Students defy Erdoğan to continue housing protests

Photos: Yurtsuzlar, Barınamayanlar/Twitter

bianet's weekly summary of important events in Turkey:

University students defy Erdoğan and the police

Since September 19, university students have been protesting high housing prices by spending nights at parks in more than a dozen cities across the country.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on September 27 dismissed the protests as "another version of the Gezi Park events," referring to the countrywide anti-government protests attended by millions of people in 2013. He called the protesters "liars" and "so-called students."

Hours after he spoke, police dispersed the students in parks in İstanbul and İzmir, detaining nearly 80 people.

Still, students continue to stay in parks at nights and hold protest marhes with blankets, demanding affordable housing.

There are about eight million university students in Turkey, a country of 83 million people, with millions of students studying in a different city than their hometown.

Rent prices have increased excessively throughout the country, especially in big cities, over the past year. According to a study by Bahçeşehir University, rents in İstanbul, the largest city of Turkey, increased by over 50 percent in August compared to the same month last year. The rate of increase in Ankara, the capital, and İzmir, the third largest city of the country, was above 30 percent. 

When students returned to schools following one and a half years of distance education, they faced a housing crisis as the problem is exacerbated by high fees and insufficient capacities of dormitories.

Read more:

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

Students face 'housing crisis' as academic year about to start

'Hundreds of thousands of students will be deprived of education'

Twenty state dormitories closed in Turkey in a year

Only two percent of rental flats in İstanbul 'affordable and livable'

Education Ministry allocates 1.2 billion lira for overseas education agency

Alevi foundations to open worship places for students who can't find housing

An unfruitful meeting with Putin

Photo: AA

After a series of rants against US' Joe Biden, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited his counterpart from Russia, Vladimir Putin, in Sochi.

The first in-person meeting between the two leaders after 19 months came amid Russia's intensified airstrikes on Syria's Idlib, the last major stronghold of armed groups fighting the Damascus government.

Speaking to reporters alongside Putin at the start of the meeting, Erdoğan said peace in Syria depends on relations between Ankara and Moscow.

The two leaders did not hold a joint press conference after the meeting.

Before the meeting, Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar had said, "We hope to return to the state of cessation after Mr. President's meeting with Mr. Putin."

"There are no terrorists among those who died [in the airstrikes] or those who escaped," according to Akar.

This didn't happen as both airstrikes and shelling on the front lines in Idlib continue.

Read more:

Putin, Assad imply Turkey creating problems in Syria

Main opposition leader promises to mend ties with Damascus

Pandora Papers reveal tax evasion by businessperson close to government

A construction company that undertook billions of lira worth of public projects in recent years has been evading taxes through offshore accounts, the Pandora Papers have revealed.

Rönesans Holding has been transferring some of its profit from such projects to offshore companies, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which has revealed the documents.

One of the first major projects of the company was the Presidential Complex, which was completed in 2014 amid allegations of irregularities, because of which it was dubbed as the "unlicensed palace."

Also in 2014, Ayşe Ilıcak, the mother of the holding's owner, Erman Ilıcak, became the owner of two offshore companies, said ICIJ. The construction of the complex was still underway when she acquired the assets of the companies.

By the end of 2015, Ayşe Ilıcak had transferred 210,7 million dollars to tax havens.

If the Ilıcak's didn't evade the 40 percent income tax for the 210 million dollars they transferred to offshore companies, they would have paid 750 million lira to the Treasury.

Releasing a statement after the revelations, Rönesans Holding said all transactions it had done were legal.

Justice Ministry disclosure shows 'insult' cases that Erdoğan said didn't exist 

In an interview aired on CBS last Sunday, President Erdoğan denied the existence of thousands of investigations for "insulting the president." The statistics released by the Justice Ministry on September 29 showed more than 31,000 investigations were opened for insulting Erdoğan in 2020.

Six journalists sentenced to prison in a month

Six journalists received prison sentences of 27 years and 3 months in total in September, according to the "Price of the News" report by the Turkish Journalists' Association (TGC). Also, eight journalists faced threats, attacks and obstacles, four journalists were detained, and new lawsuits were filed against four journalists.

