Istanbul students protest despite ban after Erdogan win

ISTANBUL: Students and academics protested at Turkiye´s top university on Friday, defying a ban on the near 900-day strike imposed after President Recip Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected for five more years.

They turned their backs in front of the Erdogan-appointed rector´s office for the 880th day on Friday -- a routine protest that has been going on since January 2021. Authorities on Thursday banned any protest at the university -- a decision that came after the veteraqn strongman won the election run-off on Sunday and secured another five years as president.

“The ban has no legal ground,” said associate professor Ahmet Ersoy. “(The government) shows itself immediately after the election. We face a (police) operation now but we don´t mind it,” he added.The protests at Bogazici University started when Erdogan appointed Melih Bulu as rector in January 2021. Bulu ran as a candidate in the 2015 election for Erdogan´s ruling party. Critics lambasted the appointment as an example of political interference in the Turkish education sector by Erdogan, who took the power to appoint rectors after surviving a failed coup in 2016.

In July 2021, Erdogan replaced Bulu and appointed Naci Inci by presidential decree. That failed to impress the students and academics who refuse to recognise the appointed rector. The protest on Friday ended peacefully. “We use our rights defined by the constitutional law. We have been making a quite peaceful, symbolic protest silently,” Ersoy said.Many Turks saw the rector´s appointment and government reaction as part of Erdogan´s wider push into seizing control of different parts of Turks´ daily lives.Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg will visit Turkiye at the weekend to attend the inauguration of re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and hold talks with him, the alliance said on Friday.The trip comes as pressure builds on Erdogan to drop his opposition to Sweden joining Nato.

Stoltenberg on Thursday said during a Nato foreign ministers´ meeting in Norway that he would soon visit Ankara to work towards Sweden joining “as early as possible”, after speaking with Erdogan by phone earlier this week.