"Pro-Freedom" in Turkey: Police Violence, Egg-Throwing, and the PM's "Political Trap"

Pressure on Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is building as the public started discuss Turkish police's exercise of force against civilian demonstrations. 

On Sunday, students marched --- after making the legally-required notification to the local authorities --- to Istanbul. Those who were able to arrive demanded the right to be present in a meeting between the Prime Minister and university rectors. 

Policemen, using pepper spray at close distance, attacked groups carrying only plastic flags. A pregnant 19-year-old student lost her baby. She told Hurriyet:

[The police] outnumbered us five to one, they had confidence from this. I was at the front; I wanted to move to the back but could not. [The police] attacked; one of them pulled the flag from my hand. I did not want to give it up, so he pulled it, and I pulled it. Then they started to pepper spray [us]. 

He grabbed me by the shoulders; then I took a blow to my stomach. I do not recall where it came from. I said ‘Stop, I am pregnant’ to protect the baby, but it was no use.

The doctors were very nice to me, but they took the baby as if it was not a living thing and put it in a box and wrote my name on it. I felt so helpless. I could not do anything.

Burhan Kuzu, a lawyer and AKP legislator, was speaking at the Faculty of Political Science in the University Ankara on proposals for Turkey's constitution. As he stepped on the stage, he was welcomed by dozens of eggs. Policemen forcefully entered the campus and took Kuzu away. His first reaction to the students: "Brainless!"

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his MP and called on both the rector and the dean to resign:

The political trap in Istanbul for two weeks is the very same of the situation in the University of Ankara. No one can express this in the name of freedom. Almost 100 or more than that eggs were thrown to Mr. Kuzu today. If throwing eggs is in the expression of speech, it is something else. I suppose, there is not! First of all, I do find the university administration guilty. This is my approach. Why? Because, how were these students with eggs taken in the campus and are they actually students of this university? Indeed, I saw that there were non-students. Let me be clear: These attitudes are of those who cannot not digest more democracy and a more pro-freedom standard. And, if these steps are to be taken, then our policemen whose duty is about security will take up a position accordingly. 

So, despite the injuries to protesters, police have been praised once again by their Prime Minister. They can be proud of what happened on Sunday, amidst the Government's declarations of "more democracy and a more pro-freedom standard".

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