Singer Azis's concert canceled after homophobic reports 

Azis, a pop singer from Bulgaria, was prevented from giving a concert at the Balkan Festival in Bursa, northwestern Turkey. Ahead of the planned concert, Azis was targeted by the pro-government daily Yeni Akit. After the concert was canceled, Yeni Akit reported that the municipality "corrected its wrong decision."

Constitutional Court says not providing home to a single person is discrimination 

With their home submerged in the water because of the Hasankeyf dam, a person was not given a new home because they were living alone and not married. Examining the person's application, the Constitutional Court ruled that the authorities violated the prohibition of discrimination.

Six Palestinians went missing in Turkey in a month 

Palestine's Foreign Ministry said on September 27 that it was working with Turkey's authorities to find out the fate of the disappeared people. No statements have been made by Turkey about the issue.

MP says her door was forced by people introducing themselves as police officers 

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Vice Co-Chair and MP Tülay Hatimoğulları has said that two armed civilians who introduced themselves as police officers forced the door of her house in the capital city of Ankara on September 25.

"Introducing themselves as 'plainclothes police officers', two people forced my doorbell and tried to break into the house. I did not open the door. They insistently kept on saying, 'We are plainclothes police officers', forcing the door and ringing the doorbell. I said, 'I am an MP; neither a police officer nor anybody else can enter my house like that.' They insistently kept saying, 'We are police officers.' It continued like that for a few more minutes. I contacted my friends from the party in the meantime. We informed the police."

Prisoner investigated for saying 'friends' in Kurdish during phone call 

The Lawyers for Freedom Association (ÖHD) released a report on rights violations in prisons in Central Turkey.

Forty-five journalists dismissed from daily Hürriyet haven't been paid their compensation for two years

After the pro-government Demirören Media Group took over the Doğan Media conglomerate, it dismissed 45 unionized journalists from daily Hürriyet, which is known as the "flagship" of the group. With this move, the executives of the newspaper prevented the union from being authorized in the newspaper.

Cumhuriyet dismisses seven journalists

Some of the dismissed journalists said no reason was stated to them while others said the firings were because of economic reasons. In July, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper announced his resignation for "pressure to force journalists to resign from the union." 

Two journalists from the Netherlands detained near Turkey's border with Greece 

The two journalists were briefly detained on September 28 for trespassing into a military zone in Edirne, where they went to report on refugee mobility. "Almost every time, journalists moving along migrating groups are detained on similar charges and face lawsuits," the journalists' attorney said.

'Sea snot' in the Sea of Marmara is likely to come back

The three triggering causes of the formation of "sea snot" in the Sea of Marmara are still there, Prof. Mustafa Sarı has warned: higher than average surface temperatures because of climate change, low current velocities and the pollution load.

Villagers win legal struggle against a power plant in western Turkey 

A geothermal power plant project planned to be launched in Orhanlı, İzmir, foresees the construction of geothermal drilling wells and that of wind power plants and solar power plants as supplementary sources. A court has ruled that an environmental impact assessment report is required for the project to be carried out.

A dog travels on İstanbul public transport all day 

A street dog has become viral on social media over the past few months, after many people shared its pictures on different public transport vehicles from subway trains to ferries.

Having implanted a chip in the animal, the Metropolitan Municipality tracks his movements. He travels at least 30 kilometers on public transport every day, municipal officials say.

He was named Boji, which means "bogie," a structure that carries wheelsets on railroad cars. Boji also has a Twitter account. 

Drunk man joined search party for himself

Beyhan Mutlu, 50, had drinks with his friends on Tuesday in İnegöl in northwestern Bursa province. After his friends returned to the neighborhood, they encountered Mutlu's wife, who was concerned because not being able to reach him. Having thought that he went missing, they reported to the police. Mutlu encountered the search party sent to the forest for himself and spent hours with them. He only realized they were looking for himself after a rescuer shouted his name. (VK)