Police officers patrolling Muğla’s Akyol neighborhood on Tuesday night quelled an altercation between two rival student groups; however, the same students were involved in a second brawl approximately one hour later, resulting in 21-year-old Şerzan Kurt being shot and severely injured. Kurt, a student at Muğla University, was immediately sent to Muğla State Hospital and later transferred to İzmir’s Atatürk Teaching and Research Hospital, where he underwent an operation.The two groups were fighting over Turkey’s Kurdish question, which has been in existence since the first days of the republic, but which turned violent in 1984 with the establishment of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). More than 40,000 people, including civilians and security forces, have been killed in clashes between PKK terrorists and Turkish security forces. Since then, the Kurdish problem has been a delicate issue in Turkey.
Two vehicles, a number of businesses and the Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) Muğla provincial branch building were also damaged in the altercation. Following the incident, a group of 200 students took to the streets in Muğla on Wednesday to protest Tuesday’s incident, breaking shop windows and stoning police. Police used pepper gas to contain the protesters.
Stating that an extensive investigation has been launched by police officers, Altıparmak noted that they will do what is necessary to find the provocateurs and bring them to justice.A dispute broke out at Muğla University in 2005 between two groups of rightist and leftist students in which 20 students were injured and 45 were detained.
