Letter from ODTÜ students: Following the path of our history, undeterred and unafraid

Dear BirGün readers,

We send our greetings to you from ODTÜ (Middle East Technical University –METU), the revolutionary school of struggle.

As students from one of the most active campuses in the wave of protests spreading across Turkey, we want to share what has been happening here in our own words. When the AKP government relentless in its implementation of fascist policies had İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu taken into custody, we, the students of ODTÜ, came together for the first time on 19 March to show our reaction. With thousands, we spilled out of our campus and took to the streets.

As the day went on, we were met by police forces who treated ODTÜ students as if we were enemies, firing plastic bullets and tear gas at us. Many of our friends were injured. CHP, which had come to show support, quickly retreated from the streets. Despite all this, we did not lose an ounce of our determination. In the days that followed, we continued to organise resistance in our campus. Most recently, we extended the process by calling for university-wide boycotts.

In reflecting on what we are experiencing, we believe it is important not only to focus on today but also to view what is happening in light of our past.

For years in this country, the policies of the one-man regime have dragged the youth into a vortex of poverty and hopelessness. The education we have pursued with great effort has been devalued. Leaving the country we love so dearly has been presented to us as the only way forward. Those who dared to speak out were punished, forced to pay a heavy price. And our university in particular has been targeted at every step of the AKP’s 23-year rule.

In truth, the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu was the final straw for a generation whose future has already been stolen. Whatever the cost, we could no longer stay silent. We had no choice but to rise up to claim our lives, to fight for our future. They tried everything to push us off the streets and keep us apart. But enough is enough. We’ve seen with our own eyes that our rights can only be won by standing together and resisting.

From here, we send our solidarity to all our friends building this struggle across the country. One by one, we will liberate our universities from AKP’s occupation. We are growing our resistance against this oppressive regime that seeks to take away our future.

Now is the time to unite all these struggles rising across the country and tear through this darkness. In lecture halls, on campuses, in the streets wherever we are we will step forward with the strength we draw from the revolutionary struggle that came before us. Against this government that targets our lives, we will continue to defend all that is good and just.

We will never back down. We will reclaim every friend unlawfully imprisoned by fascism. Until we win back our future, we will carry on our struggle to build an equal, free, democratic and secular country.

ODTÜ Students

Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled ODTÜ öğrencilerinden mektup: Tarihimizin izinde yılmadan, usanmadan, published in BirGün newspaper on March 30, 2025.