High school students in Turkey have joined growing protests against the government, walking out of classes and staging sit-ins over a nationwide teacher reassignment policy that critics say targets educators seen as critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish Minute reported on Tuesday.
Demonstrations took place in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and other cities after the Ministry of Education announced the reassignment of hundreds of teachers at elite public institutions known as “project schools,” which are considered among Turkey’s top secondary schools and historically associated with secular values and academic excellence.
The Education Ministry said the transfers are part of a regulation introduced in 2020, under which staff must rotate after four years unless reappointed. But teachers’ unions, students and alumni argue the rule is being applied selectively and punitively, affecting instructors perceived as opposing the government.
Some students say the shake-up was politically motivated, alleging that the reassignments disproportionately affect unionized teachers or those who voiced support for jailed opposition figures including İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, whose March 19 detention and subsequent arrest triggered the largest wave of anti-government protests in over a decade.
“This is not a routine reassignment. It’s an attack on our schools’ identities,” said a student from İstanbul’s Kadıköy Anadolu High School during a sit-in. Others carried placards reading “We are not your project” and “Don’t touch our teachers.”
Parents and university students have joined the protests, which have spread from schoolyards into public squares. In İstanbul’s Beşiktaş district, police filmed demonstrators as they chanted slogans and held signs critical of the Education Ministry.
Education Minister Yusuf Tekin called the protests “political manipulation,” but students and teachers reject the claim. A statement read by students in Beşiktaş said the minister “does not represent our interests or education” and accused him of undermining merit-based appointments in favor of ideological control.
Teachers removed from their posts told Deutsche Welle’s Turkish service that they were transferred without clear criteria and were replaced by staff affiliated with pro-government unions or without union membership.
The backlash is especially strong at long-established schools like Kabataş Erkek Lisesi, Vefa Lisesi and Ankara’s Gazi Anadolu Lisesi, which alumni say play a key role in preserving secular educational traditions. Some graduates called the reassignments a threat to the schools’ cultural legacy and accused the government of attempting to ideologically reshape them.
The protests come amid a wider climate of unrest following İmamoğlu’s arrest, which opposition leaders and rights groups have called politically motivated. Since then, authorities have detained nearly 2,000 protesters, including students.
