Letter regarding treatment of students and scholars protesting the pretrial imprisonment of Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu

H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
President of the Republic of Turkey
T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Genel Sekreterliği
Cumhurbaşkanlığı Külliyesi 06560 Beştepe - Ankara
Türkiye

 

 

H. E. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: 

 

We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) of North America and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our deep concern regarding the recent efforts by your government to criminalize peaceful protest. These actions appear to target students, academics, and others who have expressed opposition to the revocation of the bachelor’s degree and pretrial imprisonment of the mayor of Istanbul, Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu. As a scholarly association committed to the defense of academic freedom and the rights of students and academics, we are particularly troubled by the punitive use of university administrative procedures and legal prosecutions against students and scholars exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Such actions undermine core democratic principles and the integrity of higher education institutions. 

 

MESA was founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa. The preeminent organization in the field, the Association publishes the International Journal of Middle East Studies and has nearly 2800 members worldwide. MESA is committed to ensuring academic freedom and freedom of expression both within the region and in connection with the study of the region in North America and elsewhere. 

 

On 18 March 2025, Istanbul University announced that it had revoked the bachelor’s degree of Mr. Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is currently serving his second term as Istanbul's mayor, along with twenty-seven other individuals, for alleged procedural irregularities. In İmamoğlu’s case, the decision to revoke his diploma was based on allegations of procedural violations facilitating his transfer into the highly competitive English-language Business Administration program in 1990.

 

The annulment of Mr. İmamoğlu’s university diploma, just days before his expected nomination as the presidential candidate of the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican People’s Party) is widely seen as a politically motivated attempt to interfere with the electoral process. Since holding a university degree is a legal requirement for presidential candidates in Turkey, the timing of this decision is especially troubling. We are concerned about the impartiality of this administrative action, carried out by the rector of Istanbul University, whose government appointment was widely considered to be controversial and partisan. Moreover, given both the timing and political implications of the annulment, serious questions arise about the instrumentalization of university administrators for political ends. This is not an isolated incident. As we noted in our letter dated 20 January 2021, government-appointed rectors undermine university autonomy and compromise the integrity of faculty governance.

 

The day after the revocation of his diploma, hundreds of police officers were reportedly sent to Mr. İmamoğlu’s residence at dawn and he was detained. The Istanbul mayor is currently being held in prison on corruption and terrorism-related charges while awaiting trial. His detention was met with mass protests. Students at Istanbul University, the Mayor’s alma mater, initiated the protests and were then joined by students across the country who opposed both the university’s involvement in effectively blocking the Mayor’s presidential campaign and his subsequent detention. In response to the protests, district governors with administrative authority over major cities in Turkey banned protests and public gatherings. The governor of Istanbul blocked traffic in and out of the city, while the governor of Ankara canceled public transport services to universities such as Hacettepe, Ankara, Bilkent and the Middle East Technical University (METU), even blocking the roads around METU’s campus. Meanwhile, on 21 March 2025, the rector of METU closed the campus gates to prevent METU students from joining outside protests and block students from other universities from accessing the campus. At the same time, he allowed riot police to enter METU campus and violently disperse student protesters. Across the country, student protesters faced a brutal police crackdown and mass detentions. Riot police used water cannons, pepper gas grenades, and plastic bullets against peaceful protesters. At the time of the writing of this letter, Mr. Ali Yerlikaya, the Minister of Internal Affairs, had announced the detention of over 1400 individuals, many of whom are believed to be students. The suppression of peaceful student protests is a matter of grave concern.

