Turkish GSM operator Turkcell appoints pro-gov't rector of Boğaziçi University to executive board

Turkish GSM operator and communication giant Turkcell has appointed Boğaziçi University rector Naci İnci to its executive board, which features former deputies of the ruling AKP. Physics professor İnci will receive $56,000 per year in his new position.

Sunday May 05 2024 10:27 pm

Duvar English

Turkey’s biggest GSM operator Turkcell on May 3 elected Naci İnci, the rector of Boğaziçi University as an independent executive board member.

Alongside İnci, CEO of the Turkish Wealth Fund Salim Arda Ermut and Prof. Dr. İdris Sarısoy of Marmara University’s Social Sciences Faculty were appointed to the executive board.

The board members will receive a 150,000 Turkish lira ($4,600) salary, around nine times the minimum wage.

The members also receive yearly bonuses of $107,000 according to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Deniz Yavuzyılmaz.

Newly appointed İnci had made the headlines for condemning police brutality against pro-Palestine student protestors in US universities, meanwhile actively suppressing all contention against himself on the Boğaziçi campus.

He has called the police to campus to attack students dozens of times which resulted in the arrest of some students. He has been barring university alumni and faculty members critical of him to enter university premises.

İnci became Boğaziçi University’s trustee rector in 2020 after serving under the controversial trustee Melih Bulu whose appointment incited student protests.

The executive board includes the former deputy of the ruling Justice Development Party (AKP) Ayşe Nur Bahçekapılı. Past board members also included members of the ruling party, such as the former Culture and Tourism Minister Atilla Koç, former Energy Minister Hilmi Güler, former Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli, and former Treasury and Finance Deputy Minister Bülent Aksu, according to reporting by the daily Sözcü.