The protests at Turkey's Bogazici University have been on the country's agenda for three weeks now. The confrontation of university students with the police, as well as the escalation of the issue in the political context, indicates the emergence of some forces fuelling uprising in the country. Recent research has shown that the main purpose of this provocation was the plot of some opposition forces, which can not digest the defeat in the elections, aimed at tarnishing and weakening the government. Thus, opposition supporters, financed by the West, tried to implement their plans through university students.

Interestingly, the Western ruling forces and the media, which also demonstrated their bias in the Second Karabakh War, this time voiced unjustified allegations and slanders against the Turkish government, which has always been a supporter of the truth. Moreover, foreign forces interfering in Turkey's internal affairs have once again demonstrated their interest in destabilizing the country.

To clarify the situation, the head of the Department of International Relations of Kocaeli University, political expert, professor, Dr. Irfan Kaya Ulger gave a detailed statement to Eurasia Diary. In his statement, the expert first touched upon the main purpose of the events. He said the opposition was trying to obstruct both domestic and foreign policy.

"The purpose of the protest at Bogazici University is obviously to tarnish and weaken Erdogan's government with such meaningless demonstrations after being defeated in the ballot box. We understand that all this is the plan of the West. But the worst thing is that the opposition supports them, but not Turkey," Dr. Irfan Kaya Ulger said.

It should be noted that the events took place last week after Recep Tayyip Erdogan's appointed Melih Bulun rector of Bogazici University. According to the expert, in fact, in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Turkey, the rector of all universities in the country is appointed by the President himself. But it is strange that prof. Melih Bulu was rejected by the university's academic staff? The answer is simple. Melih Bulu is a supporter of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Bulu, who failed to win a vote in the 2015 parliamentary elections, was targeted by the academic staff supporting Republican People’s Party (CHP), because of being a pro-government politician. 

"The protesters mostly accused the president of politicizing the university," expert said. However, this accusation is inconsistent. First of all, in Turkey, it is not prohibited by law for anyone from an ordinary teacher to a professor to be a member of a political party or to be involved in politics. On the other hand, to date, many universities in Turkey have had CHP members from teachers, professors and rectors. However, none of them has been accused of being a partisan for their party,” Dr Ulger noted.

The expert reiterated that the opposition and some foreign forces were trying to interfere in the internal affairs of the country using such provocations. He said that the system of governance in the main opposition was wrong and the leadership took the wrong position: "I would like once again to note that the main goal here is to weaken Erdogan's government. The spread of the protest to Ankara shows that other foreign forces are behind the incident. Being unable to concede with its defeat after the last presidential elections in Turkey, the opposition now supports anti-government protests under various pretexts. It is possible that foreign intelligence agencies may be involved in such provocative actions. However, the exact names will be determined as a result of the ongoing investigations.

As for the main opposition CHP, there is no democracy in this party. On the other hand, political representatives of the CHP are often criticized by its members. Moreover, party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is accused of not opposing the propaganda of the terrorist organisation PKK. Some party members even accuse Kılıçdaroğlu of collaborating with FETO.

Another issue is the split of the opposition. First, it started with the separation of the mayor of the largest province of Istanbul, Mustafa Sarigul from the party. Then, MP Muharrem Ince, representing CHP from Yalova, who lost to Erdogan in the last presidential election, left the party and opposed the CHP leadership. All this shows that the largest opposition party, the CHP, is weakening.

Prof. Irfan Kaya spoke about the activities of foreign intelligence agencies involved in organising a provocative protest at Bogazici University.

According to him, economic pressure was put on the country to suppress the policy of the Erdogan government that protects the rights and interests of the Turkish people: “As a result, the Turkish lira weakened significantly against the dollar, and this situation directly affected the citizens of Turkey. However, despite all these pressures, the AK Party and the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) alliance did not lose a majority in power. On the contrary, opposition parties began to lose power. Seeing this, the opposition used separate excuses to overthrow the government. For example, street demonstrations.

The protests, which began with the appointment of Melih Bulu as rector of Bogazici University and a former AK Party candidate, were supported by Soros and other organisations close to that, and similar provocative protests took place in Turkey in 2013 and 2016 at the initiative of the FETO group. As proof of this, I can say that there were almost no students among those detained during the last protest. Police said in a statement that most of the protesters were of specialised groups.

He also said that the United States and Israel were deeply concerned about Turkey's foreign policy. He stressed that Turkey's recent successful political steps, along with its military support for Syria, Libya and, most importantly, Karabakh, have strongly irritated the other side.

"Even under Trump, the United States defended and supported Turkey's rivals Greece and Southern Cyprus. The main goal was to prevent Turkey from gaining the advantage of both naval and land forces. The failure of the United States and Israel's attempt to establish a Kurdish state in Syria as a result of Turkey's counterattack also led to tensions in relations.