*Elif K.
Psychology student Zeynep talked about the fight for human rights in universities in 2024.
In 2024, students were on the news, fighting for their rights at universities in Turkey. Zeynep E., a Psychology Department Student at Bilgi University, talked about the student movement on campus in 2024.
Can you tell us about the rights struggle on campuses and the most prominent rights demands at universities in 2024?
Zeynep E.: Universities in Turkey have been recently experiencing a defeat period. Among the prominent issues, academic freedoms, student rights, gender equality on campuses and economic concerns have increased dramatically. Housing problems, food prices and scholarship inadequacies have become one of the biggest obstacles for students in their daily lives. The tightness and hopelessness of politics in Turkey are also felt on campuses. Comparing the past with the present, the student movement has a much more passive and hopeless atmosphere.
How does the economic crisis affect students? Can you give an example?
Zeynep E.: Of course. For example, rent prices are a serious problem for most university students in Istanbul. If a student wants to stay in an average house in 2024, they must pay at least 15-20 thousand TL per month. The dormitories of the Credit and Dormitories Institution are inadequate, and the prices of private dormitories are astronomical. This situation forces students to live in overcrowded houses, stay in cheaper but difficult conditions in areas far from their campuses, or stay in religious community dormitories. Condemning students to this fate is a conscious choice. That requires us to address the issue not only economically but also politically.
What do you think about the events that took place in 2024? Were there any promising developments during the “defeat” process you described for student opposition?
Zeynep E.: Of course, for example, the activism at Istanbul University was remarkable; such a large protest took place in Beyazıt after a long time. The feminist activism that emerged after the murder of İkbal and Ayşenur was also powerful. The state of defeat is not something that cannot be reversed, but the targeting of socialist students, queers, and feminist students continues. This situation has also affected our daily lives. The current political climate is what produces this situation. This black propaganda creates a tendency for all students to be inactive and hostile towards those who act. The result is either male intervention in feminist actions using the slogan “Jin, jiyan, azadi” as an excuse or an illusion of vague, apolitical, and empty action, as in the rectorate demonstrations at Haliç University.
Recently, the incident of decorating the New Year’s tree at Yıldız Technical University has also been on the news. What are your views on this issue?
Zeynep E.: Yes, the incident at Yıldız Technical University shows how both social and individual freedoms are under threat. Even decorating the New Year’s tree has become a struggle for freedom. Students have been alienated from raising their heads, holding authorities accountable, and engaging in politics to such an extent that even a traditional activity, decorating a tree, has taken on political meaning. I even saw a post where a student described the incidents as “fighting jihadist gangs”. What was written is not wrong, but it also shows how narrowly the government has squeezed us into. It does not make what happened worthless, but that is what I meant by the “state of defeat.” We have to recover from this and expand the solidarity established on decorating the tree.
What do you mean by “expanding solidarity”?
Zeynep E.: Both the New Year’s tree and the incidents that developed over the Jin Jiyan Azadi slogan show the tension created by high politics in AKP-MHP-ruled Turkey; I think it shows that exploitation, rights violations, campus problems, femicides, and teachers who are perpetrators of violence are not the subjects who are being talked about, but the ones who are speaking out against them. As a result of this climate, students who experience the same troubles and share the same discomfort can become enemies of revolutionary students, feminists, and classmates who are demanding their rights as if they were representatives of the government, and those who are not, they choose to play a “neutral” role in the issues. The student opposition, regressed to decorating a New Year’s tree here, must cast off its neutral role and recognise the enemy.
Is there an example of students being turned against each other?
Zeynep E.: One of the issues that left its mark in 2024 was the exposure of feminist and/or socialist students via their social media accounts. On top of that, university administrations, who were supposed to support the targeted students and protect their rights, suspended them in some places. That is an unbelievable development, and it reveals that the policy of hostility is now being carried out hand in hand by the university administration and fascist groups. I think what needs to be told to “neutral” students from here is this: Every moment they choose not to take sides and stay away from politics, there is an approaching intervention in their lives, their student life and the sterile university life they dream of. That is not a leftist agitation but the reality itself, as seen in many issues such as the New Year’s tree. I also hope this oppressive environment will give birth to a practice of struggle.
What will be the main issues that will come to the fore in these struggles in the coming period? What can be done?
Zeynep E.: To re-establish the movement in the student opposition, organisations around economic-based rights demands such as the housing problem and cafeteria fees can be areas where solidarity can be expanded. In the current political conjuncture, it is now necessary to offer students spaces of struggle where they can become political. There is discomfort and a desire to take action, but hopelessness also prevails. The first step in uniting all the struggles we mentioned here can be an example of a battle on economic-based demands.
