Turkish police briefly detained four university students in İstanbul on Wednesday after they protested the jailing of two students over a banner calling for Education Minister Yusuf Tekin’s resignation, the Medyascope independent news website reported.
The four students were taken into custody during overnight raids on their homes after participating in a demonstration on Tuesday in İstanbul’s Beşiktaş district. Three of those detained were students at Galatasaray University, according to the BirGün newspaper.
The students were accused of violating Turkey’s Law on Meetings and Demonstrations (Law No. 2911), according to lawyers cited by Medyascope. Following questioning at İstanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse, a court ordered their release under judicial supervision, requiring them to report to authorities regularly and prohibiting them from traveling abroad.
The investigation reportedly concerned placards carried during the demonstration, including slogans calling for the closure of vocational training centers and criticizing government education policies.
In a statement on X, the Galatasaray University Solidarity Network accused authorities of using the placards as a pretext for the detentions and called for solidarity with the students.
The detentions followed the October 25 jailing of Nehir Dizdar, a political science student at Galatasaray University, and Nevin Tekin, an İstanbul University student, on charges of threatening Education Minister Yusuf Tekin.
Both students, members of the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP), a left-wing opposition party, were taken into custody after hanging a banner on the fence of a high school in İstanbul’s Kadıköy district ahead of the minister’s October 23 visit.
The banner read, “If we have no future, you will have no peace. Yusuf Tekin, resign!”
An İstanbul court ordered the two jailed pending trial, finding that the phrase “you will have no peace” constituted grounds for suspecting a threat against the minister. The court also cited risks of evidence tampering and flight in concluding that judicial supervision would be insufficient.
The students denied that the banner contained a threat. Their 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.
Dizdar said the protest reflected concerns about young people’s future and defended her right to criticize the death of children enrolled in MESEM, Turkey’s state-run vocational training program, which combines classroom education with workplace training.
The imprisonment of the two students prompted demonstrations in İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir, where university students and youth organizations demanded their release.
At the Tuesday demonstration in İstanbul, Merve Akyel, a representative of TİP’s student organization, criticized the decision to jail Dizdar and Tekin for expressing opposition to government education policies and exercising their right to protest.
Nehir Dizdar’s mother, Zübeyde Duran Dizdar, a retired teacher, also condemned the decision, questioning the legal basis for prosecuting students over criticism of a government minister.
“Which law says a minister cannot be criticized? Which law says a minister cannot be protested against?” she asked, according to the Bianet news website.
She called for the release of both students, saying her daughter had acted out of concern for her future and that of her country.
