Turkey's youth on the frontlines of protests
High school students have now joined university students in protests that have rocked the country since March 19
Originally published on Global Voices
Image by Arzu Geybullayeva generated using Canva Pro
Ever since March 19, when Istanbul's popular mayor and main opposition party's presidential candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was first detained, then arrested, on bogus corruption and terrorism charges, Turkey has been rocked by mass protests. While the demography of protesters spans across all age groups and professions, university students have been at the forefront. Starting from this video showing students at Istanbul University dismantling the police barricades, students from across the country continue to call for change. Their demands go beyond the arrest of the mayor and include calls for justice, rights, law and an end to decades-long rule of the only party and the only leader they have known — Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. And as of April 14, joining them were high school students demonstrating in solidarity with teachers affected by controversial assignment policies.
‘I want to break up’
Among countless creative posters displayed at protests by students since March 19 was one that read, “Recep, I want to break up.” As journalist Selin Oztuncman wrote in her piece for Fayn Studio, “what these young people have in common is that some have nothing in common at all,” except wanting “change.” But wanting change in Turkey comes at a cost and according to reports by local media, a total of 301 students were among close to 2,000 citizens detained since the start of the protests, despite assertions by lawyers and politicians and other civic activists, that taking part in protests is a right enshrined in the country's constitution.
According to one lawyer who spoke to The Guardian, “As a lawyer, I never saw anything like this before in my life. All of them [students] held in that jail are students and none of them are guilty of anything. Their only crime was protesting, attending a completely legal gathering. This is not a crime under our constitution.”
Over the following weeks, news of releases dominated the headlines. At the time of writing this story, at least 43 of the students remain behind bars.
Even though they were forced to spend religious holidays behind bars, facing police violence for the first time, students who were released said they have no intention of stopping. Among them, 21-year-old Berkay Gezgin, who is also the author behind Imamoglu's campaign slogan from the 2019 local election, “Everything is going to be beautiful.” Speaking to journalists following his release on April 10, Gezgin thanked everyone who continued the struggle while he and hundreds of others were within the prison walls. “Remember, no one can stand in front of the will of the nation. We are here right now because you fought your struggle. Thank you very much. We will also get Ekrem [Imamoglu] out as soon as possible. Everything will be very beautiful,” added the young student.
From universities to high schools
On April 8, the Ministry of Education announced reassignments that affected over 30 schools. Many teachers and administrators across several provinces were reassigned to schools they did not prefer or were left unemployed altogether. The decision impacted specifically “Proje okulları” (project schools), which were introduced in 2014 by the Ministry of Education. These are state schools operating within a certain criteria (such as only accepting students who have demonstrated exceptional scores at high-school entrance exams) and implementing special education models or projects beyond the standard curriculum.
There are 2,300 project schools in Turkey employing a total of 79,286 teachers and 5,318 administrators as per data by the Ministry of Education. Every four years, both teachers and administrators are subject to rotation. If the school administration wants to keep the teachers, rotations do not take place, as has been the case in previous years, according to reporting by Aposto.
Following the April 8 announcement, high school students launched a social media campaign under the hashtag #öğretmenimedokunma [don't touch my teacher]. Joining the campaign were also schools’ alumni and parents. In addition to issuing statements, students organized sit-ins in some of the high schools across the country. Critics, students, and parents say the re-appointments targeted “dissident teachers” who had previously participated in boycotts and work stoppages, and had been critical of the Istanbul mayor's arrest.
According to Kemal Irmak, the president of the Education and Science Workers’ Union (Eğitim-Sen), the Ministry's decision has led to the reassignments of some 20,000 teachers and the dismissal of nearly 5,000 teachers. Irmak also said in an interview with Aposto that the decision “deprived” the students of “qualified teachers.”
A similar decision was implemented 10 years ago, in 2015, and there were similar objections from students, parents and teachers who at the time also claimed that the teachers who were dismissed from these schools were replaced by unqualified people who did not know the school traditions. But according to Irmak, this time, dismissals and replacements are different. “There were more legal and fair criteria then. Today they have been completely abolished, and arbitrariness is being applied. Dissident teachers, teachers who are members of dissident unions, are being excluded from the staff,” Irmak told in an interview with Fayn Press.
One of the biggest criticisms is the appointment procedure itself, which, according to the existing procedures, indicates that it is the Ministry of Education that decides who gets appointed where, without transparency. When project schools were introduced for the first time, the requirement on teachers to take certain exams was lifted, prompting public criticism.
The Ministry of Education dismissed the criticisms that the move was political. Students think otherwise. On April 14, university and high school students gathered in Istanbul's Beşiktaş neighborhood to voice their concerns.
April 14 is known in Turkey as the Great Student Gathering that marked the first mass student mobilisation in the aftermath of the 1980 military coup. Reading a statement from the stage, one high school student said: “Today, as high school students, we gathered in Beşiktaş Square. Our demands are very clear. Over the past week, the AKP government has been trying to discredit and degrade the quality of education in high schools by removing our qualified teachers from their positions. These teachers are union members, opposition, and have always stood by us. We are here to show our support for them.”
Meanwhile, calls for boycotts and protests continue across the country, spearheaded by the opposition party.