Humorous banners critical of gov’t mark ODTÜ graduation ceremony once again

Despite all obstacles, during this year’s graduation ceremony, ODTÜ students have again managed to unfurl their humorous banners criticizing the government.

Thursday July 27 2023 02:53 pm

Making a word play, this banner reads 'The new Turkey century will be magnificent.' The word "Muazzam" (magnificent in Turkish) contains the word "zam" which means raise in English, in reference to price raises.

Duvar English

As is the case at graduation ceremonies of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ), banners that are critical of the government have been unfurled during this year’s ceremony as well.

The rector’s office sent an e-mail to the students in advance of the July 26-dated graduation ceremony and told them that the theme of the ceremony was “Turkish Republic’s 100th-year anniversary.” The e-mail also said that banners having the element of “crime, threat or insult” would not be let in the Devrim (Revolution) Stadium.

Accordingly, security checked all of the banners and did not allow in the “inappropriate” ones.

As is the tradition at ODTÜ ceremonies, students came up with quite creative banners criticizing Turkey’s current situation.

A group even managed to unfurl a rainbow banner with a length of 25 meters and received the applause of hundreds of attendees at the stadium.

ODTÜ mezuniyet töreninde öğrenciler dev gökkuşağı bayrağıyla Devrim’de esti geçti💃💃🌈🌈

Şanın yine yürüyor lubunya 😍🌈💜#ODTÜ

pic.twitter.com/egMINylVHT
— Üniversiteli Feminist Kolektif (@feministkolektf) July 26, 2023

Students also chanted slogs of “Verşan Kök cannot be a rector to ODTÜ.” Kök, the current rector of the prestigious university and was appointed to his post by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2016.

Some of the banners are as follows:

Let tax be collected from those who are pleased about the economy.

(This is) the banner we can unfurl according to the e-mail sent by the rector's office.

Our math was not enough to calculate the money collected as aide at the earthquakes and got lost.