Police Intervention in Student Protest at METU

*Photos: METU Must be Defended / Twitter

Click to read the article in Turkish

A forty-decare land on the METU campus was planned to be handed over to the Credits and Loans Institution (KYK) for the construction of a dormitory.

Students have been staging a protest in the Kavaklık area for 55 days to prevent the construction. Several MPs came to the campus to support the resistance in the morning.

Polis öğretim elemanlarına, vekillere, öğrencilere herkese saldırıyor!#PolisODTÜde pic.twitter.com/p5XdCr2hcG

— ODTÜ Savunulmalıdır (@OdtuSavunulmali) July 8, 2019

The police intervened in the protest, detaining numerous students. A Twitter account set by the protesters said the students were tortured, strangled and hit in the head while being detained.

The students said the workers began to cut trees in the area.

Arkadaşlarımız darp edilerek alandan uzaklaştırıldıktan sonra ağaç kesimi içni çalışmalara da başlandı #PolisODTÜde pic.twitter.com/Q2zYFPN8BL

— ODTÜ Savunulmalıdır (@OdtuSavunulmali) July 8, 2019

The "METU Must be Defended Platform" released a statement on Friday (July 6), saying the construction of the dormitory would cause "serious harm to nature" as a large area of cottonwood trees would be demolished.

The platform said that building a KYK dormitory rather than a METU dormitory is a "trojan horse strategy" aimed at placing the cadres of the government in the university.

(AÖ/VK)