President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of a hand-picked outsider as Bogazici University’s rector has encountered student protests and the rector's total boycott by the academic staff, now in its sixth week. Erdogan’s attempt to tighten his grip over the country’s most prestigious public university highlights the ongoing crackdown on academic freedoms in Turkey.
Growing government encroachment on universities and Turkey’s gloomy economic prospects will compel more young people to go abroad.
Political control of top universities will hamper scientific research, leaving Turkey further behind in the global race for knowledge.
Government targeting of LGBT groups to cast the protests as anti-religious will put the LGBT community at greater risk of violence.
