Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan said that the government would not allow month-long demonstrations at a Turkish university to grow into anti-government protests. Erdogan called the protesters “terrorists” on Wednesday.
Students and teachers at Istanbul’s Bogazici University have been protesting Erdogan’s appointment of Melih Bulu as rector. Bulu is a former academic and a political candidate. He is the first one to be chosen from outside the university community to the position of rector since the military coup in 1980. Bulu’s appointment has been denounced as undemocratic by members of the university.
This week, more than 250 protesters in Istanbul were detained and 69 of them in Ankara. The protesters have been calling for Bulu’s resignation.
The last time Turkey saw protests of such a scale was when in 2013, citizen marched against the government’s plan to build replica Ottoman barracks in Istanbul’s Gezi Park.
Protesters hung a poster outside Bulu’s office, depicting Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba shrine in Mecca, that featured an LGBTQ symbol. The dispute around the protests has intensified ever since. Erdogan said “there is no such thing” as LGBTQ.
“This country is national and spiritual, and will continue to walk into the future as such,” he added.
The image of Islam’s holiest site with an LGBTQ symbol was condemned by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. Rector Bulu, in the meantime, has said that he will not resign.
The United States on Wednesday said it was “concerned” over the detention of student protesters. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said, “The United States … stands shoulder to shoulder with all those fighting for their fundamental democratic freedoms.”
In response to the controversial image of Mecca the protesters put up outside Bulu’s office, Erdogan said, “Are you students or terrorists trying to raid the rector’s room?”
He added, “This country will not again live a Gezi event in Taksim, will not allow it. We have not stood with terrorists and we will not”.
