UPDATED: June 4, 2013 at 5:49 p.m.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, the start date of the summer “Road to Democracy” program was misstated.  The program begins June 15.

Classes at Syracuse University Abroad’s Turkey program are ending early, cutting the semester short as demonstrations spread across Istanbul.

Half of the twenty students currently in Istanbul are SU students, The Post Standard reported on June 3. The other students attend different colleges and universities, but are travelling through the SU program. Though the semester was scheduled to end June 9, the students will be flying home June 5.

Administrators at SU Abroad and SU had been monitoring the protests since May 28, said Jenn Horvath, manager for marketing and communications at SU Abroad. They continued watching as the protests escalated, finally deciding to cut the program short on June 3, she said.

Some of the students have witnessed the protests, as well as police using tear gas on protesters, according to The Post Standard.

Bahçeşehir University, where the students are studying, is located in the Beşiktaş neighborhood, a major site of the demonstrations, Horvath said. She added the demonstrations are not occurring in the university’s immediate area, but that students were urged to stay away from the protests.

She said different ideas were discussed for the students to take their final exams somewhere other than the university, but said she wasn’t sure what SU Abroad administrators decided.

The solution, Horvath said, was probably a combination of having the students take their exams in the dorm and finish their classwork when they return to the U.S.

Unlike SU Abroad’s larger programs in London or Florence, the Turkey program allows its students to book their flight individually, Horvath said. Because of this, some students will stay longer than others.

She said SU Abroad is still monitoring the protests and has not yet made a decision on whether to continue the upcoming Turkey-based “Road to Democracy” program scheduled for June 15.

“We’re just relieved that we only missed one week of the program,” Horvath said.

The protests began after the government developed the last public park in Istanbul into a commercial complex, said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, associate professor of political science and a faculty member of the “Road to Democracy” program.

The decision to tear the park down comes after a decade of the prime minister accumulating significant power, he said.

Boroujerdi said the protests are a culmination of an increasingly tense relationship between the Turkish prime minister and Turkish citizens. The Islamic-leaning prime minister has also introduced policies moving away from Turkey’s secular roots, he said.

Protesters have been coming out in packs, he said, and the demonstrations are spreading to other Turkish cities, such as Ankara, the Turkish capital.

Published on June 3, 2013 at 8:59 pm

Contact Natsumi: najisaka@syr.edu