Yet another source of political tension is unfolding these days in Turkey over construction in a public space: The Ankara municipality, led by Justice and Development Party (AKP) Mayor Melih Gokcek, is building a new highway. It will pass through the large campus of the Middle Eastern Technical University (METU). The construction project will involve the uprooting of some three thousand trees, leading to objections by both the administration and students of METU.
This tension has loomed for a while, but intensified this week. On the night of Oct. 18, the last day of the Feast of the Sacrifice, the Ankara municipality apparently grew fed up with waiting for the final decision of the METU administration, with which it was negotiating, and sent bulldozers onto the campus to clear the path for the highway project. Hundreds of METU students, enraged by this "attack," tried to stop the bulldozers, only to be repelled by police with the now customary tear gas. Students' efforts to plant new trees in the area were also disallowed by the police.
Earlier this week, Gokcek gave a news conference in which he explained that his municipality was a "green" one, that some of the uprooted trees will be transplanted elsewhere and that the "expense" of the trees (some 211,000 lira, or $108,000) were transferred to METU accounts. The METU, however, announced that this money would be rejected. The school, apparently, simply wanted trees untouched and the highway unbuilt.
If you feel déjà vu of the spark that launched the Gezi Park protests last May, you are right. The stories are quite similar: AKP authorities want to build something new (a mall, residence or highway) in a public space. Youths, most of them environmentalists and/or leftists, oppose and protest. The authorities use the police to disperse the crowds, only escalating tension.
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