5 METU students briefly detained before ‘Graduation Ceremony without Trustee’

* Photo: https://twitter.com/OdtuSavunulmali

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The students of Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara organized an alternative graduation ceremony called "Graduation at Devrim (Revolution) [Stadium] without the Trustee" on September 19.

Before entering the area, five students were taken into custody on the grounds that they refused to show their banners and student ID cards to the police. Released from detention, they have spoken to bianet.

The Rector's Office of METU decided to not hold the graduation ceremony this year on the grounds of the pandemic. Traditionally known for the newly graduated students' banners giving messages about social issues, the graduation ceremony was still held at the Devrim Stadium. Verşan Kök, the appointed rector of METU, did not attend the ceremony.

The students who did not want the security guards and police officers to check their banners and IDs say that they encountered 9-10 undercover police vehicles on the day of the graduation ceremony.

The students indicate that the trunks of their families' vehicles were searched and the alternative graduation ceremony was put in the position of a suspicious act. They say that after they were detained, they were taken to a hospital for a medical check, but the reports issued by the hospital and documenting the battery have not been given to them by the police.

METU students recount the incident as follows:

Undercover police at the gate, cars searched

"When we went to our school in the morning, we encountered 9-10 undercover police vehicles and undercover police officers waiting at the gate. From their point of view, students' organization of their own graduation ceremony was a potential criminal action.

"We started waiting at the gate in the morning. Peoples' banners were opened and photographed by the police and security guards one by one. The banners that were found 'objectionable' and defined as 'political' were not let in. People were trying to take their banners with them to the school. In the meantime, a criminal record check was being done. Meanwhile, the trunks of the vehicles of our friends' families were being searched.

"Normally, such things do not happen at graduation ceremonies. In fact, private security is not authorized to do something like that. But when they had the police with them, they made threatening remarks like 'If we don't do it, the police will' and checked the trunks.

"Our banner read, 'Tax to the palace, IBAN to the people'. We wanted to get in the school with our friends and did not want to show our banners. We said that there was no legal ground allowing for the police and security guards to check our banners and that they could check our criminal record and ID cards only in the event of reasonable suspicion.

'We are going to the graduation ceremony of our school, we will get into our school as we always do,' we said.

"Meanwhile, the riot police officers coming from the school intercepted us. The undercover police and security guards started to shout, 'Who are you? Are you students? Why are you here?'

"When a friend of ours started filming the incident, the police attacked her/his hand. When the police chief said, 'Take her/him', we held our friend. They were dragging us, throwing us on the ground and hurling swears in the meantime. They detained us with rear handcuffs.

"They made us get in the back of their vehicle and took us to the Gazi Hospital for a medical check. A report documenting the battery was taken there. Our hands bleed due to rear handcuffs. We had wounds in our elbows and legs and bruises on the back of our heads.

"Then, they took us to the police station. They brought a document and said that an action would be taken due to 'mask and distance'. We said that we would not sign it because an action would be taken as if we had resisted the police under the name of 'mask and distance'.

"There was an expression of 'The group who resisted the police did not have masks.' So, they were trying to make us sign a document saying that we resisted the police. It put us in such a position that we were the ones resisting the police while being detained at the gate of our school.

Battery reports not given

"We were released nearly 3.5 hours later. We were not given our battery reports, either. We will take them from the hospital. In fact, one of the three copies of the report should have been given to us, but as the police insistently did not do it, we will take them from the hospital."

Noting that they will apply to the Human Rights Association (İHD), the students say, "Peoples' banners were not taken in with purely arbitrary interventions. Peoples' cars were arbitrarily searched, photos were taken, criminal records were checked. It was as if there had been a state of emergency." (AÖ/SD)