AKP spokesperson defends Erdoğan's controversial appointment to Boğaziçi University

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The appointment of a new president to Boğaziçi University, one of the top higher education institutions in Turkey, was within the legal framework and didn't harm academic freedom, according to Ömer Çelik, the spokesperson of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on January 1 appointed Melih Bulu, an AKP member outside the university's academic community, as the president of the university.

The move against the customary practices sparked outrage among the academics and the students of the university with hundreds of students protesting the decision facing a violent police response yesterday (January 4).

"The appointment was made within the legal framework. Such a discourse that academic autonomy or academic freedom is destroyed has no validity," Çelik told a press conference after a party meeting yesterday.

"It was also the case for other universities. But a debate is going on about the political identity of our professor who has been appointed as the president," he said, adding that a person having a political identity isn't a "crime."

"You may not like this method, you can give political advice but you can't say, 'This method is illegitimate'," said Çelik. "Ad when you call [him] a trustee, using the language of some groups, the words you utter don't have any meaning."

"Our professor had various duties in AK Party organizations ... Will we evaluate professors by their academic skills or political affinities?

"Those who emphasize our professor's political identity are actually trying to cover up their own political fanaticism. They are trying to make Boğaziçi University, its academics and its students a logistic element of their own political activities and fanaticism." (EKN/VK)