested, over 30 friends were placed under house arrest, our one friend was targeted in a lynch campaign by personally facing aspersions of the state institutions," said the students.

"We will send away all trustees - Boğaziçi Solidarity" (by Elçin Özçelikel)

Raising concerns that several people trying to express support for Boğaziçi University were also subjected to violence, they added:

"We have been resisting as a generation who has witnessed since their childhood, how the ambition for power ruins the country; we have been resisting because we do not accept that this ambition for power corrupt universities, because we do not accept being cowed into this system of oppression that feeds labor exploitation and hate. We will never give up until our demands are met, even if it takes not 100, but 1,000 days. We repeat our demands, as we have been doing for 100 days:

• Especially Melih Bulu, the trustee-staff composed of Naci İnci, Fazıl Önder Sönmez, Gürkan Kumbaroğlu and all trustees must resign immediately.
• Our all friends whose judicial proceedings are ongoing and placed under house arrest must be released.
• University rectors must be determined in elections where all constituents of universities take part.
• The decisions attempting to open trustee-faculties at our school must be withdrawn.
• The unlawfully closed BÜLGBTİ+ Studies Club must be given the status of a student's club.
• All decisions aiming to de facto close down the CİTÖK must be withdrawn.
• The police who have blockaded our campuses must leave the school.
• The Council of Higher Education (YÖK), an institution of the coup, must be closed.
• The fundamental human rights and all Constitutional rights of all LGBTI+ students and all LGBTI+s must be recognized.

"We are bold enough to say these and more. We cry out loud together: 'There is no salvation alone; either all of us together or none of us!'"

'We owe this struggle to this country'

The academics of Boğaziçi University also made a statement to mark the 100th day of the protests against the appointed rector. 

Academics briefly said, "We respectfully declare it to the public that we stand behind our values, we will not give up on this resistance until the rector and vice rectors resign from office and the decision to found faculties is withdrawn and we see this struggle as something we owe to our students and country. This resistance will last not 100 days, but six months, 1,000 days and it will suceed in the end. We don't accept! We don't give up!"

(DŞ/SD)