Agent-provocateur students, anti-camera shields, outlawed waste pickers and more

Police prevented reporters from filming the detention of Boğaziçi students. (Photo: Dilek Şen/bianet)

bianet's weekly summary of important events in Turkey over the past week:

Police prevent journalists during Boğaziçi protests

In April, the General Directorate of Security issued a circular banning recording voices and images of police officers during demonstrations for "protesting officers' privacy." 

Since then, journalists have been prevented, brutally at times, from taking photos or recording videos in many events. The most recent of them was Thursday's protests at Boğaziçi University. The latest wave of protests came after two students were remanded in custody following a criminal complaint by the second appointed rector, Prof. Naci İnci.

While police were detaining students, journalists, surrounded by officers, were only able to film police shields:

polis gazetecilerin etrafını çevirdi. #boğaziçidireniyor pic.twitter.com/JB0wXgRa2I

— dilek şen (@ddileksen) October 7, 2021

Read more:

With their friends arrested, Boğaziçi University students protesting: 14 detained

Detained at Boğaziçi University, two students arrested

'How the student got up on rector's vehicle'

The "agent provocateurs" with blankets

Photo: Yurtsuzlar/Twitter

Since mid-September, university students across Turkey have been protesting against high housing prices. They have been spending nights at parks and holding night marches with blankets to make their voice heard.

Just like anyone protesting anything the country — except for those whom the government finds favorable — they have been met with with police brutality and "terrorism" accusations.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ally Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), called them "terrorists" multiple times.

"They make irrelevant people lie on banks and such a campaign of lies continues. You are lying. Your lives are full of lies," Erdoğan said on September 27.

"What's that for God's sake? Those who lie on banks in parks... Are they students? They are terrorists just like those in Gezi Park," he remarked on October 5. He once again called them "terrorist types" a day later.

MHP's Bahçeli on October 9 called housing protesters "agent provocateurs" at an event where he addressed the youth. "These are neither students nor the youth. These are contractors that the enemies of Turkey want to make infiltrate universities," he remarked.

A day later, Erdoğan also met with young people in Adana province. He again denied the existence of the housing problem and talked about the increased dorm capacities.

There are more than 8 million university students in Turkey with millions studying in a city other than their hometowns. The capacity of state dormitories is over 700,000.

However, it's not the dorm capacities that triggered this year's housing crisis. It's the exorbitant increase in rent prices across the country. Rents have risen by up to 50 percent in İstanbul compared to the last year, which increased the demand for dormitories. Combined with the increased electricity and natural gas prices and high inflation, financing their children's living in a different city has become extremely difficult for many families.

Read more:

Student housing crisis leads family pressure on women students

Students walk along İstanbul's İstiklal Avenue in blankets to protest housing problem

'We can't live': Koç University students protest for housing rights

As private companies enter waste collecting business, police raid depots, detain hundreds

On October 6, İstanbul police detained nearly 200 waste pickers during raids on 49 different addresses. A day later, further raids were conducted on 36 addresses.

The governor's office announced that the raids were carried out to "ensure compliance with the provisions of the legal regulations."

Releasing a statement in the morning, workers recalled more strongly worded statements by the governor's office in the past when it accused waste pickers of "the waste pickers of jeopardizing environmental and public health, causing unregistered employment in unhealthy conditions, leading to public loss and unearned gain, causing a security problem and employing unregistered migrant workers."

Waste collectors who spoke to bianet said that the reason was that private companies have undertaken the waste collection work in the city. 

Gezi trial: Lawyers protest merger with football fan group case, Kavala's arrest nears four years

Sixteen people who allegedly "organized" the countrywide protests against Erdoğan's government in mid-2013 are charged with several offenses, including "attempted ovetthrow of the government." 

Members of çArşı, a supporter group of İstanbul's Beşiktaş football team, which was a pioneering group in the protests, are also facing the charge of attempted overthrow.

After the acquittal of defendants in both cases were overturned, the two cases were merged. At Friday's hearing, the first one after the merger, attorneys left the courtroom in protest of the court board after refused the requests to cancel the merger, which they said was against proceudres and politically motivated.

The court also ruled that businessperson Osman Kavala's arrest, which nears four years now, should continue. Kavala, who attended the hearing via videoconference, said the charges against him were reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

'Academic standards' of Turkey's prisons: 460 prisoners with a PhD

There are also 2,371 prisoners who have completed their MA studies, as well as over 20,000 with a BA degree, according to the General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses

Woman prisoner says she was sexually assaulted in a 'padded cell'

Garibe Gezer attempted to kill herself after weeks of torture, including beating and sexual assault in a padded cell, a cell the walls of which are covered with foam and considered as a means of torture. The government has long denied the existence of them.

Women, journalists and Kurds are perceived to suffer injustice the most 

Kurds' confidence in the justice system is significantly lower than that of Turks and refugees are not considered to be a group that suffers injustice, a new study finds

Turkey once again accused of involvement in child recruitment

A UN report has found that Turkey facilitated the recruitment of Syrian children to fight in Libya. Previously, the US had included Turkey in the list of countries that use child soldiers in Syria.

All defendants acquitted in a case about the death of a four-year-old 

Leyla Aydemir was found dead weeks after she went missing in the eastern Ağrı province in mid-2018. In the final hearing on October 8, the court acquitted all defendant without examining new evidence.

Fox TV probed over Başak Demirtaş's remarks

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) launched a probe into the remarks of Başak Demirtaş, the spouse of jailed politician Selahattin Demirtaş. "While it is free to cast aspersions on Selahattin and his friends on every channel day and night for five years,  is it a crime that I talk about my spouse, whose innocence has been confirmed by the ECtHR ruling?" she reflected on the probe.

Journalists acquitted in case of 'Berkin Elvan' reports

Three journalists stood trial for "marking a counterterrorism official as a target" because of reports about Berkin Elvan, a 14-year-old who was shot by a tear gas canister during the 2013 Gezi Park protests and lost his life after nine months in a coma.

Six opposition parties discuss return to parliamentary system

The six parties, five of which are represented in the parliament, agreed on an impartial and non-partisan president whose appointment powers are restricted.

(VK)