Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

With sapling planting continuing in the area where trees were removed in Friday’s midnight raid, the rectorate of the Middle East Technical University has made the following announcement:

Announcement to Middle East Technical University members and students

Esteemed Members and Dear Students,

Ankara Metropolitan Municipality teams, without our University’s knowledge and permission, entered our campus at about 21.15 in the evening of 18 October 2013 and commenced road construction, and we wish to share the following information with you with reference to the process that started with the uprooting of trees, and the Construction Plan with the Aim of Preserving METU which was approved by the Ministry of the Environment and Urbanisation:

Recourse was made to all legitimate forms of solution by this Rectorate so as to halt the road construction and removal of trees that commenced with Ankara Metropolitan Municipality teams Ankara entering our campus, without notification or permission, in the manner of a raid at about 21.15 in the evening of Friday 18 October 2013 and the endeavour was made throughout the evening to contact the relevant authorities orally and in writing. However, in spite of all the applications that were made, the teams’ activities continued until 6.30 in the morning.

On Saturday 19 October 2013, University Management, Legal Advisors, the relevant unit managers and Management Board members met from 10.00 until 17.00 and discussed strategies from a legal and administrative point of view. The Rectorate’s Announcement drawn up after the meeting was made public on this University’s website on 19 October 2013.

On Sunday 20 October 2013, a meeting was held from 14.00 until 19.00 attended by Rectorial managers, members of the University Senate and University Board of Directors, teaching staff from the Town and Regional Planning and Architecture departments and technical unit managers. At the meeting, the points where the plan approved by the Ministry of the Environment and Urbanisation diverged from METU’s proposals were assessed and the points which will be objected to were determined. METU will submit its objections to the plan to the Ministry as soon as possible. As the plan ceased to be suspended on 4 October 2013, the one month objection period expires on 4 November 2013.
In line with the decisions taken at the meetings, the envisaged action plan has been summarised below:

Application to the legal authorities will be made of Monday 21 October 2013 with respect to the persons and entities responsible for the unauthorised entry into the campus, the uprooting and removing of trees and this intervention. We will share detailed information with you about these procedures in the coming days.

The University Senate will convene at 13.30 on Tuesday 22 October and pass a decision reflecting this University’s reaction concerning the matter.

The University Senate’s announcement will be shared with the press on Wednesday 23 October.

On Thursday 24 October or Friday 25 October, an activity will be staged aimed at planting around 3000 saplings in our Campus. All of our members and students are invited to this activity. The activity programme will be advertised on this University’s website.

A briefing document will be compiled concerning the plan approved by the Ministry and the University will make this public and hold briefing meetings.
Our members and students will be kept informed of developments in legal proceedings initiated in respect of the intervention made in our campus and the uprooting and removing of trees, and amendments to the Construction Plan with the Aim of Preserving METU.

Respectfully submitted for your information.

Rectorate

http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/odtud ... ya-1156473

[bill cobbett]

Hurriyet also reporting on the environmentalist's protests and clashes at the Ankara ODTU.

Some 600 trees have been felled for the road-building scheme.

"... Clashes have erupted on the campus of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) between police and people gathered to protest the removal of trees for a road construction passing through the campus.

The police repeatedly used tear gas to disperse crowds on the night of Oct. 21.

Hundreds of protesters have been present on campus since the morning, attempting to plant new trees in protest at the road plans, with police interventions being..."

"... Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has claimed that “there is an attempt to set up incidents like the Gezi Park protests.” .."

Everywhere is Resistance Everywhere is Taksim

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/clashe ... sCatID=341

[Tim Drayton]

Comments made by Prime-Minister Erdoğan at his party’s group meeting regarding recent events at the Middle East Technical University

“Roads are civilisation. But those who are not civilised do not understand the value of roads. If we knew that a road was to pass there, and there was a mosque in front of that road, we would knock down the mosque for the road. We would go and build the mosque somewhere else.

Everything was done at METU. This or that person does not make a plan. Municipalities make and implement them. Here, some people emerge and want to block the road. Who? The architect of all corruption, the CHP.

Ankara Metropolitan Municipality is continuing to construct the road with determination. It must be done to overcome difficulties. We cannot stop on the grounds that some people are blocking it. Brigands did this in the past. Now modern brigands are doing it. We are determined. Whoever tries to block our way will see our iron resolution.”

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/?hn=448150&kn=6&ka=4&kb=6

[Tim Drayton]

Hurriyet also reporting on the environmentalist's protests and clashes at the Ankara ODTU.

Some 600 trees have been felled for the road-building scheme.

"... Clashes have erupted on the campus of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) between police and people gathered to protest the removal of trees for a road construction passing through the campus.

The police repeatedly used tear gas to disperse crowds on the night of Oct. 21.

Hundreds of protesters have been present on campus since the morning, attempting to plant new trees in protest at the road plans, with police interventions being..."

"... Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has claimed that “there is an attempt to set up incidents like the Gezi Park protests.” .."

Everywhere is Resistance Everywhere is Taksim

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/clashe ... sCatID=341

It seems that my report above was not 100% accurate. Activists were planting saplings in empty spaces alongside the area that was cleared to make way for the disputed new road. A phalanx of riot police were in place to guard the actual route of the proposed road, which according to the university's arguments was cleared illegally given that this was done in the statutory one month period for raising objections to the new plan.

