MA Student Jailed Over Opposition Crackdown Criticism in Turkey

Abdullah Esin, in front of the Faculty of Ecnomics and Administrative Sciences, Bogazici University. Photo Credit: Initiative for Freedom of Expression.

Abdullah Esin, MA student in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University, was detained by Turkish police on September 8 for a social media post criticizing the ongoing crackdown of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP). Esin appeared before a judge on September 9th and was arrested on charges of “inciting the public to commit a crime”.

Esin’s arrest was part of a broader operation against social media accounts that were found to have allegedly “incited hatred” and “incited people to commit crimes”, according to the government. Investigations have been opened against at least 14 people and 9 of whom were detained. Another one of the detainees, Dr. Emrah Gülsunar, a political scientist was later released on probation.

Turkey is undergoing a period of even more intensified autocratization under the AKP government, in the context of an already entrenched authoritarian regime under Erdoğan’s presidency. This political vendetta began on March 19, 2025, with the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, mayor of Istanbul and the most likely candidate to be Erdoğan’s opponent in the next election. Most recently, the government has been pushing for the appointment of a trustee to the Istanbul branch of the CHP, which resulted in a police blockade and occupation of the party’s Istanbul office. Esin and others were arrested due to their criticism of the government’s efforts against the opposition.

One tactic used by the government in the repression of the political opposition has been the weaponization of academic processes since presidential candidates are required to be university graduates by law. Soon after Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu was arrested, his university diploma was revoked based on an alleged technicality, despite the fact that he had earned his diploma from Istanbul University over 30 years ago.

A similar tactic is also being used against Abdullah Esin. Even though Esin has submitted and successfully defended his MA Thesis, Boğaziçi University, headed by a trustee rector since 2021, is refusing to accept his thesis. According to Esin’s lawyer, the Institute of Social Sciences at Boğaziçi University refused Esin’s thesis on the basis that Esin’s lawyer’s letter of attorney did not allow her to submit a thesis on his behalf. After the proper letter was submitted, the institute demanded that extensive revisions be made, and the thesis resubmitted the same day. Citing Esin’s inability to make the revisions, the institute rejected the thesis once again, preventing Esin from graduating from his MA program. Esin’s attorney stressed that if requests for additional time are not accepted, Esin’s enrollment will be terminated, which will amount to a violation of his right to education and an undue punishment before he is even convicted of committing a crime.

Esin’s professors condemned Esin’s arrest, called for his immediate release, and reiterated their demands for academic freedom and institutional autonomy for universities. In a September 26 statement, Boğaziçi University academics reaffirmed their solidarity with Esin and said “We do not accept the arbitrary violation, through various rules infractions, of the constitutionally enshrined educational rights of a jailed student who is yet to be indicted and their victimization over pure political enmity.”

Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the injustices perpetrated against Esin and all other students and academics in Turkey for expressing their criticisms against the Turkish government. We further condemn the weaponization of academic procedures for political purposes, as a means of penalizing government critics, which significantly erodes the integrity of university diplomas. We call for the immediate release of Esin and all others facing undue persecution and prosecution for exercising their freedom of expression and right to academic freedom. We invite the global community to join our call.