Opponents of new constitution at Turkey’s Hacettepe University attacked
While massive dismissals of faculty members at a number of universities across Turkey continued in reference to state of emergency laws and the current government’s purge launched after last summer’s failed coup attempt, college campuses have become center of attacks even further since referendum campaigns have taken a start off earlier in February.
Students expressing opposition to the ruling party’s proposed constitutional amendments which would expand the power of executive branch to a level of almost an unchecked status have been the target of supporters of the proposed constitution at several campuses.
The latest of such incidents where opponents of the proposed presidential system were either blocked or attacked took place in Hacettepe University’s Beytepe campus in Ankara.
According to reports, a group that calls itself as Hacettepe’s ‘ülkücü (far-right nationalists) group’ has insistently been threatening the opponents.
Asserting that they will not allow a ‘no’ campaign to be held on campus, the group has recently broke into the Art History department of the school and threatened both students and teachers by saying ‘we are going to slit your throats.’
Staying away from taking action against the aggressors, the school administration rather took the attacked group out of campus to end the fight. No administrative or legal action has been taken against the attackers although their attacks have been repetitive, reports indicated.