The entire world knows it now: being a woman, a worker or a journalist is not an easy business in Turkey. And what about being young? Bowing down to authoritarian fiats is even harder for Turkey's youth. Leading a free and joyous life, pursuing dreams and speaking their minds are not things that young people can enjoy in Turkey today. Rather, they are constantly on alert about what they write and read, and even what they wear. Those who dare to speak their minds are not forgiven, especially if they refuse to be the “pious and vengeful” youth President Recep Tayyip Erdogan imagines.

According to Veli Agbaba, deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), more than 3,000 university students are currently in prison, accused of various crimes but mostly of membership in a terrorist organization. Some have landed in jail for carrying pictures of revolutionary leaders or brandishing banners for free education, others for selling tickets for concerts of leftist bands.

Other “unforgivable” crimes they have committed include reading out statements to the press and attending such events; reading Marx’s books; supporting the “Saturday Mothers,” who have been holding weekly sit-ins for 20 years for missing relatives; celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8; visiting the offices of the leftist Halkevleri group; attending May Day events and protesting against the Higher Education Board; demanding free transport and health care; calling for a democratic university; opposing the construction of hydroelectric power plants; and advocating environmental rights.

To draw attention to the little-debated plight of imprisoned students, Agbaba organized a press conference with parents in parliament in late January. He showed journalists posters of Turkish leftist leaders from the 1960s, which the judicial authorities had used as incriminating evidence against students. The government, he said, targeted especially leftist, secularist and pro-democracy youth because it saw them as a threat.