This can't go on, high schools won't submit

Öncü Durmuş

Following the 9 March palace coup, the latest wave of resistance spreading across the country has come from high school students. As part of changes made by the Ministry of National Education under the “Project School” scheme, many teachers were reassigned against their will, forcibly removed from their schools.

These teacher appointments viewed as a phase in the regime’s plan to create a ‘resentful and religious’ generation were seen as a new effort to assert political control over high schools. The resulting wave of resistance from students has become a powerful component of the country’s broader social opposition.

Beginning their protests with the slogan “Hands off my teacher” high schoolers quickly created a new front of struggle that garnered support from parents, alumni, and university students alike. As protests continue with the İstanbul High School Students Coordination, who have called for a gathering tomorrow at 17:00 in Beşiktaş Square, we spoke with them about the movement.

You are the latest in the chain of protests that began after 19 March. How do you view what’s happening overall?

Although we want our schools attended by peers who are not even of legal age yet, to remain free of politics, we as high school students have nonetheless been affected by the country-wide injustice and chaos. First came the so-called "restructuring" of project schools, an operation that hollowed out the very essence of education. Then came the appointment of religious culture teachers in greater numbers than all the main subject teachers combined. These developments pulled us into the turmoil.

In response, we’ve shown and will continue to show through sit-ins, marches, and protests across the countryt. We will not remain silent in the face of injustice. We won’t allow the dismantling of education, and we’re ready to do whatever it takes to prevent it. Even if the youth of this country are forced into silence and their freedoms are restricted, we, the students, are aware of who is dragging us into this chaos. From now on, we will not be silent; we will defend our rights and do what they fear most.

The protests that began with project schools quickly spread across the country. How did this dissent emerge in high schools? Can you summarise the process and how the protests started?

There was hardly any time between learning about the injustice done to our teachers and organising ourselves. Once we understood the situation, schools immediately began communicating with one another and agreed that we could not remain silent. We had to express our reaction in concrete ways. Clearly, we were not alone in thinking this way, as the response snowballed, turning into a resistance more beautiful than we could have imagined.

We now agree that we must take our actions from within the school walls to the streets and public squares and we will succeed again. We will not be deterred by pressure or restrictions; we will continue to fight.

During the protests, high school students were subjected to pressure through various means, including school administrators and police officers who contacted families. How did the students respond to all this?

When faced with such reactions, we tried to chart a course that balanced our conciliatory approach with our desire to uphold the principles and respect that formed the foundation of our actions. We believe the most powerful response students gave to these intimidation efforts was to maintain unity and solidarity. We also condemn the fear-mongering operations that attempt to create panic among the public by speculating about our solidarity and linking the high school movement to various political positions.

Would it be fair to say that the teacher reassignments were the last straw for high school students? What is the real reason behind their reaction?

Just as it would be wrong to reduce other mass movements to a single incident or reason, it would be a mistake to interpret high school students’ current reaction solely as a response to the teacher appointments. The loss of our teachers, the struggles of our classmates, and the fight of all education workers should be seen as part of a whole. The injustice in education, the deaths of child labourers, unlawful and baseless detentions, and authoritarian decisions that disregard individual freedom—all of these factors that undermine young people’s belief in a free and bright future have influenced our reaction just as much as the forced reassignments of our teachers.

This young generation, born and raised in a climate of growing oppression and eroding public faith in justice, naturally and instinctively produces a political response. The timing of these reactions was certainly influenced by the fact that, just a month ago in Saraçhane, many young people experienced government violence in the streets firsthand for the first time.

During this time, high school and university students also came together for a joint meeting. It was perhaps in that space where the unity against this government became most visible. As high school students, what are your demands? What do high schoolers want today?

We united with our university friends for a common cause. We know we are fighting against the government, and with each passing day, our numbers grow and our movement gains strength. Yesterday, they resisted; today, we are resisting; tomorrow, we will all resist together. Because this resistance is not the reaction of a single group or class. It is a struggle that embraces the whole people and gathers them in opposition to a tyrannical palace regime. Just as it includes people from all walks of life, it also encompasses all of their demands.

As high schoolers, our most important demand is for a secular, free, scientific, and free-of-charge education. We want the Project School policy to be abolished. We do not want to be forced into religious classes that are imposed, inconsistent with the curriculum and classroom instruction. We reject the removal of evolutionary theory from the curriculum through various dogmas and the obstruction of scientific education. We don’t want censorship or restrictions on our clubs and extracurricular activities. We don’t want our teachers to be exiled because of their ideologies.

We completely reject the normalisation of harassment and the culture of abuse that is increasingly accepted in our schools. We don’t want to be educated under a government that cannot even provide one free meal a day in schools in a country where Berkin, Rabia Naz, and countless girls have been denied their right to education. We do not want the deaths of child labourers left to die in MESEM programs to be forgotten, nor the exploitation and devaluation of students’ labour, nor their slow collapse under the weight of anxiety about the future.

We want our fellow students forced to work when they should be studying and lost to the oppression of this regime back by our side. Their rightful place is in the classroom, not on construction sites or in factories. We will resist to the very end for these rights and demands.

Finally, as the İstanbul High School Students Coordination, you’ve issued a call for action tomorrow. What would you like to say?

We believe it’s essential not to settle for raising our voices only in our homes, classrooms, and schools—but to be able to shout out in the streets and sustain that momentum. It has become a principle of our solidarity to act before becoming numb to the agenda, to reject the normalisation of oppression in our daily lives, and to show that resistance is the right of every classmate.

Turning every quiet call into a resounding outcry, hearing our friends’ voices alongside our own—not just within school walls but out in the open—is our beginning, but it won’t be the end. We invite all our fellow high schoolers, along with the teachers, university students, parents, and all people who refuse to bow down to this decaying government, to join us tomorrow at 17:00 in Beşiktaş Square.

We’ll be in the streets, in the squares, until our demands are met.

Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled Bu böyle gitmez, liseler biat etmez, published in BirGün newspaper on April 24, 2025.