Students Attacked with Truncheons at Ankara University

* Photo: Daily Evrensel

Click to read the article in Turkish

Ankara University (AÜ) and the Turkish Historical Society (TTK) held a "Symposium on Turkey's Modernization Process and Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences" today (November 19).

While Ankara University President Erkan İbiş and Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Nadir Alpaslan also attended the symposium, the students of the faculty were prevented from doing so.

While the speakers were discussing the role of Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara University in the modernization of Turkey, the students who attempted to attend the symposium were battered by the private security guards who were trying to lock the doors in the meantime.

The below video has been shared from the university:

Ankara Üniversitesi'nde düzenlenen Mektebi Mülkiye Sempozyumu'na Rektör İbiş'in katılımı nedeniyle üniversiteliler alınmıyor. Sempozyuma girmek isteyen üniversitelilere güvenlik jopla saldırdı! pic.twitter.com/8Bvu4VAbXP

— Politik Baykuş (@politikbaykus) November 19, 2019

Nationalists attacked the students as well

After private security personnel attacked the students, a group of around 50 nationalists gathered at the backyard of the university. This group also attacked the students and academics.

Students defended themselves against the nationalists who walked up to them and tried to punch them. After the attack, the students chanted the slogan, "Cebeci [Campus] will be a grave to fascism."

'Security' measure at campus

Student societies of Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences released a statement about the symposium yesterday.

Making a call to protect the honor of the faculty, the societies said, "It is unacceptable that a university president who has a grudge against the faculty of political sciences and has caused such destruction in the academia will make a speech at the very rostrum that he wants to break down."

While riot police squads were stationed inside and outside the university campus before the symposium started, the private security personnel of the university were also alerted.

The symposium was, in fact, open to the attendance of students; however, the members of university societies who released the statement on the symposium were prevented from attending it.

When the students protested this prevention at the door of Aziz Köklü Hall. Security guards attacked the students with truncheons.

The statement was signed by the Ankara University Enlightenment and Social Research Society, Ankara University Social Sciences Society, Ankara University Socialist Thought Society, Ankara University Innovative Thought Society, Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences Labor Society, Faculty of Political Sciences Literature Society and Sinei- Tüllab Society. (TP/SD)