Turkey's president refers to anti-war students as terrorists

ISTANBUL – Turkey's president has criticized anti-war students at a top university, calling them terrorists following a fight there.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that "communist, traitor youth" tried to mess up a student stand opened by "religious, nationalist, local youth" at the public Bogazici University. Erdogan announced an investigation and said "we won't give these terrorist youth the right to study at these universities."

On Monday, a group of students opened a stand distributing sweets dubbed "Afrin delight" to commemorate fallen soldiers in Turkey's cross-border operation in Syria. Another group protested against them, holding anti-war banners.

Turkey's official Anadolu Agency said a fight broke out and 12 people were later detained.

Turkey hasn't tolerated criticism of its military offensive to oust a Syrian Kurdish militia that it considers a terror group.