 

Likewise, on 25 March, when the Education and Science Workers’ Union (Eğitim ve Bilim Emekçileri Sendikası, Eğitim-Sen) issued a public statement criticizing recent developments and declared a one-day labor strike, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office (Istanbul Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı) opened an investigation into members of the union’s Executive Board on allegations of incitement. Following their interrogations, charges were filed against all board members. Subsequently, they were placed under two weeks of house arrest followed by ongoing judicial control measures requiring weekly reporting. On 27 March, Mr. Levent Dölek, a researcher and Eğitim-Sen representative at Istanbul University, was detained following a raid on his home. According to reports, he participated in protests and declared his intent to join the union’s strike action. These developments raise serious concerns about the protection of fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, assembly, and association. The use of legal and judicial mechanisms to constrain and criminalize peaceful protest and union activity threatens further the right to and possibilities for nonviolent dissent and adds to existing concerns regarding centralized repression.

 

As a member state of the Council of Europe and a signatory to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Turkey is required to protect freedom of thought, expression, and assembly. Turkey is also a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), all of which protect the rights to freedom of expression and association, which are at the heart of academic freedom and university autonomy. Furthermore, Articles 25-27 and 42 of the Turkish Constitution guarantee the rights and liberties that your government, including the judiciary, law enforcement, governors, and rectors are consistently violating, as we have documented in our previous letters (for some examples see  10 August 2024; 23 February 2023; 26 October 2020; 20 July 2020; 8 June 2020).

 

We urge your government to refrain from using police force, disciplinary and criminal measures against students, academics and related institutions. We also call for renewed commitment to the independence of the judiciary, and the protection of constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms. In particular, we ask that your government respect the autonomy of democratic faculty governance at universities, and take every measure to safeguard the freedom of expression and of assembly, as well as academic freedom. Finally, we demand the immediate release of the detained protesters and the return of students and faculty members, among others, to their universities and their studies. 

 

We look forward to your response.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jeffrey D. Reger

MESA Executive Director

 

Laurie A. Brand
Chair, Committee on Academic Freedom
Professor Emerita, University of Southern California

 

 

Cc:

 

Numan Kurtulmuș, Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Başkanı (Speaker of the Turkish National Assembly)

 

Ali Yerlikaya, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Içişleri Bakanı (Minister of Interior, Republic of Turkey) 

 

Yılmaz Tunç, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Adalet Bakanı (Minister of Justice, Republic of Turkey)

 

Selin Sayek Böke, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi Genel Sekreteri (Secretary General of the Republican People's Party)

 

Deniz Yücel, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi Sözcüsü (Spokesperson of the Republican People's Party)

 

Sera Kadıgil, Türkiye Işçi Partisi Sözcüsü (Spokesperson of the Workers Party of Turkey)

 

Ayşegül Doğan, DEM Parti Sözcüsü (Spokesperson for Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party)

 

Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar, Türkiye Yükseköğretim Kurulu (YÖK) Başkanı (President of the Turkish Higher Education Council) 

 

Kemal Irmak, Eğitim ve Bilim Emekçileri Sendikası (Eğitim-Sen) Genel Başkanı (President of the Education and Science Laborers’ Union)

 

Mounir Satouri, Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights

 

Elodie Laborie, Press Officer for the Committee on Human Rights of the European Parliament

 

Viktor Almqvist, Press Officer for the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament

 

Snježana Kobešćak Smodiš, Press Officer for the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament

 

Kyriakos Klosidis, Press Officer for the Committee on the European Democracy Shield of the European Parliament 

 

Yasmina Yakimova, Press Officer for the Committee on the European Democracy Shield of the European Parliament 

 

Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission

 

Sibylle Bikar, Cabinet Expert in the Cabinet of Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

 

Calin Ungur, Cabinet Expert in the Cabinet of Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

 

Marta Temido, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights

 

Łukasz Kohut, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights 

 

Michael O'Flaherty, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

 

David McAllister, Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament

 

Nacho Sanchez Amor, Member of European Parliament and European Parliament Standing Turkey Rapporteur

 

Emmanouil Kefalogiannis, Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the EU-Türkiye Joint Parliamentary Committee

 

Kati Piri, Member of the Dutch Parliament (The House of Representatives) 

 

Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 

 

Irene Khan, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression 

 

Farida Shaheed, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education