A Turkish court has jailed two university students pending trial on accusations of threatening Education Minister Yusuf Tekin in a banner calling for his resignation, Turkish media reported.
Nehir Dizdar, a political science student at Galatasaray University, and Nevin Tekin, an İstanbul University student, were detained Sunday over the banner, which was hung on a fence of a high school in İstanbul’s Kadıköy district ahead of the minister’s October 23 visit. Both are members of the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP).
The banner read, “If we have no future, you will have no peace. Yusuf Tekin, resign!”
The İstanbul Anadolu 8th Criminal Magistrate of Peace ordered the students jailed pending trial, citing the phrase “you will have no peace” as grounds for suspecting a threat against the minister. The judge also cited risks of evidence tampering and flight, concluding that judicial supervision would be insufficient.
Under Article 106 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) a threat made jointly by two or more people is punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Both students denied that the banner contained a threat. Dizdar said it reflected young people’s concerns about their future and defended her right to protest the death of children enrolled in Turkey’s state-run vocational training program (MESEM).
Under the program, students ages 15 to 18 attend school one day a week and work four days in businesses, often in factories, auto repair shops or on construction sites. Education Minister Yusuf Tekin said in September that 37 students had died and 9,950 workplace accidents had been recorded in the program since the beginning of 2025. Labor unions and rights groups have long criticized MESEM for exposing children to hazardous working conditions and providing businesses with cheap labor.
The students’ lawyer, Uğur Can Demirci, said the slogan contained neither a threat of violence nor coercion and did not meet the legal requirements for the offense. He also warned that pretrial detention would disrupt their university education.
TİP spokesperson Sera Kadıgil criticized the decision, saying prosecutors had requested that the students be jailed pending trial without first questioning them. She called for their release, objecting to criminal proceedings against students demanding a minister’s resignation.
Ankara Bar Association President Elçin Özge Şimşek Çağlayan also condemned the decision, saying the right to protest was constitutionally protected and that the students’ detention reflected an erosion of constitutional guarantees.
The Education and Science Workers’ Union (Eğitim Sen) said students have the right to criticize government education policies and express their opposition through peaceful protests and called for their release and an end to the investigations into them.
Students at Galatasaray University held a solidarity protest on Monday, displaying a banner with the same slogan and demanding the release of Dizdar and Tekin.
University students protesting government policies have faced criminal investigations, prosecutions, pretrial detention and prison sentences.
In May 2026 three Boğaziçi University students received suspended prison sentences of three months each for damaging public property by spray-painting slogans during protests over the detention of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, although the institutions concerned said no damage had occurred.
In December 2025 a court jailed 16 students pending trial after they protested the deaths in the MESEM program at an education summit attended by Tekin. They were released under judicial supervision after 23 days, but their trial is ongoing, with the next hearing scheduled for November 6.
