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Why Turks Are Fighting Over Trees

The controversy over thousands of trees to be uprooted on a university campus in Ankara for a construction project is reminiscent of Gezi Park.
Protesters argue with municipality workers during a demonstration against reconstruction plans that include a part of the Middle East Technical University campus in Ankara October 21, 2013. The municipality plan, opposed by the students, involves building a road across the Middle East Technical University campus and uprooting a large number of trees in the area. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST EDUCATION) - RTX14IMG
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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.

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