TekoşinTekin/JINHA

AMED –Turkey's state-run school examination board has announced that it has canceled sittings of the university entrance exam scheduled to take place in Cizre, the city in Şırnak province beleaguered by police violence against youth.

According to DilekAdsan, Diyarbakır co-chair of educational workers' union EğitimSen, the cancellation amounts to collective punishment of students in Cizre by the state's examination board, the Student Selection and Placement Center.

Cizre has hit international news over the last few months due to clashes between police and local youth. Security forces have killed a number of children in recent months in the small city, which frequently resembles a war zone. The recent Internal Security Law passed in Turkey's parliament, which significantly strengthens police power, is expected to contribute to tensions on the streets of Cizre.

13,000 Cizrestudents planned to take the YGS (Transition to Higher Education) exam, the entrance exam required for all students going to university. 7,000 have been reassigned to take the exam in other provinces, while 6,000 will be sent to the provincial seat of Şırnak.

"Taking the exam in another city or province is stressful for students," said Dilek. "Many of them don't have many financial resources and traveling to other cities poses a housing problem for them." Dilek said sending students to other cities would make them feel othered and uncomfortable, and said exam scores would likely reflect the stress.

"The state is putting these people through every possible kind of difficulty," said Dilek, who compared the cancellation of the exam to the emergency law (OHAL) imposed on Northern Kurdistan in the 1990s. "The state is issuing what amounts to a punishment against the peoplein areas where it isn't strong enough."

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