The protests that have rocked Turkey for the last week have been met by a wave of house raids and arrests by the despotic regimes. Levent Dölek, the deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Workers' Party in Turkey and the workplace representative of the main trade union at the university level, Eğitim-Sen, for Istanbul University, was detained as part of police raids on the morning of March 26th. Dölek, who has been at the forefront of innumerable working-class and anti-imperialist struggles over his lifetime, is being charged on the spurious ground of taking part in an unauthorized demonstration for his role in an Eğitim-Sen rally in support of previously arrested students.

We, the undersigned, demand the immediate release of Levent Dölek, and all those imprisoned by despotism in Turkey!

Down with despotism, long live freedom!