UN Photo: Young children read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at a playground. (Archive)
The peak of the events occurred on March 18, 2025, when the diploma of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul and a core member of the main opposition party CHP was shown as „invalid“. The issue of political leaders and their diplomas has been a point of conversation for many years as the integrity of President Erdoğan’s own diploma given by Marmara University was brought to light many times in the past. According to the current laws of the state, he cannot be considered for the role without having a higher education diploma. Thus this move is considered the “legal” step taken by the state to prevent his candidacy. Yet, Erdoğan’s government did not believe only that precaution to be enough, as he was detained and then swiftly arrested only a day later with accusations of corruption, bribery and terrorism. None of which had proper evidence to warrant an arrest, and are continuing to be shut down as hearsay as the legal process continues.
March 19 is the day Mayor İmamoğlu was detained in a dawn operation and March 23 is the day of the beginning of indefinite pretrial detention. After a day of shock period on the nullification of İmamoğlu’s hard earned university diploma, students have begun to fill the streets on the news of this unlawful arrest which began as somewhat peaceful as the government, taken by surprise by the force of the pushback, had not decided how to retaliate. After a few days of students dominating the streets nation-wide but especially in the capital Ankara and İstanbul, police began to violently push students back. First rounds of arrests were made as the brutality began to reveal with great momentum.
More than 300 protesters were arrested in the first few days, especially in Istanbul. Police, made clumsy with little action they were used to have with the silence period after Gezi pro- tests of 2013, had struggled to catch up to the force of the protesters but as
soon as they did, the inhumanity had shown itself clearly. Police had taken the liberty of using tear gas, some of it long expired, pressure water and “rubber bullets”, which turned to be a half-truth as it was revealed it was not truly the rubber bullets fired to the protesters but the hard shells of tear gas, deliberately used to aim towards the bodies of the protesters. There are videos and victim statements showing the damage it has caused to the protesters. A clever move from police, to use them in such a manner that it will give them the benefit of the doubt if they are asked whether or not they used rubber bullets, only if one were to disregard the mountain of evidence showing the opposite.
ournalists are not being permitted into the protests and police have taken to covering their registry numbers with black tape. It can only be assumed that they, also, are aware of the dubious legality of the extortion they are committing. Enough of a gut reaction to fear possible consequences, if the government changes hands in near future.
Currently, more than 50 protester-students are awaiting their trial in infamous Silivri Prison (Currently named as Marmara Prison). Some, like Esila Ayık, a chronic renal and heart failure patient, are receiving little to no medical assistance as their health further deteriorates.
The protests have stopped being solely about the unlawful arrest of İmamoğlu as the force of the movement grew in line with the force of opposition. From far right to far left, the groups of people who, at one time, had shot each other on the spot for belonging to the “opposite idea” had linked arms to stand against two decades of oppression, their tolerance broken by the recent events. Streets were saturated by many colors and many different ideologies, as the glue to bring it all together was the desire to live in a free country, without favoritism, out of under the thumb of Erdoğan’s increasingly restrictive regime.
The pro-government media tries to paint the protesters as rule breaking terrorist organisations which seek to overthrow democratic regime, but that cannot be further from the truth. The student bodies structuring the protests and mass–boycotts are fighting for the survival of true democracy. It is worth mentioning that this is the third rival of Erdoğan’s to end up behind bars for some excuse or another. Along with countless journalists, authors, professors and peaceful protesters from back in 2013. It is a stark warning to the students of the Türkiye as he had not gone as far as to usurp will to take away the diploma of a well established university before. It is giving the message: Not even your education is safe.
