‘Those who govern the country are after unearned income’

* Photo: Dilek Şen

Click to read the article in Turkish

Following a distance education for one year and a half due to the coronavirus outbreak, the university students in Turkey are now having problems with finding housing as in-class education is about to begin.

Not placed in public dormitories, students have started keeping vigils at parks in several cities of the country, saying that they have low-income families and they cannot make a living with their scholarships.

Forming groups such as the Movement of 'We Cannot Find Housing' (Barınamıyoruz), Youth Movement Coordination and Those Without a Place to Stay, students want the dorm problem to be solved.

One of the students who spent the night at the Maçka Democracy Park in İstanbul's Şişli under the pouring rain was Ece Köroğlu from the Youth Movement Coordination. Speaking to bianet, she briefly says:

"Several friends of ours here either cannot find a dorm or they are in a rented house or they are looking for a flat. There are also those who are staying with their friends because they cannot find a place to stay.

"We are having the same problem and hundreds of thousands of young people are trying to be listed among the lucky to be placed in a state dormitory. But very few of these people can be placed in a state dorm."

Recalling that housing is a fundamental and Constitutional right, Ece Köroğlu says, "We target the salvation of hundreds of thousands of young people. What we call a solution is in fact very simple. But the authorities are not taking action. Those who are governing the country are seeking after unearned income, palaces and shopping malls."

Article 42 of the Constitution - No one shall be deprived of the right of education. (...) Educational institutions contravening these principles shall not be established. The freedom of education does not relieve the individual from loyalty to the Constitution. Primary education is compulsory for all citizens of both sexes and is free of charge in state schools.

Call to the opposition

"They are trampling upon the Constitution today. We think that we can achieve free education, we have radical solution offers. If the youth wants its future, it can shape its own fate," says Köroğlu, expressing her criticisms about the opposition's solution offers and youth policies as well:

"Opening a TikTok account to address the Generation Z, saying, 'We listen to rock music, too. We listen to Metallica', taking a selfie to appeal to the young... These are not solutions for us. They can only be things that look nice. But we cannot find it nice amid such a sad situation.

"The opposition should also be able to say it is not a solution to say, 'We opened our houses to the young, we distributed them soup.' It just means weaving the parts of the system. Instead of seeing it like 'We will get Generation Z votes', they should offer solutions to such problems."

'Why are the students miserable?'

Another student staying the night at the park is Cihan Aydemir.

Aydemir says, "The reason why I am here is that every student is faced with this issue every year. The children of the poor working class families are overwhelmed with this crisis every time."

Aydemir says that the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the ruling party in Turkey since 2002, is "not a good government" and adds: "I am 19 years old and the AKP has been in power for 20 years. How come students are so miserable after all these years? If they were a good government, I would have been at my house or in a dorm today, not here at the park."

Request for permanent solution

Aydemir notes that the opposition cannot develop solutions, either and that they are offering "temporary solutions": "We don't want aid. The aid granted by the opposition parties and municipalities will not eliminate this problem. They can develop a permanent solution. If they cannot do it, we are here. They can come here and we can discuss it together."

Visiting the students, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İstanbul MP and academic Erol Katırcıoğlu says, "The inability to find a place to stay for university students should be seen as a big failure on the part of the government."

What does the government say?

Addressing the reporters before leaving Turkey for the US on September 19, President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that "when the AKP came to power, the state scholarship was 45 lira, but it is now 650 lira," criticizing the students for their criticisms.

As for the statement of Minister of Youth and Sports Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu about the issue, it is found "incomprehensible" by several people. In a statement on social media, he said that "they have dormitories that can compete with the most modern hotel chains."

Over 8 million students in 203 universities

In a statement yesterday (September 23), the Education and Science Laborers Union also shared some figures. According to this statement, the number of universities increased from 93 in 2002 to 203 in 2020, with the project of 'a university to every city.' Accordingly, the number of students also increased from 1 million 882 thousand to 8 million 241 thousand.

While there were 191 public dormitories in Turkey in 2020, this number increased ro 773 in 2020; however, as the number of dorms has not increased proportionately to the number of students, several university students are now having problems with finding housing.

As for the number of private dormitories, it increased from 2 thousand 210 to 4 thousand 406 in this period. While 2 thousand 894 dorms are owned by associations, 416 are owned by foundations, 368 are owned by people and 666 dorms are commercial dorms.

The Eğitim-Sen union has said that students are pushed to the dorms of religious cults and communities, noting that the İlim Yayma (Spreading Wisdom) Society has 107 dormitories, Ensar Foundation has 60 dorsm, TÜGVA has 38 and TÜRGEV has 18 dormitories.

The statement of the union has also indicated that "the students staying at the dormitories of religious foundations and associations were provided with a financial support of 650-800 lira per student last year", adding that "the total amount of support to be provided in the first nine months of the year was 173 million 704 thousand lira." (DŞ/SD)