State violence against protesters in Turkey

The Turkish state is getting more and more repressive against the dissidents towards the actual government. Since 2001 the population in Turkey increased 4,2% whereas the number of people sentenced for terrorism increased 250%. Today, 70 journalists, 15 mayors, and 442 provincial council members and 600 students are under detention. 

A large number of these students are arrested in political street demonstrations and protests against unaffordable tuition fees, hydroelectric power plants or neoliberal policies; and detained in prison for reasons like resisting to security forces, damaging public property, unfurling a communist banner, throwing eggs at a political figure, planning and/or participating in demonstrations, denouncing a police crackdown on anti-government demonstrators, being member of an illegal organization and in some an “unknown organization” but also for reasons like of an or “planning a bombing attack” like the case of the Galatasaray University student Cihan Kirmizigul, in prison for 22 months, and accused for planning a bombing attack, based on the statement of a secret witness, whom later withdrew his statement.

Therefore the aim of this paper is twofold: first to examine the rising state violence against protesters and especially students in Turkey; and second, to explore the methods of mobilization (demonstrations, sit-ins, occupations, protest walks, blogs, petitions, press releases…) employed by civil-society (solidarity initiatives, unions, academia...), to struggle against these arbitrary arrests, detentions and imprisonments.