President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of a ruling-party loyalist to lead one of Turkey’s most prestigious universities sparked outrage about attacks on academic independence.
A New Year’s presidential decree announced that Melih Bulu, a veteran member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) who stood for the party in municipal and parliamentary elections, as the new rector of Bosphorus University in Istanbul.
The declaration sparked protests by students and staff in which police locked the university’s gates and made 36 arrests, many of them in early-morning raids by special operations teams armed with assault rifles.
Lawyer Ezgi Onalan said some of those arrested had been beaten and strip-searched.
“The case files contain allegations of resisting police and defying Law 2911,” on assemblies and demonstrations, she said. “For this, we know there’s no need to raid homes in dawn operations and that this is illegal.”
Prof Bulu’s assignment as a “kayyum,” or government-appointed trustee, was the latest development in what government critics say is an attack on academic freedom in Turkey, where rectors have traditionally been elected by university teaching staff.
Since emergency powers were introduced in 2016 after a coup attempt, Mr Erdogan has regularly selected university heads but has previously chosen candidates from within universities’ academic rolls.
Prof Bulu’s selection for at Bosphorus University – known as Bogazici University in Turkish – was the first time an outsider had been appointed to lead the institution since the military junta of the 1980s, the university faculty said.
“This is yet another case of many ongoing anti-democratic practices since 2016, aiming to abolish rectorial elections,” it said in a statement.
Hundreds of academics were prosecuted after signing a petition in early 2016 calling for peace in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority south-east following military operations against insurgents in the region.
Thousands more have been dismissed from their jobs in the post-coup crackdown, creating “a climate of fear and self-censorship on campus,” according to Human Rights Watch.
“We will not shut up, we will not accept this and we will not give up,” said Seyma Altundal, a sociology student at Bosphorus University.
“This pressure on us is only to defend the trustee, to lead to the hijacking of democratic spaces.
“It seems that this unity and solidarity disturbs the trustee mentality. They made the decision to keep our friends in detention for two days so that they cannot come to the protest on Wednesday ... We know that our friends are right, that appointing a trustee is unjustified.”
A history student, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said the protests were to protect freedom of speech on campus. “We are protesting against the government’s interference in the freedoms we should have as students,” he said. “The government is afraid of free thought and debate. They want everyone to be like them.”
Founded in 1863 by an American philanthropist and a missionary, Bosphorus University numbers former prime ministers, captains of industry and leading artists among its alumni. It is rated among the country’s top seven universities in the Times Higher Education list.
Protests against the imposition of Prof Bulu, previously rector at Istanbul’s Halic University for about a year, on Monday were greeted with police batons, tear gas and plastic bullets.
The next day, scores of riot police blocked the main entrance to the campus overlooking the Bosphorus waterway from Istanbul’s European shore. Staff boycotted Prof Bulu’s swearing-in ceremony, turning their backs on the building where it took place and calling for the arrested students to be released.
On Wednesday, Istanbul’s governor issued a ban on demonstrations, citing concerns over the coronavirus.
Pro-government media outlets cast the protestors as terrorist supporters while the deputy interior minister said most of those arrested were not students at the university.
Prof Bulu’s appointment came under further criticism after evidence appeared online purporting to show he had plagiarised others’ academic work for his master’s thesis and doctoral paper. He has denied the allegations.
In an interview with broadcaster HaberTurk on Tuesday evening, Prof Bulu denounced the protests as “provocations” while also bizarrely saying he identified with the university’s culture because he is a fan of heavy metal band Metallica.
Meanwhile, Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu tweeted his support to the students, calling for an end to “partisanship”.
“I stand by the rightful struggle of Bosphorus University’s students and academics,” he said.
Fixtures (6pm UAE unless stated)
Saturday Bournemouth v Leicester City, Chelsea v Manchester City (8.30pm), Huddersfield v Tottenham Hotspur (3.30pm), Manchester United v Crystal Palace, Stoke City v Southampton, West Bromwich Albion v Watford, West Ham United v Swansea City
Sunday Arsenal v Brighton (3pm), Everton v Burnley (5.15pm), Newcastle United v Liverpool (6.30pm)
Company info
Company name: Entrupy
Co-founders: Vidyuth Srinivasan, co-founder/chief executive, Ashlesh Sharma, co-founder/chief technology officer, Lakshmi Subramanian, co-founder/chief scientist
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Series information
Pakistan v Dubai
First Test, Dubai International Stadium
Sun Oct 6 to Thu Oct 11
Second Test, Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tue Oct 16 to Sat Oct 20
Play starts at 10am each day
Teams
Pakistan
1 Mohammed Hafeez, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Haris Sohail, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed, 8 Bilal Asif, 9 Yasir Shah, 10, Mohammed Abbas, 11 Wahab Riaz or Mir Hamza
Australia
1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Mitchell Marsh, 5 Travis Head, 6 Marnus Labuschagne, 7 Tim Paine, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Jon Holland
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
The specs
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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RESULTS
Bantamweight: Jalal Al Daaja (JOR) beat Hamza Bougamza (MAR)
Catchweight 67kg: Mohamed El Mesbahi (MAR) beat Fouad Mesdari (ALG)
Lightweight: Abdullah Mohammed Ali (UAE) beat Abdelhak Amhidra (MAR)
Catchweight 73kg: Mosatafa Ibrahim Radi (PAL) beat Yazid Chouchane (ALG)
Middleweight: Yousri Belgaroui (TUN) beat Badreddine Diani (MAR)
Catchweight 78KG: Rashed Dawood (UAE) beat Adnan Bushashy (ALG)
Middleweight: Sallah-Eddine Dekhissi (MAR) beat Abdel Enam (EGY)
Catchweight 65kg: Yanis Ghemmouri (ALG) beat Rachid Hazoume (MAR)
Lightweight: Mohammed Yahya (UAE) beat Azouz Anwar (EGY)
Catchweight 79kg: Souhil Tahiri (ALG) beat Omar Hussein (PAL)
Middleweight: Tarek Suleiman (SYR) beat Laid Zerhouni (ALG)
Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
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