Istanbul police use plastic bullets, tear gas on Boğaziçi University protestors, detain 104 of them

Serkan Alan / DUVAR

Both Istanbul and Ankara saw police brutality on Feb. 2 as protests against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's appointment of a new rector to Boğaziçi University continued. 

Istanbul police tear-gassed and used plastic bullets against protestors who gathered in the Kadıköy district upon the call of the Istanbul Labour, Peace and Democracy Forces civil society group.

Several people were battered during the police intervention. Images showed protestors being pushed to the ground and kicked repeatedly by police officers. 

The Istanbul police department later issued a statement saying that 104 people were detained in the districts of Kadıköy, Beşiktaş and Sarıyer for violating the demonstration ban. 

Lawyer Tuba Torun released a statement on her social media account with regards to the detentions, saying: "They are making our friends wait with their hands cuffed behind their back for the last 1.5 hours. They are asking for water, it is not given."

She said that one of the detained protestors asked for an ambulance but the police ignored the demand. 

Demonstrators shouted slogans of "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism" and carried banners reading "We will never look down."

The police also attacked journalists and tried to prevent them from recording images.

The protest came after the Kadıköy district governor's office banned all demonstrations for seven days under the guise of pandemic precautions.

The Istanbul governor's office has also banned demonstrations in the districts where Boğaziçi campuses are located until Feb. 5. 

Ankara police also on Feb. 2 brutalized students, including some from Middle Eastern Technical University (ODTÜ), who were protesting in support of Boğaziçi University's resistance. 

Nationwide support for Boğaziçi University's resistance increased on Feb. 1, when a video of a police officer went viral, prompting outrage for his battery of a student after telling him to "look down" instead of at his face.

The slogan "We will not look down" became a trending topic on Twitter immediately after the video was released, and oppositional opinion leaders from all parts of society voiced their support for the Boğaziçi community. 

University students in Ankara also took to the streets on Feb. 2 to join the resistance but were met with brutal police intervention, much like the Boğaziçi students.

Some student organizations from Ankara reported six detentions, but no official statement has been made from law enforcement about the number of students in police custody. One student was photographed with a broken tooth and a bloody mouth after police intervention at the demonstration. 

Police detained more than 150 Boğaziçi students in Istanbul on Feb. 1, hours after President Erdoğan praised his party's youth for not being "LGBT vandals" like the Boğaziçi protesters.

Some of the students in police detention recorded a video where they said "We will not look down, the rest is in your hands!" in the police vehicle, the social media for student group Öğrenci İnisiyatifi noted.

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