A few hundred students took part in the protest outside Boğaziçi University in Istanbul on Wednesday. Photograph: Erdem Şahin/EPA
Students and staff at an Istanbul university have clashed with police in rare protests sparked by the politically charged appointment of a state-approved rector with links to Turkey’s conservative ruling party.
Melih Bulu – who stood as a Justice and Development party (AKP) parliamentary candidate in 2015 – was appointed rector of Boğaziçi University by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a presidential decree issued on 1 January and sworn into office on Tuesday.
The decision was met with outrage from the student body and faculty members, who interpreted Bulu’s appointment as an attempt at curtailing academic freedoms, saying the new rector was the first to be chosen from outside the university community since the 1980 military coup.