Basque internationalist organization Askapena released a statement expressing their solidarity with the students of Boğaziçi and the rest of the universities.

The statement by the Basque organization reads as follows:

“On January 4th, students at the University of Bogaziçi in Istanbul began their protests after Erdogan's fascist regime appointed Rector Melih Bulu, loyal to the AKP. As the protests burst, the Turkish police have carried out raids against the students, hundreds of houses were raided. However, in the meantime, the students' struggle against the state’s repression has been spreading to other universities.

We denounce, once again, the fascist character of the Turkish state, trying to guarantee on this occasion a direct control over the education, strategic branch for the state, to perpetuate the oppression of the people. It is not the first time that Turkey places its agents in important places to arrest and silence anyone who dissents, through this direct control.

Education is also strategic for a people who want to be free. It is known that the seed of the Kurdish liberation movement was born in Turkish universities, where a generation of rebel young people took the path of revolution. The awareness of their oppression, the organizational experiences, the feeding of rebellion through ideological and political formation... The learnt teachings beyond the curriculum established have been many.

Only an educational system that responds to the needs of the people will guarantee the free future of the people. And from Askapena we understand that the struggles that are being carried out in Bogaziçi and other universities these days are also doing so. Because a free people cannot be built from an educational system that responds to the interests of the oppressor state.

All our solidarity with all the young people who struggle in Bogaziçi in Istanbul, and in other educational centers anywhere. You are the future, and your struggle illuminates a freer future. From the Basque internationalists we commit ourselves to echo the struggle and to bring it to the young fighters of Euskal Herria so that we build internationalist bridges among the people.

Many people, one struggle!”