ISTABUL (Ruptly) — Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Istanbul Caglayan Justice Palace on Wednesday, demanding the release of all those detained during the so-called Bogazici protests.

Protesters of students and academics of Bogazici University kicked off in January last year, over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of Melih Bulu as its rector, with protesters claiming that the appointment was done in violation of the rules. Erdogan in turn was quoted in media as saying, that the appointment was routine and was being used as a pretext for protests.

One student says in Turkish:

Like my comrade, I took off my handcuffs in the morning today, and we came here with you to be the voice of Dogu and Selo and all our prisoners. We know that house arrest is being a prisoner. Nowhere can they ever put handcuffs on our feet anymore. Because they are aware of youth of this country in the resistance of the Bosphorus.

Another student says in Turkish:

We have repeatedly stated that we will not accept trustees and will not give up. We begged for this on the street. This resistance was not just the resistance of the people of Bogazici, because we knew that those who appointed trustees were also those who arrested the mayors elected by the Kurdish people and appointed those municipalities to trustees.