The 'new Boğaziçi University': Censorship, surveillance and LGBTI+phobia

(Photos: Boğaziçi Solidarity, Boğaziçi Resistance/Twitter)

Here is bianet's weekly summary of important events concerning politics, the coronavirus pandemic, human rights and freedom of expression in Turkey over the past week:

Boğaziçi University: First 100 days of Prof. Bulu

Yesterday marked the 100th day of the Boğaziçi University protests against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's appointment of a rector from outside the school's academic community. 

Under Prof. Melih Bulu's administration, bans on students' activities, those of LGBTI+s' in particular, and heavy police presence on the campus have become normal in a school that is otherwise known for its free-speech environment.

As students put it in a written statement, Bulu's appointment was not the only anti-democratic practice. So far, he has shut down the school's LGBTI+ club, dismissed elections for graduate institutes and appointed three vice-rectors to seven positions. 

One of the most striking examples of interference with students' activities happened last week when unknown persons "censored" a piece of artwork by covering breast figures in a picture with white paint. 

Unknown persons "censored" this painting, which had been there for three years. (Photos: Halil Ege Doğramacı/Instagram)

Halil Ege Doğramacı, a Boğaziçi graduate who did the artwork in question, told bianet that he had been placing guerilla paintings and sculptures on the campus here and there and hung the now-censored painting in August 2018. "It hadn't disturbed anyone until now," he said.

He has now taken the painting back from where it was and put it on sale. The money earned from the sale will be used for solidarity with the protesters, he said.

On the same day as the attack on Doğramacı's artwork, the rainbow-colored paint on some stairs was scratched out in a further move against the LGBTI+ community at the school, where carrying a rainbow flag on the campus is now banned in practice.

In yesterday's statement, the students noted that more than 900 people had been detained during the protests, with several of them spent weeks under arrest or house arrest.  

The school's private security officers were apparently also useful for the rector and the police to identify the students who may "cause trouble" to them.

In an interview with bianet, several students said they would "constantly spy on" students, taking their photos, filming them and reporting them to the rector and the police. 

Still defiant, the students said yesterday, "For 100 days, we have overcome them all, deriving our strength from our rightfulness. 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."

Read more on this topic:

• 'We claim our pluralistic campus life in the face of all attempts to make it gray'

• Bulu de facto shuts down commission on prevention of sexual harassment

• 'It's absurd that pening a rainbow flag is considered a crime'

• Appointed rector appoints men to all positions

• Dozens detained during violent police response to Boğaziçi demonstration

"Montreux declaration": Retired officers say they fell into a trap

Ten retired admirals who had been in detention for nine days in an investigation into the "Montreux declaration" were released on Tuesday.

Along with them, four other retired officers will also not be able to leave the city they live in as part of judicial control measures.

The investigation came after an April 3 declaration by 104 retired admirals expressing concerns over the recent public debate on the Montreux Convention on the regime of the Turkish Straits and leaked photos showing an active admiral at the meeting of a religious order.

Government officials quickly dismissed the declaration as an implicit coup threat and prosecutors opened an investigation against 14 of the signatories for "agreement to commit an offense against the security of the state and the Constitution."

From district agricultural directorates to the country's top appeals court, many state institutions and officials condemned the retired officers in the following days.

The Bosphrus strait (Image: Google Earth)

The Montreux treaty has recently been discussed from two aspects: Whether the president can pull Turkey out of it by issuing a decree and whether it would apply to Canal İstanbul, a planned artificial waterway parallel to the Bosphorus strait.

The convention restricts the passage of naval ships belonging to states other than the Black Sea countries through the Straits, which the admirals said was important for Turkey's security and therefore "all kinds of statements and actions that ... put it onto the table should be avoided."

While the opposition was divided over the declaration, some opposition politicians and pundits critical of the government also criticized the retired officers, especially because of the wording and timing of the declaration.

The declaration starting with the expression "To the great Turkish nation" and its publication at midnight resembled military coups in Turkey's history, according to them.

Citing such criticism, some retired admirals and their attorneys said there might have been a plot against them.

Retired Admiral Semih Çetin said that the declaration was shared on a WhatsApp group only four minutes before its publication on the VeryansınTV website. "How can you get 104 people's approvals in four minutes?" he wrote on Twitter.

Bildiriyi imzalayan bir Amiralden aldığım bilgiye göre; dün akşam yayınladığım belgenin tarihi değiştirilmiş, Yüce Türk Milleti ifadesi eklenmiş hali 2250'de grupta son kez yayınlanmış, 4 dakika sonra da Veryansın TV'de yayınlanmış. 4 dakikada 104 amiralin onayı nasıl alınır.

