Cemre Baytok, the office coordinator of the Boğaziçi University Sexual Harassment Prevention Commission, was placed on leave without pay. Following the removal of Baytok from duty, CITÖK (Sexual Harassment Prevention Commission) was virtually rendered inoperable. Baytok evaluated the period for our platform.
The office coordinator Cemre Baytok, of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Commission (CITÖK) which was working since 2012 to develop policies to prevent sexual harassment and violence, to create an action plan, to evaluate the demands of people who have been subjected to sexual harassment, and to provide confidential support in necessary medical, psychological, psychosocial and legal issues, has been placed on leave without pay. With the dismissal of Baytok, who was the only paid office worker of CITÖK and the only person evaluating the applications for the institution, the commission was de facto dysfunctional.
In the non-paid leave notification that was sent to Baytok with the signature of Boğaziçi Education Tourism (BÜTEK) affiliated to the Rectorate of Boğaziçi University, it was stated that “the decision of non-paid leave was taken per the Temporary Article regulation published in the Official Gazette within the scope of Covid-19 measures, between April 1 and May 17, 2021”. The notification followed with the statement that the right to extend the time belongs to the employer.
“The experience of fighting harassment won’t end with the closure of an office”
Baytok who assessed the non-paid leave at Equality, Justice, Women Platform, said; “What happened to CITÖK is not free from what is happening to Boğaziçi University. In the following three months of the rector appointment, Boğaziçi is far from being the Boğaziçi as we know it.” Adding that CITÖK was not sufficiently adopted during the previously appointed recto Mehmet Özkan’s time either, Baytok said, “the position was always left behind, there was always temporality and insecurity”.
Underlining that the experience of fighting against sexual harassment will not end with office closures, Baytok said, “if they think that they will blow up this experience by closing an institution, they are utterly mistaken. The experience of combating sexual harassment and violence has a solid place in civil society. They can’t destroy this experience”.
What is CITÖK?
With the support of Boğaziçi University Women’s Studies Club (BÜKAK), CİTÖK has been working as a commission since 2012 and as an office since 2016, basically to create a safe university space where sexual harassment and acts of violence are not experienced. The commission, which works to evaluate the demands of people who have been subjected to sexual harassment and to provide confidential support on medical, psychological, psychosocial, and legal issues, aims to provide accurate information and guidance in the face of sexual harassment and violence.
The commission, which directs people who have been subjected to sexual harassment and violence to the relevant units directly or online, and informs them about disciplinary investigations, did not have the authority to make decisions or punish them, but mainly served as a steering unit.