Since January 4th, students and faculty have been protesting on campus of Bogazici University, in Istanbul. The reason being, Melih Bulu, a former ruling party parliamentary candidate had been appointed as rector of the university by the president of Turkey.

There used to be a democratic system of electing university presidents in Turkey. The ruling party changed this law in 2016. Bulu’s appointment is seen as a threat to academic freedom in Turkey as he’s not a Bogazici professor but was appointed by cronyism of the ruling party.

Bogazici Art Collective organized an exhibition on campus to support the resistance and hundreds of works of supporting artists were displayed. One work showed a collage image of Kaaba (Islam’s holy site) with an image of Shahmaran and multiple LGBT+ flags.

Various government officials denounced this artwork. The appointed rector declared it as an attack to Islam, the interior minister called these students as LGBT perverts. 4 students were detained and charged. The resistance continued to denounce of these illegal charges.

Tonight police raided Bogazici University, detained 159 students and faculty members. Video footages are hard to watch. It’s clear that the government officials,as well as the appointed rector are using this artwork as an excuse to end the protests for academic freedom in Turkey.

Bogazici is a Public University that stands as a stronghold to takeover by the ruling party, with its libertarian tradition, accepting highest scoring students for educational quality. It represents a liberal, free and democratic way of education, which they don’t support.

Secular and liberal academia has been under attack for awhile in Turkey. 10 years ago no professors from Religious Studies were elected as rectors. But since 2016, 9.1% of the current rectors of universities in Turkey are professors of Religious Studies.

Academics for Peace who signed a petition back in 2012 were accused of propaganda for a terrorist organization. Many of them were charged with prison sentences, or fled the country seeking asylum elsewhere. If there’s no freedom of thought, what’s the purpose of academy?