Letter from Beyazıt students: And they shaken up from where they are

Dear BirGün readers,

We greet you from İstanbul University — a place that has long held a unique significance in this country’s history and now once again stands at the heart of a movement that is changing the course of life in Turkey.

Beyazıt Square and İstanbul University have always played a central role in the country’s democratic struggles. Young people who stood for justice, truth, and beauty made history here in 1958, 1968, 1978, and even after the 1980 coup. These lecture halls, faculties, and this square carry the echoes of that past. That great history serves as our guide, our road map. What took place in Beyazıt Square on Wednesday, 19 March, is a reflection of that historical responsibility.

Dear BirGün readers,

We are students at the university where the nationwide protests began, and we are writing this letter so you can hear the truth directly from us. We also hope that those on television labelling us as “manipulated,” “vandals,” or “puppets of foreign powers” will read these words.

Here’s how it started: On the evening of Tuesday, 18 March, we learned that İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s diploma had been annulled. As student clubs, we decided to react to this development. Then, on Wednesday, 19 March, news broke that İmamoğlu and over a hundred others had been taken into custody. We realised that the de facto dictatorship being built step by step had entered a new phase.

As students, we decided to protest the injustice and lawlessness being imposed by this regime. We organised a march on our campus that Wednesday. As we began to march, a police barricade was placed in front of us. We chanted together, “Take down the barricade!” But it was as if a wall had been erected before us.

Linking arms, we pushed through and crossed the barricade. At that moment, we didn’t yet realise that we were breaking down not only a police barricade but also the psychological wall in people’s minds.

We now understand that the barricade we tore down wasn’t just physical, we also tore down the AKP government’s 23-year effort to shape a compliant student profile. With our mass protest, we reminded all students who had been made to forget what it means to demand rights of one thing: these universities exist because of us. No one can ignore us.

The clearest proof of this was Beyazıt Square on 21 March. That day, we called on all university students in İstanbul to gather where the resistance began. The mass rally we held in Beyazıt Square marked the beginning of the largest student movement in the past 40 years.

Whatever happens now, we are certain that this moment will be remembered as a turning point for the entire country. It didn’t end in a single day. Following a call from our friends resisting at METU, we began organising an academic boycott in all universities to carry the protests into our campuses. But this boycott had to go beyond academia it had to bring life itself to a halt.

That’s why, on Monday, 24 March, we marched from Beşiktaş to Galata Bridge with our fellow students from across İstanbul. Thousands turned into tens of thousands — the atmosphere of the country had changed.

In the days that followed, we organised forums and workshops to explain that this was no longer just about a diploma. The real issue was ending 23 years of AKP fascism. In these forums, we discussed the problems students face, the injustices in our schools, the lack of academic quality, and the need to lift the ban on transferring between faculties.

We also demanded the immediate release and return of our friends who had been detained simply for exercising their constitutional rights by joining the protests.

From the very beginning, we have shouted our anger in the streets. But this is not anger of a day or a week. We are the ones born during the AKP era. Our anger is 23 years old.

Afraid of our boycott and protests, the AKP government extended the public holiday to nine days to stop us from going to school. But they must know: no matter what they do, no matter whom they detain, this struggle, which began in the universities, will not end — it will grow stronger.

As the students who started this movement, we call out to you, our fellow readers and classmates: University students will continue to fill the squares and unite. We are not afraid!

We know they are the minority, we are the majority. They are weak now, we are strong.

Through your platform, we call on all university students: Let’s continue the struggle to drive this oppressive government out of our universities and achieve our demand for autonomous, democratic universities!

İstanbul University Students

Note: This article is translated from the original Turkish version titled Beyazıt’tan mektup var: Ve silkinip kalktı yerinden, published in BirGün newspaper on March 29, 2025.