A YTU Professor and his student from the same university lost their eyes during events that began on October 27th. Dr. Burak Ünveren, a research assistant at YTU (Yildiz Technical University), and Selim Polat, a student from YTU, got wounded by tear-gas canisters and rubber bullets. Mr. Ünveren, 31, got injured in his left eye during the intervention by riot police in Ihlamurdere last night. He was hospitalized at Şişli State Memorial, where he lost his left eye. but was operation on his right eye. In his interview by Radikal Newspaper, he said that he was inadvertently a victim of police violence. He recounted: “Something was happening in front of my apartment. Curious, I went downstairs. There was an excessive amount of tear gas, so I went back up to my apartment to put on a mask so that I would see better. After walking for about 3 minutes, I got hit on the face and my mask was shattered. Two people helped me to a hospital. The crowd was only clapping hands and banging on pots and pans. Some trash cans were knocked over. It was impossible to see what was going on because of the tear gas cloud. I don’t think anything violent was going on by then. We were unjustly attacked. We were no menace to the society. I only wanted to witness what was going on there.” Selim Poyraz, both a student and a member of the board of directors from SDP (Socialist Democratic Party), lost his eye due to a rubber bullet.
İsmail Saymaz
Source: http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/hem_hoca_hem_ogrenci_gozunu_kaybetti-1136071
4 Haziran 2013
This post is also available in: Turkish