The rector's office of Ankara's prestigious Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) has announced that it will not let students organize a pride march that was planned for June 10.
In an email sent to students, the ODTÜ management said: “All kinds of security measures will be undertaken in case of a continuance of persistence for this unauthorized march planned on our campus.”
ODTÜ's long-running LGBTI organization Solidarity Club has not been organizing the pride march for the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The last march had taken place in 2019, but facing again a ban by the rector's office. The police had intervened in the march, detaining and battering several students. The students later filed an appeal with the judiciary, saying that the rector's ban was unlawful. In 2020, the Ankara 7th Administrative Court found in a ruling that the ban had no legal basis.
The Solidarity Club, formed in 1996, has been holding gay prides on the campus since 2011.
