Letter from Anadolu University and Osmangazi University
And now, from Anadolu University where Ali İsmail was once a student and from our comrades at Osmangazi University in the same city, we are raising our voices to shoulder the historical responsibility that falls upon the youth of this country. Our collective consciousness tells us that this struggle is no longer just about the removal of a mayor. It is the accumulated anger of a generation that has long been cast into darkness, left alone, and disconnected from life itself.
Dear BirGün readers,
We write to you with the voice of resistance rising from Anadolu University and Osmangazi University.
Despite all the repression, detentions, policies aimed at subduing the youth, and the regime’s impositions, we, who have never lost the spirit of resistance are continuing our struggle from the school of Ali İsmail Korkmaz.
On 18 March, the AKP-MHP regime that long stripped of legitimacy in the eyes of the people unlawfully revoked the diploma of İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, and detained him the following day, on 19 March. The first spark of resistance against this blatant coup attempt was ignited at İstanbul University and grew in historically combative campuses like ODTÜ. And now, from Anadolu University where Ali İsmail was once a student and from our comrades at Osmangazi University in the same city, we are raising our voices to shoulder the historical responsibility that falls upon the youth of this country.
Our collective consciousness tells us that this struggle is no longer just about the removal of a mayor. It is the accumulated anger of a generation that has long been cast into darkness, left alone, and disconnected from life itself.
What began with İmamoğlu’s detention and spread across the country found its response in Eskişehir on 20 March, when the first call was made in front of Anadolu University’s main dining hall. Despite dawn raids, brutal police attacks, and campus lockdowns that have tried to crush us and ignore our democratic rights, we have persisted in our struggle.
The regime’s security forces tried to demoralise us by detaining many of our friends. But these attacks have only strengthened our resolve.
Today, students from Anadolu University and Osmangazi University are transforming their feelings of helplessness into a will to resist. The dreams of Ali İsmail, the silent cries of our friends who ended their lives in dormitories and dining halls in recent years, and the name of our peer Resul who took his own life on campus, echo through the halls of Anadolu University.
In a country where justice has failed for years, where loyalty is prioritised over merit, where the economic crisis deepens, and where education becomes more difficult by the day, they want to extinguish our hopes for the future.
The appointed rectors hand-picked by Erdoğan, operating in alliance with capital, have long stood as an attack on the youth’s right to free, democratic education through the University Inc. model.
The theft of our right to a quality, scientific education is what has ignited unity here at Anadolu University.
Yet we know that we can overcome this darkness together.
The solidarity we build on campuses, in the streets, and in the squares is the strongest response to the regime’s attempt to divide us. No repression can withstand the united struggle of the oppressed and marginalised. Despite the regime’s pressure, its fascist propaganda targeting youth, and the systematic polarisation of the last decade, we will persist in organising our boycotts with determination.
We have joined the boycott call initiated by ODTÜ from Anadolu and Osmangazi Universities.
Since Anadolu University lacks prior experience in this kind of action, we’ve tried to learn from our peers’ letters and reflections published in newspapers to understand and implement this process. With our songs, our ideas, and our unwavering will, we continue to transform our campuses into spaces of celebration throughout the boycott.
Despite these dark days, we are the youth of this country. And we are determined to build tomorrow’s future with today’s will.
As students from Anadolu and Osmangazi Universities, we send our greetings to all who are resisting the rotten governance of the AKP-MHP regime.
The universities are ours, and they will stay ours!
The hundreds and thousands we have gathered today are not enough for the defeat of the one man, which is the main demand shared by the university youth. We can only defeat the one-man rule against all kinds of force apparatus only if hundreds of thousands come together. The fascism created by the one-man rule can only be prevented by the unification of all segments of society who can build an equal future without exploitation. We are aware of our responsibility to convey the call for a general strike and general resistance to all social segments in every field we are in, both as Anadolu University and with our friends at Osmangazi University who support us.
We know we are not alone—and this struggle is not just for one group, but for the future of all youth.
Repression, detentions, arrests cannot deter us from the fight for our homeland! Either all together or none of us!
The struggle continues!
With love,
Students of Anadolu University and Osmangazi University
Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled AÜ ve ESOGÜ öğrencilerinden mektup var: Ali İsmail’in izindeyiz! , published in BirGün newspaper on April 2, 2025.
