March 24, 2006 Riot police raided the student canteen and attacked the students who had gathered there, with truncheons and pepper spray. The revolutionary students tried to repel the attack by barricading the entrances. It is illegal for the police to enter the campus without permission. Some plainclothes policemen, accompanied by the university security chief, […]
March 24, 2006
Riot police raided the student canteen and attacked the students who had gathered there, with truncheons and pepper spray. The revolutionary students tried to repel the attack by barricading the entrances. It is illegal for the police to enter the campus without permission.
Some plainclothes policemen, accompanied by the university security chief, came to the canteen and asked the students to remove the posters from the walls and threatened to intervene otherwise. When students rejected the police suppression directed at the university, hundreds of riot police entered the campus and attacked the students. It is reported that the police attacked indiscriminately, used truncheons, pepper sprayed the students and shattered the windows. Many students were injured. No arrests were made but students say the police beat everyone they could lay their hands on, which amounted to torture.
The students, joined by students from other universities who had come for support but whose entrance to the campus was denied, marched to the courthouse to report the crime committed by the police. After filing a petition, they released a statement. The statement blamed Mr. Parlak, the president of the university, for permitting the attack on the students who were only trying to defend their university and country.
The poster, which was the pretext for the attack, made the three demands against commercialization and marketing:
-University tuition and Registration fees should be ended and student services should be free
– University Housing and transportation costs should be reduced and dormitory capacity should be expanded
– Scientific education of a high standard
EK