Erdoğan appoints Boğaziçi rector as TÜBİTAK board member

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appointed Boğaziçi University rector Prof. Dr. Naci İnci as a board member of Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK).

Tuesday February 22 2022 10:47 am

This file photo shows Boğaziçi rector Prof. Naci İnci.

Duvar English

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appointed Boğaziçi University rector Prof. Dr. Naci İnci as a board member of Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK), according to reporting by daily Cumhuriyet.

Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal retained his duty as the head of TÜBİTAK.

The appointments were declared in the Official Gazette on Feb. 21.

Assigning government officials side-posts has been a common practice in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), with multiple politicians and businessmen obtaining high-profile assignments as a result of their close ties to Ankara.

After the appointment of Prof. Dr. Melih Bulu as the rector by President Erdoğan in January 2021, the university's students and academics launched a protest demanding his resignation.

Following months-long protest, Bulu was eventually dismissed from his duty by Erdoğan in July 2021. A month later in August, again via a presidential decree, it was İnci who assumed duty as the rector of the prestigious institution despite the high disapproval rates he received on polls held among the community.

Academics and students are continuing with their protest against İnci's appointment. In this process, some students were detained and stayed behind bars for months.