[Tim Drayton]

The translation of a paragraph from a newspaper report about yesterday’s disturbances at the Middle East Technical University:

With students dispersing after having completed their sapling planting action, the attempt by municipal workers to uproot saplings planted on the construction site lit the fuse. The police intervened against students as they reacted to this. Hundreds of policemen with riot-control and armoured vehicles stood against a small number of students. With gas, plastic bullets, sound bombs and pressurised water used against students, four students were injured and two students fainted from the intense gas. The tear gas canisters that were fired ignited trees. Students set up a barricade against the police and replied to plastic bullets with fireworks. After students at Hacettepe University heard of the clash, they abandoned the Beytepe Forum and came to METU. In the clashes that went on late into the night, the A4 entry to METU was smothered in gas. One student was arrested in the course of the events. The entry of an armoured vehicle into the campus grounds as the clashes were continuing provoked a reaction. METU academics tried to secure the removal of the armoured vehicle from the campus in negotiations with the police. The police, however, indicated that there was a municipal bus that had broken down and that they could not withdraw until the bus had left. At this time, Republic People’s Party (CHP) member of parliament, Kemal Degirmendereli also remonstrated with the police. A Police helicopter also flew at low height all day over METU.

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/?hn=448036&kn=7&ka=4&kb=7

[Tim Drayton]

Students at the Aegean University in Izmir planted saplings in support of Middle East Technical University Students.

[Tim Drayton]

Students at the Anatolian University in Eskişehir marched in support of Middle East Technical University students.



Demonstrations in support are planned for this afternoon/evening in the following cities:

İstanbul, İzmir, Adana, Ankara, Eskişehir, Kocaeli and Mersin

http://birgun.net/haber/rantin-yoluna-k ... -5586.html

[Tim Drayton]

A report about yesterday’s events at the Middle East Technical University

[my translation]

In opposition to the massacre inflicted on the METU forest in Ankara Metropolitan Municipality’s midnight operation, university people and the people of the 100. Yıl district planted 5,000 saplings at the site of the massacre. District residents and METU people said that they would make the forest green once more with the saplings. Opposition was voiced against [Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Mayor] Melih Gökçek at the sapling planting action, also supported by CHP members of parliament Aylin Nazlıaka and Levent Gök as well as representatives of many mass democratic organisations. Citizens, saying “Gökçek, who has been incapable of making a metre of metro in twenty years, has massacred five thousand trees in one night and made a motorway. Gökçek, what’s your hurry?”, planted saplings in front of construction equipment.

THE POLICE LOOKED ON, WORKERS INTERVENED
The METU people and 100. Yıl district residents, having launched a campaign to plant saplings in opposition to the tree massacre brought about by the municipality, collected thousands of saplings in a short space of time thanks to donations that came from all over Turkey in three days and their own efforts. Marches by the METU people from within the campus and by the 100. Yıl residents from the quarter, setting out at about 13.00, soon converged on the area targeted by the municipality’s operation. The locals and METU people, walking with saplings in their hands, were followed by around 300 police, four riot control vehicles, two armoured vehicles and two police helicopters.

The locals and METU people, having converged on the area opened up for the road by destroying trees, then began to encounter friction with the municipal workers. With the resulting scuffles failing to turn into clashes, in spite of all the efforts by the Gökçek teams, the police restricted themselves to watching the municipal workers’ provocations. As police teams blocked the way, it was only possible to plant the saplings, which were rapidly transported from the 100. Yıl district to the METU forest along rapidly forming human chains, alongside the newly opened road. Municipal workers also intervened against the human chains. The construction teams, arguing with locals and METU people on the grounds that they were blocking the construction work in the METU forest which has yet to receive final approval, constantly threatened the crowds by driving lorries and diggers up against them.

GRAFT SOUGHT IN NEW PLACES
A press statement on behalf of the people of Ankara was also made at the sapling planting activity. The statement included the words, “Construction equipment and teams connected to the Municipality, taking refuge in the dark of night and the solitude of the religious holiday, with the support of club-wielding men and the police, infringed on METU grounds. Graft is being sought in new places in the 100. Yıl district and in Ankara.”

GÖKÇEK DESTROYED A FIFTY-YEAR-OLD FOREST
In an initiative launched in the 1960’s by METU management, trees were planted on the area of the Ankara steppe falling within METU grounds, and, as the saplings planted at that time turned into mature trees, the area began to be known as the “METU forest”. The METU forest, which after having turned into a forest acquired the status of first-degree protected area, was opened up for development under a decision taken by the Protection Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation and Melih Gökçek’s teams, without awaiting the expiry of the statutory objection period pertaining to the decision made by the Committee, entered the forest with bulldozers and diggers and destroyed about five thousand trees.

Gökçek has spoken: marginal groups!
Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Melih Gökçek has made statement in the wake of the destruction of trees at METU. Gökçek, saying that METU has been paid 211,000 Turkish lira for the 2,388 trees that were uprooted by construction equipment, resorted to a well-known defence for the night raid: “So that marginal groups would not create a disturbance.”

http://birgun.net/haber/rantin-yoluna-f ... -5555.html

[Tim Drayton]

Gezi Park proceedings have been started in the city of Adana against 52 defendants. In the indictment, the words, “This is our constitutional right. You also know that there is nothing excessive about the activity we are engaging in. Give permission, let the march continue to Barış Square and people vent their anger. Let there be no unpleasant scenes in Mersin on such a day“ uttered by Green and Left Future Party Joint Spokesman Osman Yılmaz have been interpreted as “insistence in refusing to disperse in spite of a caution and the use of force.”

http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/savci ... su-1156697

[Tim Drayton]

Some drivers have tried to stage a protest on the road alongside the Middle East Technical University by driving along slowly and blowing their horns, thus obstructing the traffic, but their vehicles have been driven off by tow trucks with the drivers still inside.

http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/odtud ... le-1156759