Oxford students express concern about academic freedom in Turkey in message of solidarity for Boğaziçi community

Duvar English

Oxford University Turkish Society, a student society that supports and promotes Turkish culture at the University of Oxford, has released a message of support for the Boğaziçi University community, saying it “feels a moral obligation to express our deepest concern with the recent chancellor appointments” to the university and other universities across Turkey.

“External intervention in the appointment of chancellors to universities and other institutions of higher education, which are hierarchically horizontal, poses a threat to the core principles of these institutions: academic freedom and autonomy,” it said.

"We would like to state that we whole-heartedly support the students and the academics staff who have been closely monitoring the implications of these chancellor appointments on their respective institutions.”

For over a month, students, faculty members and alumni of Boğaziçi University have been protesting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's appointment of rector Melih Bulu, demanding an election to choose a rector from the university’s own faculty.

Turkish authorities have so far jailed 11 out of approximately 600 people who have been detained during these protests since the beginning of February. 

Erdoğan has accused student demonstrators of being "terrorists," while Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu referred to them as "LGBT deviants."