ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkish police on Monday clashed with hundreds of students protesting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of a figure linked to his ruling party as rector of one of Turkey’s most prestigious universities.
The students marched on the Bogazici University campus to denounce the appointment of Melih Bulu, a member of the Justice and Development Party, who ran as a candidate in the parliamentary elections.
Students view the appointment as an Erdogan move to curtail academic freedoms and claim the university’s right to choose its own rector. They sang, “AKP, get your hands off our university,” referring to the ruling party. Several academics joined the protest.
Clashes broke out when some students tried to open a police barricade at the campus entrance, the Birgun newspaper reported. Police used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to break up the protest. Several students were arrested.
Ruling party spokesman Omer Celik defended Bulu’s appointment as “legal”.
“It is not a crime for a person to have a political vision,” Celik told reporters after a meeting of the ruling party chaired by Erdogan.
On Sunday, Bulu issued a statement stating that it intended to make Bogazici one of the best universities in the world.