Twelve ODTÜ (Middle East Technical University) students have been taken into cutody on Friday for allegedly taking part in the protest demo against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan in Ankara on Tuesday. A number of houses were raided by teams from the Ankara Police Department's counterterrorism unit.

Clashes broke out on ODTÜ campus on Tuesday as police forces attacked a group of students protesting against PM Erdoðan's attendance to a ceremony at the university. Erdoðan paid a visit to the university to watch a broadcast of the launch of Göktürk-2, Turkey's second domestically made Earth observation satellite, from China.

Around two thousand policemen were deployed in the campus area where a great fire broke out as clashes lasted till late evening hours. 26 students were taken into custody and two were injured in the police intervention.

The academics at the university, as well as many other students from different universities, have protested against the police attack and called on university administrations to protect the rights of students.