First expulsion, then beating

WATER CANNONS VERSUS SCIENCE

Members of parliament, academics, students and graduates participating in the ‘Big Meeting’ event held at Ankara University Cebeci Campus in opposition to the expulsion of academics under a decree with the force of law were denied access to the premises under a harsh police intervention. A stand-off which started with the police denying the academics permission to enter the university turned into an intervention with gas, truncheons and water cannons.

TWELVE ARRESTS

Academics, expressing their disgust at the expulsions, left their gowns at the entrance to Cebeci Campus, saying, ‘We will not go to Palaces and we will not button up our gowns before anyone.’ The police, having broken down the campus gate, crushed the gowns left by academics with their boots and launched an intervention with gas and plastic bullets against the group that was demanding the rule of law. There were twelve arrests, five of them teaching staff members.