Turkish president brands anti-war students 'terrorists'

After fight at Bogazici University over Afrin offensive, Erdogan vows to kick out ‘communist, traitor youth’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday criticized anti-war students at a top university, calling them terrorists following a fight there.

Erdogan said that “communist, traitor youth” tried to mess up a student stand opened by “religious, nationalist, local youth” at the public Bogazici University. Erdogan announced an investigation and said “we won’t give these terrorist youth the right to study at these universities.”

On Monday, a group of students opened a stand distributing sweets dubbed “Afrin delight” to commemorate fallen soldiers in Turkey’s cross-border operation in Syria. Another group protested against them, holding anti-war banners.

Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency said a fight broke out and 12 people were later detained.

Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters are seen in the village of Jamanli, northeast of the Syrian city of Afrin, on March 3, 2018, as smoke billows in the background from a reported Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) location. (AFP PHOTO / Nazeer al-Khatib)

Ankara has not tolerated criticism of its military offensive on the Kurdish-majority region that has killed dozens of civilians and displaced tens of thousands.

On January 20, Turkey launched an air and ground offensive in the enclave of Afrin in Syria to root out the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) there, which Turkey brands a terrorist group, but which is seen by the United States as a key player in the fight against Islamic State jihadists.

On Friday, the UN said that 170,000 people had fled Afrin in the wake of the Turkish offensive, pointing to the harrowing conditions faced by those displaced.

“The estimate now is 167,000 people have been displaced by hostilities in Afrin district,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva.

He said most of those who had left had gone to nearby Tal Rifaat, and said that between 50,000 and 70,000 civilians are estimated to remain inside the city.

Civilians fleeing the city of Afrin in northern Syria walk at the mountainous road of al-Ahlam while heading towards the check point in az-Ziyarah, in the government-controlled part of the northern Aleppo province, on March 16, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / George OURFALIAN)

The World Health Organization (WHO) meanwhile said it had deployed mobile medical clinics and health supplies to areas hosting those displaced from Afrin, warning that health services inside the city were also lacking.

“Children, women, and men have undertaken harrowing journeys to flee Afrin and need urgent health assistance. Our staff have met civilians who reported walking for 36 hours to reach safer areas,” WHO’s representative in Syria Elizabeth Hoff said in a statement.