Turkish minister refutes student loan cuts claim for Gezi participants

ANKARA

Youth and Sports Minister Suat Kılıç refutes allegations that university students who participated in the Gezi Park protests will not be eligible for loans granted by the Higher Education Loans and Dormitories Institution (KYK). DHA photo

Youth and Sports Minister Suat Kılıç has refuted allegations that university students who participated in the Gezi Park protests will not be eligible for loans granted by the Higher Education Loans and Dormitories Institution (KYK). 

“News that scholarships [or loans] granted to university students who participated in Gezi Park protests will be cut are complete lies and products of the imagination,” Kılıç said in a message posted on his Twitter account late on July 30.

“The regulation shown as the basis of the news was passed in 1997. That is to say, before the liars even knew the location of Gezi Park,” he added.

News reports were based on a document published on July 29, enumerating the preconditions for the 2013-2014 academic year. It stated that those who engage in “resistance, boycotts, occupations, writing, painting [in public spaces], chanting slogans and the like,” will not be eligible for student loans, as such activity constitutes a “violation of the right to an education,” according to the KYK.

Questions were raised with many speculating that an article banning such student behavior had been inserted as a result of the Gezi Park protests. However, even though the precondition has been included for a number of years, it was argued that this year it could target students participating in protests and prevent them from receiving loans in the future.