57 students detained after clash at Istanbul University

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

Some 27 of the 57 arrested students were released, while 30 students are set to be brought before the court, police officials have said. DHA photo

A total of 57 students were taken into custody April 16 after a fight broke out at Istanbul University between a left-wing group protesting heavy police action against student demonstrations in Diyarbakır last week and another group with alleged links to the Islamist Hizbullah organization. 

Students gathered in the morning hours near the university’s Literature Faculty in Istanbul’s Laleli neighborhood to protest the recent events at Diyarbakır’s Dicle University while members of the Muslim Youth organization tried to attack the demonstration. Some students were injured during the fight, Doğan news agency reported. 
 
Some 27 of the 57 arrested students were released, while 30 students were set to be brought before the court, according to police officials. 
 
A left-wing student group organized another demonstration in the afternoon to release a statement criticizing police for pursuing and detaining students inside classrooms during the events that occurred in the morning. 

“We condemn that the police attacked and took into custody students while it protected reactionary gangs. We will fight together against the attacks,” the group said in their statement.  

The violence at universities started last week when members of the Islamist Free Cause Party (Hüdapar), which has alleged links to the outlawed Hizbullah organization, clashed with another organization chanting slogans in favor of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) at Dicle University, touching off three days of clashes.

Police’s use of water cannon and helicopters to drop tear gas on students triggered protests at universities around the country, including Istanbul University and Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) in Ankara.