On September 25, 2025, private security and Turkish police forcibly dismantled a student table on Ege University’s campus and detained around 20 students.
Students had set up tables on campus to advertise student clubs and register new members. One booth protested an increase in the cost of meals on campus. Security forces surrounded the tables, and police arrested the students. Video footage shows students being dragged away by police and tables being broken down.
Scholars at Risk is concerned about the forcible arrest of students in apparent retaliation for the peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly—conduct that is expressly protected by international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Türkiye is a party. In addition to the harm to the immediate victim, such incidents have a chilling effect on academic freedom and undermine democratic society generally.
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