Istanbul's Bilgi University has reopened after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reversed a decree ordering its closure, following days of student protests and a police crackdown that drew widespread attention. The reversal was published in Turkey's official gazette on Sunday, 25 May, just days after the original closure order had shocked students, staff and international observers alike.

Erdoğan had ordered the closure of Bilgi — one of Turkey's oldest private foundation universities, founded in 1996 — on 22 May, citing a law that allows authorities to shut a private institution if its standard of education is deemed insufficient. Students and staff rejected that justification outright. The closure came eight months after the university's owner, Can Holding, was seized by the state amid a criminal investigation into alleged fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. Prosecutors allege that Can Holding's principals established a criminal organisation and used a network of companies to conceal the origins of large sums of money, also making use of forged documents to reduce tax liabilities. Detention orders were issued for ten individuals connected to the group. As part of the investigation, 121 Can Holding companies were placed under the management of the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), a body whose mandate was significantly expanded following Turkey's 2016 coup attempt. The seized assets included the television channels Habertürk and Show TV, the financial news channel Bloomberg HT, the Doğa school network, and Bilgi University itself.

Hundreds of students and lecturers had gathered outside Bilgi's main campus on Sunday to demand its reopening, with student union activist Emir Aydogan declaring, "We will stay here until the university reopens its doors." Videos circulating on opposition media outlets showed police deployments and arrests near the campus earlier in the week. Erol Özvar, the head of Turkey's Higher Education Council (YÖK), sought to frame the U-turn not as a political concession but as a "sensitive reassessment" by Erdoğan aimed at avoiding harm to students, families and university staff.

Bilgi, which has more than 20,000 students and participates in the EU's Erasmus exchange programme, holds a particular symbolic weight in Turkey. Founded as a liberal, internationally oriented institution with strengths in the social and cultural sciences, it has long been associated with Istanbul's cosmopolitan, European-leaning urban culture — a milieu increasingly at odds with the conservative-nationalist direction of the government. The episode echoes earlier confrontations between the state and university communities, including the Boğaziçi University protests of 2021 and the broader demonstrations that followed the removal of Istanbul's mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in March 2025.

The swift reversal suggests the government calculated that the political costs of maintaining the closure outweighed any advantage. Erdoğan, who has been in power since 2003, has faced sustained criticism from rights organisations over moves against civil society and political opponents. The Bilgi episode underlines the acute sensitivity surrounding student politics in Turkey, and the difficulty any government faces in maintaining control when universities — historically flashpoints for dissent — become the focus of public anger.