— semih çetin (@cetinasemih) April 9, 2021

Several retired admirals also noted that the text that was sent to them started with "Press announcement" rather than "To the great Turkish nation."

Also, its publication date was determined as April 6, they said.

Celal Ülgen, an attorney of the detained admirals, said on Halk TV yesterday that they suspected that the declaration might have been leaked and changed before its publication.

Barış Pehlivan, a columnist for daily Cumhuriyet, also made similar allegations yesterday. He noted that at around the same time as the publication of the declaration, articles about the signatories calling them "coup-loving admirals" were published on a website named "National Security Research Center of Turkey" (tugam.com).

In its "about us" section, the TUGAM claims the greatest threat that Turkey will face in the future is the "Sabbatean-Atatürkist Terrorist Organization (SATÖ)."

The columnist suggested that the style and reporting of the website resembled similar websites before the "Sledgehammer (Balyoz) coup case" in 2009 and there might be a similar "plot" against the signatories, some of whom served prison time during that trial.

Read more on this topic:

• Survey: 74 percent of people see no coup threat in Turkey

• Erdoğan: Turkey committed to Montreux treaty but it won't be binding for Canal İstanbul

• Putin tells Erdoğan Montreux Convention should be preserved

• Former MPs announce support for retired admirals

• Interior minister blames main opposition party for 'Montreux declaration'

• 'Montreux Declaration saved government from talking about people's problems'

The third coronavirus wave hits Turkey hard

While doctors' organizations complain about bed shortages, the Health Ministry denies such claims. (Photo: AA)

Over the past week, the number of daily cases in Turkey has been over 50,000, making it one of the top-five countries with the highest new cases.

President Erdoğan announced new measures on Tuesday as the number of new cases neared 60,000. Accordingly, weeknight curfews will start at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. and intercity travels will be banned for two weeks. Medical organizations had been calling for a full lockdown.

Daily fatalities have also reached unprecedented numbers despite the government's tactics to show the country's death toll lower than what it actually is, the secretary-general of the Turkish Medical Association, Prof. Vedat Bulut, told bianet.

The government does it by not adding the coronavirus patients without a positive PCR test, he said. "The numbers of deaths and cases are at least two times higher than the announced figures."

The accuracy of Turkey's official coronavirus figures has been questioned since the start of the pandemic. Yet the ministry data shows a sharp surge in the past three weeks as well:

In early April, the head of the Intensive Care Society, Prof. Cinel, warned that the third wave was spreading very fast and might lead to a chaotic situation.

This surge was down to the coronavirus variants, especially the UK variant, which makes up about 85 percent of the new cases, according to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

About the new variants, Cinel said, "The virus that used to be caught in five minutes can now be contracted in a minute. These are very important details. The numbers are increasing uncontrollably."

Read more on this topic:

• Minister: Turkey is facing a new peak, contagion is growing 

• 'Pandemic units in İstanbul hospitals are full, new ones are opened'

• 'Erdoğan is responsible for Turkey's grave COVID-19 situation'

• Is Turkey underreporting coronavirus deaths? Here is what we know

• Doctor's cause of death recorded as 'pneumonia' despite getting Covid treatment

Being officially recognized as a journalist is harder than ever

In response to a parliamentary question, the Presidency Communications Directorate announced on April 5 that it had canceled or not renewed the press cards of 1,371 journalists in two years.

The directorate in December 2018 was given the authority to issue press cards as part of the transition to the presidential system.

Since then, 10,486 applications have been made to renew the press cards. The press cards of 9,115 journalists have been renewed in this.

This gap was because of reasons such as journalists leaving jobs, losing their lives, changing the outlet they were working for or their judicial records, according to the directorate.

However, the Council of State on April 1 found that its criteria would "keep journalists under pressure and concern" and ruled that the basic principles to be sought in journalists for a press card must be determined in such a way to prevent arbitrary interference with their rights.

It hindered the authority of the directorate to revoke press cards on a series of grounds such as "engaging/having engaged in actions that would harm the professional dignity of press" and "acting against national security or public order."

One of the journalists whose press cards haven't been renewed is bianet's Project Advisor Nadire Mater, a 40-year journalist and a permanent press card holder. 

"I asked about the press card to relevant authorities in Ankara and İstanbul many times and my attorney Meriç Eyüboğlu's written application was left without a response. I don't know what happened to the permanent press card. There is neither a response nor the card," she said.

"This is censorship and it causes self-censorship in some cases. [Press cards] are a must in journalism practice; it is the first step that gives assurance to news sources at all levels.

"Let's remember the share of the press card in the killing of our journalist colleague Metin Göktepe: Police started their attack by saying, 'Show your card'."

(VK)