Ahmet Yozgatlıgil, who had served as Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology since Jun 22, 2023, was appointed rector of our university by a decree bearing the signature of AKP Chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, published in the Official Gazette on Aug 16, 2024.
At the Pride March held at METU in May 2019, Yozgatlıgil, who was then the rector’s advisor, positioned himself alongside the police and took photographs of the students participating in the march during the action. After police entered the campus and 23 students were detained under torture, he was appointed vice rector a month later.
Since the very first day of Yozgatlıgil’s appointment to the METU rectorate, we, for our part, have repeatedly exposed what he has represented from past to present and the “student-friendly” image he tried to draw in his early period. From the day he was appointed, his role in the destruction of the area during the Kavaklık Resistance process was already plainly evident, as he was also the rector’s advisor then, and there are many videos and statements of his in this regard. Unlike Verşan Kök, Yozgatlıgil’s ties to the government are also more direct and explicit.
Therefore, the stance Yozgatlıgil has tried to construct since the day he took office, “I am not against the students, I am correcting the negative image created by the previous rector,” is part of a genetic strategy the government has pursued for years. It is, of course, no coincidence that a government that once said about LGBTI+s, “The rights and freedoms of homosexuals must be placed under legal protection,” has today evolved into rhetoric of “terror” and “perversion.” From the very beginning, we said that the nephew of Taner Yıldız, who has had a share in ecological destruction in Turkey, was not an “innocent” figure, and that he himself came from that same school.
Yet despite this, even some of our very valuable professors interpreted Yozgatlıgil’s “docile” image as the possibility of a democratic compromise in the new period. When it was said, “Yozgatlıgil cannot become rector of METU!” arguments such as “But there was no attack on the Pride March, disciplinary investigations have decreased,” were put forward. This was exactly the perception that was intended to be created: “The students are exaggerating.” Yet the government mentality reveals itself the moment it is cornered. Yozgatlıgil, who was criticized for hostility toward Palestine and who posed for photos with SOCAR, which carries oil to Israel, and made agreements with it, is able to wag his finger at and threaten students who expose this situation.
Without further ado, let us ask: Is Yozgatlıgil student-friendly? No.
'LGBTI+ connotation'
When it comes to censorship, one of the most typical examples that comes to mind specifically at METU is the closure of the Media Society in December 2018. This decision, taken because they reported on protests, is a clear example of censorship. During Kök’s term, the banning of Pride Marches, students being subjected to police violence, and interventions targeting the activities of METU LGBTIQAA+ Solidarity were etched into memory as characteristic practices of trustee rule.
Today, what we call the genetics of “trustees and LGBTI+phobic censorship” first emerged not with the trustees appointed to universities, but with the trustees appointed to Kurdish municipalities. With the detention of elected co-mayors and the appointment of trustees in their place, the understanding of democratic local governance was liquidated and replaced with a centralized, despotic form of rule. During this process, LGBTI+phobic censorship practices were also observed. For example, the trustee appointed to Batman (Êlîh) Municipality painted over the rainbow colors at the entrance of Yılmaz Güney Park in white on the grounds that they had an “LGBTI+ connotation.” Similarly, in Çatak (Şax) Municipality, the rainbow colors on the bridge railings were changed to red and white on the grounds that they were “not considered aesthetic.”
The reason I mention these examples in particular is that the same “trustee genetics” has also manifested itself at METU. During the Gezi Resistance, the stairs stretching from METU Devrim Stadium to Dormitory 1 had been painted in rainbow colors. After students were detained during the Boğaziçi process for carrying the rainbow and trans flags, these stairs were painted again. Verşan Kök, METU’s trustee at the time, had these stairs painted gray and white, and we restored them to rainbow colors once again. This process of painting over, or “erasing,” was repeated many times, and in the end the stairs were painted red and white. This picture clearly shows the continuity of the trustee practice extending from Kurdish municipalities to universities.
Yozgatlıgil, who stood out as the AKP wing of trustee rule during Verşan Kök’s term, established a strategic “friendly” image toward students after being appointed rector. But this approach, too, is familiar: a language of closeness built through remarks such as “I also have photos from Gezi” and “I bought drying machines for the dormitories”... We all know what happened afterward. Yozgatlıgil tried to offset the disadvantage created by all his past practices and his relationship with the government through such an image, but this approach has no value in our eyes.
70th Year Art Festival
These days, the 70th Year Art Festival is being held at METU. While many exhibitions and events are taking place as part of the festival, the statement by Girls to The Front came to the agenda. The collective, which had planned to take part in the festival both as the festival photographer and with the exhibition “This is What Loud Looks Like,” announced that they were withdrawing from the festival because they were asked to remove the word lubunya (queer) from the exhibition text and because of interventions aimed at preventing the inclusion of the LGBTI+ flag in the exhibition.
The “trustee genetics” we have been talking about has begun to manifest itself under the Yozgatlıgil administration through this practice as well, and clearly it will not remain limited to this. When people were told to “speak out” during the initial appointment process, everyone who said, “Let us not damage relations,” now needs to engage in self-criticism and speak out. Because LGBTI+phobia, censorship, and similar practices are not individual preferences, but the product of an ideological mechanism.
Yesterday (Apr 3), students, led by METU LGBTIQAA+ Solidarity, raised the rainbow flag that was sought to be banned, erased, and ignored at the Culture and Convention Center. This action was not an ordinary protest, but a powerful expression of collective will. Against trustee rule and the atmosphere created by this mentality, we will continue to resist through our existence and our resistance.
Where in this picture will you stand? That is the real question, and its answer needs to lie in solidarity.
As a lubunya from METU and an amateur photographer, I thank Girls to The Front for not bowing to this censorship and for standing by us. We are one of you, and we are with you, sis! (TG/TY/VK)
