Turkey’s president scapegoats gay-friendly students

SQUADRONS OFLGBTLGBT armed policemen block the entrance. Metal barriers line the avenue leading up to the campus. Snipers occasionally emerge on nearby rooftops. Bogazici University has long been considered one of Turkey’s most prestigious. Today it resembles a besieged terrorist hideout.That, believe it or not, is how Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sees it. On February 1st police stormed the campus and detained dozens of students who were protesting about his appointment of a government loyalist as their rector. The protests have taken place regularly for over a month. They escalated after the arrest of four students who had organised an art show that included a rainbow flag alongside an image of the Kaaba, the black cube at the heart of Mecca. Turkey’s interior minister called the students “ perverts”. Mr Erdogan compared the protesters (at least 600 of whom have been detained) to terrorists. “There is no such thing as ,” he said on February 3rd. (Why he is so upset about something he doesn’t think exists remains a mystery.)