Thread by @satoshik0n, As a bogazici student heres a thread of me attempting to explain [...]

As a bogazici student heres a thread of me attempting to explain whats been going on for the past month #HerYerBoğaziçiHerYerDireniş #AsağıBakmaycağız

erdogan appointed a rector to the university who wasnt from the university or wasnt voted by anyone, and used to be a politician for the govt party. This was immediately met with backlash and protests that students from other unis and leftists joined

from day 1 there was IMMENSE police presence and violence (these are some pics i took, there was even more)

its important to note that this is not an isolated incident of undemocratic rectors and erdogan replacing elected officials. however, this is the first protest against it bc bogazici is known to be an apolitic, "untouchable" university so people were shocked

here is a student explaining what happened

Bogazici students got mad erdogan was using the presence of socialists and outsiders as a smear campaign so they started doing peaceful, smaller protests inside campus. one of these was an open air art gallery against the rector

so one of these artworks was this, it was made by an anonymous person. the islamic research club posted it on twitter and of course conservatives and government officials used it to be extremely homophobic. the rector closed the lgbt club which had existed for years

4 people were arrested because of the artwork, the interior minister made a tweet calling gay people perverts and along with that there was an intense hate campaign against gay people. during the protest against this 159 people got arrested

heres a video of police assaulting students who were just WALKING

people who protested in solidarity at ankara were met with police brutality and many were arrested

same in izmir

yesterday, many people gathered at Kadıköy istanbul to protest and again, were met with intense police brutality and hundreds were arrested. right now there are 300+ people arrested

people who got arrested were physically assaulted, women were sexually harassed, a hijabi got her hijab taken off, some were hospitalised and were denied water

while all this is happening, erdogan says that they are terrorists, him and the interior minister insult gay people and call them perverts, deviants, sinners, not "national", not moral and not part of turkish history. they are the most under attack group

also it isnt just students and other people from outside the uni protesting. academics and faculty have protested every day against the rector. Quite literally nobody in the university wants him here and he refuses to resign

we want universities to be independent, democratic and SAFE places for EVERYONE. and not just in bogazici, in all universities in turkey. we're sick of erdogans authoritarianism, discrimination, hate crimes, police brutality, homophobia and so much more

lol i just realized i forgot to add the art piece. Basically its a picture of the kabaa with lgbt flags and a șahmeran figure in the middle. This was the reason 4 people got arrested and islamists attacked students bc it was "disrespecting islamic values"

A group of jihadists protested against gay people in beyazit and of course were met with no police presence, let alone brutality. this
happened on the same day

if anyone is interested in the events you can follow @resistBU!!!!!!!

to add smth personal, i worked really hard for 2 yrs to get into boun bc it was my dream uni + i saw it as a refuge from turkey in general and my homophobic parents. Its known to be the most liberal school in tr and for a lot of us its the only place we feel safe to be ourselves

there was never any police here despite everything that happened in turkish history. it remained secluded from hectic turkish politics. to see police surrounding it, for the lgbt club to be closed down, for homophobic students to report other students and make them vulnerable to

mass hate breaks my heart. i want every uni in turkey to be like what bogazici was for me: somewhere you know you wont be harassed and attacked for your identity. however, as erdogan keeps appointing rectors and thinking he owns everything around him this is impossible.

this is why we protest. not because bogazici is "the best" university in turkey so its valuable but because this should be the norm for EVERY university in turkey. bogazici isnt the only place that deserves democratic elections, every university and city does

update: at midnight they announced they will open a law and communications faculty. whenever someone would ask why these werent here our academicians would say "because you cant open one overnight, you need years of preparation and accumulation."

boğaziçi is a public university with already low funding and very little resources bc of it and bc the number of students admitted gets increased every year. the addition of two more faculties is just going to make everything worse. in addition to that, its an opportunity for

the rector to fill the university with people who are close to him politically and bend a 200 year old school to their will

also want to add that theres a rumor going around that the university will be moved to polenezkoy and its current land will be privatized. i would say its far fetched if they didnt do the exact same thing to marmara university