Students staged a demonstration in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul and protested against the educational policy of the AKP government under the slogan "Report cards are yours, future is ours!". When they were arrested, massive violence was used by the police. The brutal action of the police triggered protests.

Critical journalist and HDP MP candidate Ahmet Şık, who is running for the upcoming parliamentary elections, also attended a rally outside the Kadikoy police station for the release of the 25 students, seven of them minors.

Şık underlined that he had come there not as a politician, but as a father, because he felt great anger at the images of the maltreatment of the young people. He knows one of the imprisoned young people since the early childhood: "Everyone has seen the torture, which was exercised by the uniform bearers of the state to the young people. I'm very angry right now. We will bring these torturers and their backers to justice."

Ahmet Şık also criticized the people who were watching the mistreatment and verbally protesting: "Everyone has seen how 16-year-old youth resist the oppression here. These children were beaten in front of everyone. If children are tortured, it cannot be that you just stand by and shout 'boo'. Teenagers have been maltreated and you have done nothing, that is your shame."

HDP MP candidate for ankara, Veli Saçılık, who also joined the demonstration, again emphasized the demands of high school students for a democratic and secular education system and stated that they had been abused because of these demands. He pointed to the climate of fear that the AKP has created with its permanent repression: "Despite this climate of fear, we will remain courageous and infect society with our courage. We do not do that because of the elections, we do it for an organized society."