Ankara Metropolitan Municipality raided Middle East Technical University (METU) forests last Saturday late at night following the agreement between the METU rectorate and the municipality regarding the new highway project.
The municipality started the highway construction with 100 construction pieces of equipment and 400 trucks, escorted by the police. The construction work is reported to have massive cause deforestation at the METU forest. Encompassing a 3,500-hectare in total, 24-hectare forest land of METU Forest has been destroyed with the last construction works.
Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek boasted in tweeter account, saying "the Metropolitan Municipality has beat another record by opening a 4,5 kilometres-long road in a single day." Gökçek is one of the most controversial names of the ruling AKP government, and he is notorious for his tweets.
1️⃣ODTÜ REKTÖRLÜĞÜ İLE YAPILAN PROTOKOL GEREĞİ AÇILACAK 4,5 KM'LİK YOLU BİR GECEDE AÇARAK BÜYÜKŞEHİR BELEDİYESİ BİR REKORA DAHA İMZA ATTI.. pic.twitter.com/3IWbf5RRqK
— İbrahim Melih Gökçek (@06melihgokcek) 10 Eylül 2017
"THE INSTRUCTION IS FROM THE PRESIDENT"
On August 15, METU's Rector Prof. Mustafa Verşan Kök made a statement that they are against the proposed method of highway building through the METU forest. Ankara governor Ercan Topaca talked to local media and revealed how he intermediated the negotiations between the Ankara municipality and METU rectorate.
Governor Topaca said that he acted with the instructions of the President Erdoğan, who advised to "negotiate with the university". Relating how they negotiated with the METU rectorate, Topaca noted that the METU administration demanded to plant trees more than the ones uprooted during the construction and that the Mayor Gökçek promised to "plant four times more trees if needed".
Topaca called METU Rector Kök a "successful dealer" and a reasonable person. He commented that an image of strife between the Ankara municipality and one of the most successful universities of Turkey is not favourable.
The open ideological enmity of the ruling AKP government towards the revolutionary legacy of METU had stirred on several occasions provocations of the Mayor Gökçek and protests of the METU students and academics. When the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan participated in a ceremony that took place at the METU campus for the launching of Turkish satellite Göktürk-2 in December 2012, around 8000 riot police officers attacked METU students since they protested the government. Another mass protest in the near past occurred when some part of the METU forest had been destroyed during the construction of a boulevard in 2013.
"GÖKÇEK CONTINUES TRICKERY; METU RECTOR PLOTS BEHIND THE STUDENTS' BACKS"
The Communist Youth of Turkey released a statement on the deal between the Ankara municipality and METU rector regarding the construction of the highway through the METU forest.
The statement of the Communist Youth noted that the timing of the construction is noteworthy, coinciding with the academic holiday when there are no students to protest it.
The statement said that it would have been wrong to expect from Ankara Mayor Gökçek who is a rent-seeking plunderer, and METU Rector, who administers the university like a CEO, to care for METU forests.
Noting that it is the system of exploitation that attacks METU, the statement said the struggle to overthrow this system is the only way to save METU and nature.
