Plastic bullets used in Boğaziçi University resistance: Students want their rooms back

News: Cenk Başboğaoğlu

In recent days, the club rooms where Boğaziçi University's long-standing clubs—the Sports Board (SK), Underwater Sports Club (BÜSAS), Music Club (BÜMK), and Fine Arts Club (GSK)—operated were forcibly emptied in a night raid, and the door locks were changed through the cooperation of the trustee and the police.

‘THE EDICT IS THE SULTAN'S, THE SOUTH IS OURS’

According to the call made by the Boğaziçi University Student Representative Council (ÖTK) on the X platform, students decided to gather in the South Square on Monday, February 9 (Today) at 14:00.

STUDENTS UNDER BLOCKADE

As expected, students met in the South Square at 14:00.

The students, who started marching toward the door at the entrance of the club rooms, were blockaded by the police at the head of the door.

PLASTIC BULLETS FIRED

According to a photo provided by the students, it was seen that the police responded to the students' demands with plastic bullets.

‘YOUR ACTION IS ILLEGAL’

In an announcement made to the students defending their rights, the police said, “Your action is illegal,” and intervened with pepper spray.

‘TO ENTER THE BUILDING THAT IS OUR RIGHT…’

B.G., a Board of Directors (YK) member of a club at Boğaziçi University, spoke exclusively to 12punto. B.G. stated, “Yesterday, on February 9, 2026, we gathered as students to show our reaction against the trustee's decisions to empty the club rooms and cleanse the South Campus of students. After making our press statement, we marched to Hamlin Hall, which had been reorganized to serve us, in the school administration's own words, and wanted to enter the building. However, in an attitude that contradicted their own statements, the trustee ordered private security guards to form a barricade between the building and us. Despite this, as students, we moved forward to enter the building that is our right and was promised to serve us.

‘IT WASN'T LIKE PEPPER SPRAY’

B.G. said, “Then, first the private security units and then the riot police, who entered the campus on the orders of trustee Naci İnci, began to intervene against the students. I was at the front of the crowd at that time; in the commotion, I was kicked, pushed and shoved, and I was struck on the head. Immediately afterward, as I was moving to the back, I started to feel nauseous and felt the need to vomit. It turns out they had sprayed gas during the intervention, but it didn't seem like pepper spray. After that initial intervention, this gas was sprayed again during several scuffles that occurred, and it created the same effect every time. I don't know what they sprayed, but I have never experienced such an effect from pepper spray.” B.G. continued, “After a while, more than a hundred riot police formed a barricade in front of Hamlin. This time, the students wanted to enter the Student Activities Building (ÖFB) to hold their events and forums there. At first, there was no problem; entry to the ÖFB was smooth; I went there too. After going up the stairs, I went inside and started waiting for my other friends. After a while, shouting sounds came from the entrance, and I headed there to check that nothing had happened to my friends. A scuffle had broken out in an area where the stairs were located and where everyone could easily fall and break something. I didn't see how it started, but from what I heard later, the scuffle began because private security tried to close the door at one point while students were entering the building. The area became very crowded with students coming from behind, and at one point, I was struck in the ear twice there, pushed in the face, and at one point, I was so squeezed against the wall that I couldn't breathe. Fortunately, the scuffle ended without anything serious happening, and private security began to reopen student entries to the building. Then, with the help of CHP deputies and our professors who arrived at the area, another scuffle between private security, police, and students was prevented. After the planned daily program was carried out, we walked up and dispersed, accompanied by CHP deputies and our professors.”

News Source: 12punto