Turkey’s student protests: New challenge for Erdogan
Al JazeeraAnkara, Turkey – Over the last month, protests at a university overlooking the Bosphorus have spiralled into a challenge that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has compared with nationwide demonstrations that threatened his government eight years ago. When Erdogan’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, branded demonstrators “LGBT deviants” in a tweet on Tuesday, the US State Department condemned anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and voiced concern at the detention of protesters. “As a Muslim student, my initial reaction was that I didn’t want to see that as part of an exhibition, not because I want to limit freedom of expression but because all students are part of the protests and the solidarity among us is too important to sacrifice for any expression,” said Enes Sayin, a second-year history student at Bogazici. Her comments were echoed by history student Sayin, who said Turkey’s universities “lack the fundamental autonomy needed to function as places of learning”. “It’s turned into an embarrassing controversy for Erdogan,” said Berk Esen, assistant professor of political science at Istanbul’s Sabanci University.
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