Biden calls out Turkey over Boğaziçi University but has more work to do

Ahval

United States President Joe Biden’s administration has had its first encounter with Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian government only two weeks after taking office. On Monday, Turkish police descended on the campus of the Bogazici University in Istanbul as they tore through encampments erected by students protesting against the appointment of a pro-government rector as the head of its most prestigious university. According to a statement from the Istanbul Governor’s office, 159 students were arrested on that day alone while another 104 were detained on Tuesday. Erdogan himself referenced the event after condemning the students as “terrorists” when he told his party on Thursday that Turkey “ will not again live a Gezi event in Taksim.” While not as large as the 2013 demonstrations, those at Bogazici do bear striking similarities to them, explained Merve Tahiroglu, Turkey Program Coordinator at the Project on Middle East Democracy in Washington DC, in a new podcast with Turkey Abroad.