Club rooms at Boğaziçi University are being evacuated

The decision to vacate the club rooms located on the South Campus of Boğaziçi University, which are an important part of social life for students, has been met with backlash from the university community. The evacuation of the rooms belonging to the Music Club, Underwater Sports Club, Fine Arts Club, and Sports Board in the Hamlin Hall building was protested with the participation of many students.

During the demonstration, slogans such as "We do not accept, we do not give up" were chanted, and a banner reading "Boğaziçi has been resisting for 5 years" was unfurled. Serra Ulusoy, President of the Boğaziçi University Alumni Association (BÜMED), emphasized that Hamlin Hall has been hosting students' social and cultural activities for 160 years and stated the following:

“Boğaziçi is a pearl of Turkey. When you devalue the worth of Boğaziçi, when you lower the quality of education there, and when you reduce the learning capacities of our students, what do you gain? There is no answer to all of this. The goal is to de-studentize the South Campus. Hamlin Hall has been here for 160 years. Our club rooms are underneath it. Why are you emptying it? Oh, 'We will make it a faculty, we will make it a classroom'. That place has a tradition spanning 160 years. Why is this tradition being ignored? Why are we moving away from our traditions? We talk about local and national values. Hamlin Hall is a local and national value. Nothing changes when you turn it into a student classroom. We are not here today as some kind of elites. We are here as the children of the people. We are here for the protection of the children of the people. We are here to ensure that those values are upheld and that the children of the people are here to elevate Turkey's values and carry its existence forward. All these actions taken are unfortunately against these. We are very sad, but as alumni, we will continue to make our voices heard. Because we, the alumni, are the owners of this school, and we will continue to be its owners.”

Students also stated that the practice harms university life and student rights, and that they will follow the process. Gilda Silifkeli, one of the students, drew attention to the ongoing resistance at Boğaziçi and spoke as follows:

“We are aware that when we came to this campus without a meal we could eat, a dormitory we could stay in, or a space opened for us to be in warm areas, we were only told 'Go away from here', but we are not willing to surrender what is ours, what has been stolen from us. We will continue our resistance for this, and we are persistent. A group of 100-150 students is still continuing their vigil downstairs. We will not surrender our clubs. We are against the restriction of our existence at this school. We are continuing our resistance to the end.”

Prof. Dr. Mine Eder, a faculty member in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, also emphasized that the changes the university has experienced in recent years have left students and academics out. Eder noted the following:

“Currently, one dimension of this political occupation is progressing through the occupation of spaces. First Hamlin Hall, now all the clubs, dormitories; we are facing a university that is being de-studentized and de-academized. Our library is already gone. In its place, there is a grassy area that no one goes to. We are facing a project to create a university without a library, without students, and without academics. We all know that such nonsense cannot be. For a university, it is essential that the campus lives 24 hours a day. It is very valuable in that sense for those students to socialize with other activities after leaving class, to find themselves, to make their searches; those 4 years are very valuable. Education is not something that only happens in the classroom. We have been saying this for 5 years. Unfortunately, they do not listen to their students, their academics, or their alumni. We are facing a team that is trying to stay in power despite its students, despite its academics, despite its alumni, and thinks it is managing this university. I say shame on you. We are not giving up. We are resisting to the end. We will never accept it.”

Baran Seyhan, a member of the CHP Party Assembly who is also a Boğaziçi University alumnus, pointed out that the university is an important area of resistance in the atmosphere of pressure across the country, saying, “When I entered this gate as a student 30 years ago, I could never have imagined that I would be here for such a purpose 30 years later, but as we all know, our country is under terrible pressure these days in social life and educational life, just as it is in political life. Despite all these pressures, honorable resistances are being displayed all over the country. Today, we are in front of Boğaziçi University, which is one of those honorable resistances. Boğaziçi University students do not leave here only by receiving a diploma; they graduate by also receiving education from the clubs that are indispensable to Boğaziçi University, and it is for this reason that they emerge from here as individuals useful to their own society, their country, and humanity. Graduates who are competent and world-class in their fields have been produced in this way. We certainly do not accept the attacks made to prevent this. We will continue this resistance, this state of not giving up. I also find it useful to make this call from here. We will never, ever bow down to these pressures. We will tear through this dark wall in Turkey. We will win by uniting.”

Protests against the evacuation process of the club rooms are expected to continue in the coming days. Many students and alumni at Boğaziçi University continue to send messages of solidarity, stating that they do not want to be distanced from club activities, which they see as an indispensable part of social life.