Municipal vehicle driven at students at METU: Protest against 'profiteering road' project

The resistance of students against the "profiteering road" project that the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality wants to pass through the METU Forest continues. On the second day of the protest, a municipal vehicle was driven at METU students who were keeping watch at the project site. Despite the dangerous intervention, the students did not leave the area and continued their protest.

In the press statement read at the project site, it was pointed out that the road is an urban and ecological threat. The statement exposed the profiteering scheme behind the project with the following words:

"This work, which Melih Gökçek started in 2017 by slaughtering trees overnight for the sake of profit, which Mansur Yavaş tried to continue with tenders in 2022, and which was stopped by our struggle, is not only failing to solve Ankara's traffic problem but is also an ecological threat that destroys the city's last forest. The project, which started to increase the value of a 400-apartment residence, has reached a point where it covers 12 thousand apartments with the increasing number of collaborative opportunists since that day. As METU students, we are against our forest, the lungs of our city, being plundered for the profit ambitions of profiteers."

"ANKARA'S LAST REMAINING ECOLOGICAL AREA"

The statement, which emphasized that the METU Forest is the only remaining intact ecological area in Ankara following the opening of the Atatürk Forest Farm to development, reminded that the region is home to more than half of the bird species observed in Turkey. Stating that their rightful resistance is being attempted to be suppressed with police violence and threats, the students said, "It is not the appointees who sign behind closed doors who will decide whether this road will be built, but the students of METU and the residents of Ankara."

"ABB, DO NOT FEED PROFITEERING"

Calling on all democratic mass organizations, unions, chambers, and non-governmental organizations to support the struggle, the METU students concluded the statement with these words:

"This road, which multiplies the prices of residences that we could never even dream of buying, is not for the benefit of the people of Ankara. We do not want a municipal administration that finishes Gökçek's projects; we demand solutions that are scientific, value people and nature, and are decided upon democratically. ABB, do not feed profiteering!"

Municipal vehicle driven at students at METU: Protest against 'profiteering road' projecthttps://t.co/dATzYxKE5s pic.twitter.com/kvFrP0g035

— 12punto (@12puntocomtr) September 4, 2026

WHAT HAPPENED?

The "Bilkent-İncek Boulevard Ring Road Connection" project, which was intended to be passed through the METU Forest, was initiated in 2017 with an agreement between the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and the METU Rectorate during the Melih Gökçek era. After long struggles, the Ankara 9th Administrative Court suspended the execution of the plans regarding the road in a lawsuit filed by the Ankara Branch of the Chamber of City Planners, and Mustafa Tuna, who took office after Gökçek's resignation, shelved the project.

The Ankara Metropolitan Municipality opened a new tender for the project in 2021 under the administration of Mansur Yavaş. Following the protests that began when construction machinery belonging to the ABB entered the forest in 2022, the work was stopped again, but municipal teams started work in the area again last week.

News Source: 12punto