WUNRN
Hurriyet Daily News - Turkey
TURKEY - PRIME MINISTER LEADS
OFFENSIVE AGAINST MIXED SEX STUDENT DORMITORIES AT PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
November 6, 2013 - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan
has stood behind his objection to mixed-sex student accommodation, making
public that governors had already been “intervening” in certain situations upon
“intelligence” about houses where male and female university students live
together.
The prime minister said the government was already on a mission to “segregate”
girls’ and boys’ buildings in dormitories operated by the state, adding that
this segregation had already been completed in around three quarters of all
dorms.
“There are some troubles concerning the share of houses in some places since we
could not meet dormitory needs,” Erdoğan was quoted as saying by Anadolu
Agency, addressing a parliamentary group meeting of his ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) on Nov. 5.
“It’s not clear what is going on in these places. They are all mixed up,
anything can happen. As a conservative democratic government, we have to intervene.
In these places, there is intelligence received by our security forces, the
police department and the governorates. Acting upon this intelligence, our
governors are intervening in these situations. Why are you annoyed about this?”
he added, citing complaints from neighbors living in the same apartment
buildings as students.
Erdoğan portrayed such actions as part of the government's responsibility,
stressing that this had nothing to do with “intervening in people’s
lifestyles.”
“Mothers and fathers cry out, asking ‘where is the state?’ These steps are
taken to tell them that the state is here,” he said, adding that he knew that
parents would be uncomfortable allowing girls and boys to live together.
Reiterating that it was not possible for them to ignore intelligence about
mixed-sex accommodation, he emphasized: “We are assessing this intelligence
with our governorates and the police department and we are coming down on it.”
The prime minister’s stance regarding the issue first became public when his
remarks during a closed-door party meeting on Nov. 3 were published on Nov. 4
by Zaman daily.
“We witnessed this in the province of Denizli. The insufficiency of dormitories
causes problems. Male and female university students are living in the same accommodation.
This is not being checked,” he was quoted as saying by Zaman.
His remarks triggered a strong public reaction, though Deputy Prime Minister
Bülent Arınç said the government had no plans in place for students
currently sharing mixed private houses.
“The Credit and Dormitories Institution has built perfect dormitories
throughout our government’s 10 years in power. But the number of dormitories is
not sufficient. The prime minister has instructed [the institution] to increase
the number of these dormitories. He said it would disturb the students if the
protests in the streets entered the dormitories,” Arınç told reporters on
Nov. 4.
“We have not had any conversations about raiding private houses where students
are residing. Private houses are not the area of our interest,” he added, in
remarks that seem to be contradicted by Erdoğan’s Nov. 5 indication that
the issue was in fact on the government’s agenda.
Last August, a provincial education director in Trabzon caused public outrage after
lamenting that female and male students were using the same sets of stairs on
the way to their rooms.
Meanwhile, daily Aydınlık reported on Nov. 5 that the refectory of a
high school was allocated to girls and boys in different hours of the day. The
practice at Isparta’s Ahmet Melih Doğan Anadolu High School has been
ongoing since Oct. 21, the daily noted.