Youth Activism in Türkiye: The March 19 Protests

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the wave of protests that began under the leadership of university students from across Türkiye following the detention of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on March 19, 2025. Based on qualitative interviews conducted with 20 university students who participated in the protests in Istanbul and Ankara, the report aims to understand why and how young people engaged in these demonstrations, to analyze their emotional, political, and social motivations, to discuss the structural barriers they faced, and to explore the impact of this activism experience on their personal and political development. Within this framework, the participants’ personal backgrounds, political attitudes, risk perceptions, and social positioning are evaluated both theoretically and empirically.

The growing sense of insecurity among youth, the housing crisis, the erosion of university autonomy, increasing pressures on freedom of expression, and the shrinking space for civil society laid a cumulative foundation for the mobilization leading up to March 19. Alongside long-standing structural problems, a sense of injustice intertwined with feelings of social exclusion drove young people to become visibly active in the streets as a form of collective reaction. The findings of the report reveal that the factors influencing youth participation in protests are not limited to political or rational choices; emotional motivations such as anger, fear, hope, and a quest for justice also play a decisive role. Moreover, the organizational forms adopted by young people tend to diverge from traditional hierarchical models, instead taking shape through digital networks and horizontal solidarity practices.

The data collected presents a picture that challenges the widespread stereotype that youth are uninterested in politics or apathetic. The majority of participants chose to express their criticisms of the system not merely as individuals but through forms of collective resistance; in doing so, they moved beyond a sense of isolation and reconstructed feelings of belonging and empowerment. In this respect, the March 19 protests can be seen not only as a contemporary wave of demonstrations but also as a historical turning point that offers significant insights into the political subjectification of youth in Türkiye. The report seeks to demonstrate the potential of the participatory forms developed by youth during this process for advancing democracy, freedom of expression, and social justice in Türkiye.