Hundreds of academics and students protested in front of the rector's office of Istanbul's Boğaziçi University against the brutal arrests on Monday night. They held signs with the number "159" for the number of those arrested and a banner that read "We do not look down, we do not accept it, we do not give up". The banner referred to a police officer's order to “look down” to an arrested demonstrator who had been forbidden to raise his head. A video recording of it has been mass circulated on digital media networks and has led to a storm of outrage. At today's protest, those present turned their backs on the rectorate and once again demanded the resignation of AKP politician Melih Bulu, who was personally appointed as rector by Tayyip Erdogan in early January, and the release of all those detained.

In a statement by the ‘Boğaziçi Solidarity Initiative’, the situation at the university was compared to an "open prison in a state of emergency". The statement said that the campus had been occupied by snipers, counter-insurgency vehicles and riot police units. “Because university autonomy is being demanded, we cannot enter our own university and are being beaten by police officers," said the Solidarity Initiative, which announced a continuation of the struggle. Police entered the campus on Monday with a massive posse, and snipers were posted on building roofs.

Human rights organizations condemn state repression

The Istanbul branches of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV) issued a joint statement condemning the repression of students and faculty as an unconstitutional attack on democratic rights. The government was called upon to uphold the law and human rights and to end the polarizing crackdown on universities.

Solidarity from the students of Galatasaray University

Students at Galatasaray University have expressed solidarity with the protest at Boğaziçi University. A statement was published on digital networks calling the "attack on the demand for democratic and autonomous universities" unacceptable. The staff of Boğaziçi University, they said, was defending the ideal of university autonomy, which is a prerequisite for academic freedom, with its collective resistance. "We demand the release of the detained and arrested students, the end of police intervention in universities and the election of rectors by the staff of universities," the statement said.

Protests against the mass arrests in Istanbul also took place in numerous other universities in Turkey.

Protest against attack on university autonomy

Since early January, students and teachers in Turkey have been fighting back against the government's crackdown on university autonomy. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's appointment of five university rectors sparked fierce clashes at Turkish universities after the turn of the year. The interference of the president in the office of the rectors represents an authoritarian act that has wide repercussions. In particular, Bulu's appointment at Boğaziçi University has unleashed a level of protest not seen in Turkish universities for a long time. Despite police violence and waves of arrests, the protests have not yet been quelled and are continuing.

Students jailed for incitement to hatred

Two students from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul were jailed on Saturday. Doğu Demirtaş and Selahattin Uğuzeş are accused of inciting "hatred, enmity or humiliation" under Article 216/1 which corresponds to incitement of the people. The basis is a preliminary investigation conducted by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office into an art installation that allegedly denigrates Islam.

However, the case against the students was initiated only after Turkish media sparked a lynching campaign and reported that "the LGBT perverts" misused a photo of the holy Kaaba in Mecca for their protest exhibition against Bulu. What is meant is a banner from the exhibition showing the mythical figure Shahmaran and rainbow flags.

Shahmaran is considered a goddess of wisdom and protector of secrets in Anatolia, Kurdistan and other regions in the Middle East. Top government officials also participated in the lynching campaign, including the ministers of justice and interior, the vice president, the head of the state religious authority Diyanet, the governor of Istanbul, and the board of the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

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