Turkish prosecutors have sought multi-year prison sentences for 17 opposition party members accused of protesting the deaths of minors in a state-run vocational training program, Turkish media reported.
An indictment drafted by the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office seeks prison sentences of between one and six years on charges of “resisting in order to prevent officers from performing their duty” and additional sentences of up to nearly four years on charges of “simple assault.”
The incident stemmed from a protest during a national vocational education summit in Istanbul attended by Education Minister Yusuf Tekin. Approximately 30 demonstrators entered the conference hall at the Pullman Hotel in Bahçelievler, unfurling banners and chanting slogans against the Vocational Education Centers program (MESEM), a government-run program under the Turkish Ministry of Education.
Seventeen members of the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP), the majority of whom are university students, were detained during the protests. A court later ordered the pretrial detention of 16 of them. They remain in pretrial detention following their arrest on December 2.
MESEM allows students aged 15-18 to attend school one day a week while working four days in workplaces for on-the-job training, earning a portion of the minimum wage with insurance coverage. The government touts it as essential skills development, with nearly 393,000 students enrolled in the 2024-2025 school year.
Critics, including labor rights groups and opposition parties, have accused the MESEM program of exploiting child labor and contributing to workplace fatalities among minors. Independent monitors reported at least 85 child worker deaths in Turkey from January to November 2025, with several linked to MESEM placements.
In a statement the TİP said the arrests could not be legally justified and accused the authorities of criminalizing opposition to deaths of minors.
The indictment has been sent to the Bakırköy 33rd Criminal Court of First Instance for review.
