Police intervention in METU students' protest for İmamoğlu

During their march, university students carried a banner reading "We will not surrender to AKP tyranny" and chanted slogans such as "The day will come, the tide will turn, the AKP will be held accountable to the people," "Government resign," "There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us," "The youth will hold the AKP accountable," "We will win by resisting," "The pressures and bans are yours, the struggle is ours," "Universities are ours, they will be liberated with us," "METU is marching, the struggle is growing," "The autocrats will go, we will remain," "We will win by uniting," "METU is standing, resisting the AKP," "Pressures cannot intimidate us," and "Detentions, arrests, and pressures cannot intimidate us."

The following statements were included in the METU students' press release:

The process that began with the cancellation of the diploma of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's elected Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has taken on the nature of a coup with the detention of İmamoğlu, the closure of subways to prevent potential reactions in Istanbul, and the cancellation of leave for police officers.

The AKP, which wants to weave a civilian coup, is putting forward the concept of 'City Consensus' as a pretext for İmamoğlu's detention. We do not accept these baseless accusations, which have no legal foundation and no goal other than labeling political rivals as 'terrorists.' The trustees appointed to universities and municipalities, and the unlawful interventions of the AKP government and its every apparatus, are a move against our democratic struggle that they have been trying to destroy for years.

As METU students, we have never taken a step back from democracy, and we will not do so today. The detention of the opposition's potential presidential candidate on trumped-up excuses is a blow to democracy, and as METU students, we will continue to take the side of democracy.

As METU students, we are not remaining silent about this coup attempt. The AKP government's fascist and oppressive policies have been designed to intimidate us for years. The will we are demonstrating now as students and all citizens will render the AKP's coup attempt futile. There is no salvation alone, either all together, or none of us.

POLICE INTERVENED

Following the press statement, students who wanted to leave the METU campus and march toward Kızılay were blocked on the Eskişehir Road. When the students did not disperse, the police set up barricades and intervened against the students with pepper spray. The students' wait continues.

Police obstacle for students!

METU students who wanted to march to Kızılay to protest the detention of Ekrem İmamoğlu are not being allowed to march. pic.twitter.com/BjIAfE41Nm

— 12punto (@12puntocomtr) March 19, 2025

News Source: 12punto