In an escalating wave of defiance, students and teachers across Turkey have boycotted classes in protest against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian rule and the recent arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The protests have quickly evolved into a nationwide movement, with thousands demanding the restoration of democratic institutions and academic freedom.
At Istanbul University, Middle East Technical University (METU), Boğaziçi University, and others, students have set up protest camps, holding sit-ins and marches while chanting slogans against Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Demonstrators carried banners reading “We Will Not Bow” and “İmamoğlu Is Our Mayor,” in open defiance of the state crackdown that has resulted in over 1,400 arrests across the country.
The unrest began following İmamoğlu’s controversial arrest on corruption charges—a move widely condemned as politically motivated and aimed at neutralizing one of Erdoğan’s most popular rivals ahead of the now-collapsed 2028 presidential race. The government’s targeting of İmamoğlu, who had already been stripped of his mayoral seat and university degree, triggered an outpouring of anger across the political spectrum.
Police forces have responded with force, deploying tear gas and making arrests at multiple protest sites. In Ankara, students clashed with riot police attempting to block access to campus entrances. In İzmir, reports emerged of plainclothes officers detaining students en masse. Despite this, the occupations have only grown, with faculty members joining the call for democratic reforms and an end to political persecution.
The protests echo the spirit of the 2013 Gezi Park movement, when mass demonstrations challenged Erdoğan’s rule on environmental and civil rights grounds. But today’s uprising reflects a deeper and broader political crisis: a youth-led rejection of what many now openly call Erdoğan’s dictatorship.
“We are watching the death of democracy in real time,” said one student protester from METU. “This isn’t just about a mayor. It’s about our future, our freedom, and the right to live in a country where the courts aren’t tools of the ruling party.”
The Erdoğan government, meanwhile, has attempted to downplay the scale of the protests, with state-affiliated media labeling the movement a “coordinated provocation by foreign agents.” But international media, including The Guardian and Reuters, have confirmed the widespread and spontaneous nature of the demonstrations, which now span nearly every major city in Turkey.
Nine journalists have also been arrested since the protests began, raising further alarm among press freedom advocates. Turkish press unions have condemned the detentions as an attempt to suppress coverage of the movement and silence dissent.
The Crustian Daily will continue tracking developments as Erdoğan’s regime faces one of the most organized and determined acts of civil resistance in recent memory. What began as outrage over a political arrest is rapidly becoming a reckoning for a decade of democratic erosion.
