‘We cannot live’: Koç University students protest for housing rights

* Photo: Koç University Solidarity
** The name of the student has been changed

Click to read the article in Turkish

As in-class education has started at universities after months of suspension amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, more and more students have been having problems with finding housing.

The students of Koç University, a foundation university, are faced with this problem, like several other university students across the country. "You have no place to rest in peace, because we have no place to sleep," they said on September 27 and started protesting at the campus.

Lale** from the Koç University Solidarity says, "There was already a problem with dormitories, but we have never had such trouble before."

Explaining why they started keeping watch at the campus, Lale says:

The placement results were announced on September 13. Nearly 300 fellow students have not been given a place to stay. Among them were people coming from other cities, the ones placed in dormitories and the ones who had a dormitory scholarship, but were still not placed in a dorm. We came together and listed our requests and said that we would start resisting if these requests were not met.

Pressure of undercover police, security guards

Lale says that the university administration has made no statements after receiving their demands:

"No one came to us. We went to the Henry Ford Grass Area. Then, the Student's Dean and Secretary General came, too.

"They didn't say anything about our demands. All they said was 'Don't put up a tent.' After we sent them away, saying, 'Let us think about it among ourselves and discuss it in a forum', we realized that we had undercover police officers among us. We sent them away, too."

Lale notes that the security guards who tore their banners yesterday (September 28) disturbed them all through their watch that they kept at the campus the other night. She recounts what happened then:

Lastly, at 3 in the morning, they said, 'Gendarmerie will enter the school. Close the table and don't stay here.' Apart from this, the dean has pledged that 'we can continue the resistance and no investigation will be launched against anyone.' But the conversation went on like 'The gendarmerie will come and get you, an investigation will be launched, your scholarships will be terminated'.

'There are so many problems'

According to Lale, "the functioning of the school as a business" is the reason behind the problem. She says: "There are so many problems at Koç University. We don't expect anything from the administration of Koç University. They are not doing anything other than aggrieving the students.

It was also the case before. This school never acts in accord with students. We have all regretted qualifying for this school. Because we cannot make ends meet, we cannot live here.

About housing protests in Turkey

Following a distance education for one year and a half due to the coronavirus outbreak, the university students in Turkey are now having problems with finding housing as in-class education is about to begin.

Not placed in public dormitories, students have started keeping vigils at parks in several cities of the country, saying that they have low-income families and they cannot make a living with their scholarships.

Forming groups such as the Movement of 'We Cannot Find Housing' (Barınamıyoruz), Youth Movement Coordination and Those Without a Place to Stay, students want the dorm problem to be solved.

In a social media message shared by the "Barınamıyoruz Hareketi" (We cannot find housing Movement) account on September 20, it was underlined that several university students who have returned to their schools for in-class education after two years have become homeless due to the insufficient capacity of state dorms, high prices of private dorms and rents.

"We have become homeless due to the rent increases of 70 percent to 290 percent across Turkey," the movement has said on social media.

While 815,365 students have been placed in a university this year, millions of students are in need of housing across the country.
Addressing the public following the Presidential cabinet meeting on Monday evening (September 27), President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan referred to the protesting students as "so-called students" and briefly said:

"Turkey is the country which has the highest number of public higher education dormitories and beds in the world. I would like to underline that some of those who have been recently lying on banks in some parks and gardens have nothing to do with being students."

Referring to the Gezi resistance of 2013, Erdoğan argued that the protests "were another version of the Gezi Park incident."

Addressing the reporters before leaving Turkey for the US on September 19, President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had said that "when the AKP came to power, the state scholarship was 45 lira, but it is now 650 lira," criticizing the students for their criticisms.

As for the statement of Minister of Youth and Sports Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu about the issue, it is found "incomprehensible" by several people. In a statement on social media, he said that "they have dormitories that can compete with the most modern hotel chains." (DŞ/SD)