Violent Provocation at University
Tensions between right-wing and left-wing students at Akdeniz University in Antalya (on the Mediterranean coast) have been rising over the past few weeks and yesterday turned violent as groups of students, together numbering about 150, attacked each other with knives and sticks and shots rang out. The police used armored vehicles to separate the groups. Seven people were wounded and 34 arrested. Photos taken during the clash, however, showed that one of the two shooters was not a student, but an unknown man with a tattoo of the Sword of Zulfikar across his forehead. A week earlier, a group of left-oriented students had approached the local police station and asked for protection from a group of right-wing students that they said were preparing to attack them. (for article in Turkish click here)
The right-wing group apparently ‘dropped in’ at the local MHP (Nationalist Action Party) headquarters, although the party denies having anything to do with the group. MHP is known for its ultranationalist views. Pre-1980s street violence pitted MHP-linked armed, extreme ultranationalist groups (the Gray Wolves) against leftists and Alevis. In recent years, the MHP seems to have evolved into a more mainstream party, but it still has a strong base, especially among male youths, that is ultranationalist and racialist (emphasizing Turkish blood), overlaid with Sunni Muslim religiosity. It is unclear to me whether ‘left-wing’ bears any resemblance to pre-1980s leftism (e.g. socialism), or whether in this context it refers to democratic liberalism.
photos from Zaman and Milliyet
According to Islamic tradition, Zulfikar was the legendary two-pointed sword of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammed. It is one of the oldest Islamic symbols, particularly meaningful to the Shiites (followers of Ali). However, the (Sunni) Ottomans also adopted the symbolism of Zulfikar and it became one of the main symbols of the Janissaries, an elite Ottoman military corps, depicted on their war flags and tombs. I don’t know the meaning of the sword in the contemporary Turkish scene.
Update: The Turkish press has compared this and recent similar incidents to the violent fighting between student groups in the 1970s that helped pave the way for the 1980 coup. Those clashes, they write, were instigated by outside provocateurs, just as these new incidents also seem to be. The Akdeniz students say the dispute was between Turkish and Kurdish nationalists. (To my mind, this makes the use of the terms leftist and rightist in the media meaningless.) (click here for article)
Actually, the Zulfikar is used more by Alevis than nationalists -fascists I’d call if you don’t mind- as a mythical symbol, one of identity. Moreover, tatto is not liked much among these groups. My guess is that the shooter is sort of a ‘madman / mahallenin delisi’, the unreliable hitman of the group.
However, the context is interesting. This right-wing attack towards left-wing students is planned centrally each time. It usually starts with the Ankara University humanities Faculty, and then spreads into various universities. As it is the current case.
Ertan bey is right, we’ve seen this movie before. The next step might be ‘the leftists’, who themselves are no angels, arming themselves and taking part in escalation towards serious bloodshed. I wouldn’t know who’s behind what and for what purpose, but if people who brandish firearms on college campuses aren’t duly kicked out and perhaps put behind bars, we’ll know who aren’t doing their jobs.