Student protests at Bogazici University against Turkey's authoritarian regime (original) (raw)

Amidst the proliferation of authoritarian regimes globally, youth has been on the front lines against top-down politics, antidemocratic norms and values, exclusion from decision-making processes, the privatisation of higher education, the erosion of academic freedom, the stigmatisa¬tion of different lifestyles, precarity and environmental degradations. As part of the global authoritarian wave, Turkey has witnessed a com¬prehensive economic, social and political transformation under Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments. The governing party has deepened neoliberal transformation, plundered environmental com¬mons, imposed a conservative lifestyle, eroded democratic values, attacked academic freedom and intensified polarisation, precarity and corruption in the country. One of the biggest challenges to the AKP government has come from student resistance against the appointed rector at Boğaziçi University (BU). In this research, I focus on how BU has become a space of contestation by students against authoritarianism in Turkey. Against the top-down appointment of the rector, Boğaziçi resistance started in demand of the democratic election of the rector, institutional autonomy, and the defense of academic freedom. However, through naming the appointed rector as ‘trustee’, students at BU have unequivocally made a resounding declaration for democracy, not only echoing within the confines of their campus but reverberating throughout the country.