While students from Turkey’s top Boğaziçi University continue to protest against the trustee appointed as a rector to their university by president Erdogan, hundreds of police entered the campus and detained 151 students.
On 1 of February, police attacked the press conference organised by the Boğaziçi Solidarity group, which consists of students from the university.
“Our statement is against the trustee politics, LGBTI + phobia, student arrests and all anti-democratic practices” says the students from Boğaziçi Solidarity, who have been protesting against the appointed rector since the beginning of January.
The students who have been organising various actions to protest against the trustee politics of the government and the new rector Melih Bulu are also angry about the latest arrest of their friends for an exhibition piece.
On the 30th of January, two of the students from Boğaziçi were arrested by the court with the allegation of “inciting the public to hatred and enmity and public humiliation”, two students were released under the condition of “judicial control not to leave their home” for placing LGBTI+ flags near a picture of the Kaaba building as part of an exhibition on the campus.
The process, which started with the targeting of artwork in the exhibition at Boğaziçi University, has evolved into a hate campaign against LGBTI + students in the university.
Later, trustee rector Melih Bulu shut off the Boğaziçi University LGBTI + Studies Club. Director of Communication Fahrettin Altun shared on social media.
While the students were being attacked and detained, a police officer saying “You are indecent, look down” created outrage on social media.
Campaigns with the hashtag #AşağıBakmayacağız( We won’t look down) and #BoğaziçiAblukada ( Boğaziçi is under blockade) became tt in Twitter.
Kaç arkadaşımızın kendi kampüsümüz içerisinde gözaltına alındığını bilmiyoruz, polisler öğrencilere göz dağı vermeye devam ediyor, canlı yayında olan arkadaşlarımız tehdit ediliyor. #AşağıBakmayacağız #BoğaziciAblukada
— Boğaziçi Direnişi (@budirenisi) February 1, 2021
arkasında tank toma silahlı memur değil arkadaşları olan, tek başına dik bakıp, şov yapmaya gelen bol yıldızlı emniyet müdür yardımcısına ezilmeyi bırak, onu korkutup destek kuvvet çağırtan arkadaşa sevgi selam #aşağıbakmıyoruz pic.twitter.com/z5eQGt8pW7
— felo (@cflx) February 1, 2021
During the protests Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies Serpil Kemalbay, Züleyha Gülüm, Hüda Kaya, Dilşad Canbaz Kaya, and Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu came to support the students and tried to prevent the students from being detained.
In the statement made on 2 February by the Governorship of Istanbul, it was stated that 98 people who were detained in the protests at Boğaziçi University were released.
