Letter from Dokuz Eylül University students

Dear BirGün readers,

We greet you as students of Dokuz Eylül University.

In recent years, mounting economic hardships, deepening inequalities in education as in all areas of life and the housing crisis have driven young people to the streets. We, the youth, whose futures and hopes have been stolen, who are denied access to quality education, and who are forced to live in poor conditions on meagre grants and in substandard dormitories, have taken to the streets to say “enough.”

For a fairer, more dignified life, we will continue our struggle under the slogan “rights, law, justice.” This fight can no longer be reduced to the case of Ekrem İmamoğlu alone. We are raising our voices for the education and living conditions we are entitled to, fuelled by years of mounting frustration.

We continue our actions with academic boycotts on campus during the day and protests in the streets at night. We have grown up under the shadow of the AKP government, trapped in a corrupt system. But we want to live our youth, to be free from anxiety about our future.
That is why we are out on the streets, resisting.

We, young people from different backgrounds and beliefs, have come together with students from other universities to strengthen our unity. This process has taught us the meaning of solidarity, collective consciousness, and that we truly have no one but each other; if anything is to change, it will only happen through united struggle.

In İzmir, we have seen and show to both friends and foes that a stronger, united struggle for labour, democracy, and freedom can be built alongside youth, women, and workers.

In our struggle, side by side as women and men, we have called for the rejection of the masculine and violent language, the sexist slogans that have appeared during protests.

Each day, we march hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, stronger and more determined than the day before. Because this is not just the struggle of today, it is also the struggle for tomorrow.

Let us build this struggle together.

Dokuz Eylül University Students

Source: Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi’nden mektup var: Her gün daha kalabalığız