Labor News From Turkey 8/6/94
Labor Video Project
lvpsf at igc.apc.org
Fri Sep 16 01:25:19 BST 1994
From: Labor Video Project <lvpsf>
/* Written 11:33 AM Sep 14, 1994 by lvpsf in igc:labr.turkey */
/* ---------- "Labor News From Turkey 8/6/94" ---------- */
From: Labor Video Project <lvpsf>
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LABOR NEWS FROM TURKEY
August 6 1994
Compiled from a collection of newspapers, magazines and news
reports.
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ANOTHER ATTACK, ANOTHER EXECUTION!
On August 4, the 'Anti-Terrorist' squad conducted an assault on a house in
Esenler, Istanbul. On the same day, at 2.00 AM, police surrounded an
apartment building in Yanimahalle. Special Force teams and police in
bullet proof vests spread around the 4 storey building. Suddenly the
shooting started and the police sprayed the 4th floor with machine gun
fire.
The apartment was being machine gunned constantly and sometimes the police
was calling to the inhabitants to surrender in a voice they could not hear
themselves. The people in the apartment answered the fire with fire. As
time went by the shooting gained momentum. Police were constantly
requesting more ammunition and grenades over the radio. At 8.00 AM first
hand grenades then tear gas bombs were thrown inside from the roof by
police wearing bullet proof vests. After the police who had thrown in the
grenades from the roof signalled that it was OK to enter, the teams entered
the apartment building and for two full minutes heavy firing was heard from
inside the house.
It was heard from the police radio at 8:45 that the "task was
accomplished". Now it was time for the show. Civilian policeman and
muslim style bearded agents who entered into the crowd watching the clash
started to shout slogans supporting the police and celebrating the victory.
Those who knew the people living in the apartment did not engage in the
shouting of slogans for the police and some of these were arrested by the
police.
Police who did not allow the press to enter the apartment for three hours
left the premises at 11:00 AM with the corpses of three people who were in
the apartment wrapped in blankets. The bodies who were protruding from the
blankets were in a state where they could not be identified. The police
who puts a gun next to everybody they kill in these kinds of executions and
then call in the journalists to have pictures taken did not do it this
time. After the corpses were removed and it was allowed to enter the
apartment it was seen that it was in ruins. It looked like a massive
earthquake had hit the apartment due to bullets and hand grenades thrown
into the apartment. A day later the security forces announced the names of
those killed in the apartment as Huseyin Arslan, Guner Sar and Ozlem Kilic.
When the team from the 'Platform of Rights and Freedoms' and 'Contemporary
Jurists Association' entered the apartment, their assessment was that the
conscious plan of the security forces were to "capture dead" without any
intention of trying to capture alive the residents.
The radio communication between the police who was recorded and published
in a newspaper also demonstrates that the police had come to the scene with
the intention to execute:
- Somebody is firing from the roof.. Does anybody know who it is?
- Yes sir. I see him clearly. I can finish him off.
- Yes,Right. Don't finish him off before making sure.
- We are forcing the door with hand grenades, if we push it in it will be
over.
- OK, we are pushing in.
- OK, this will do it.
- May God help you!
- The task is completed sir.
- Well done, it is clean inside now.
- I kiss you all!
The relatives of those who came to take the corpses from the coroners
office said there was at least 50 bullet wounds on each corpse and that
every one was burned from the grenades thrown into the apartment.
Gercek
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WORKERS ACCUSED OF BEING TRAITORS
Eskisehir's Tepebasi mayor Orhan Soydas (From DYP-Right wing government
party) accused the workers who participated in the July 20 general action
of being traitors to the country.
The bus drivers in Tepebasi municipality had stopped work on July 20 and
had not worked for a full day to support the general action called by the
Confederation of Workers Union Turk-Is. This was also an opportunity for
the workers to express their resentment in the negotiations which had come
to a halt with the municipality.
This action had coincided with the Greater Eskisehir's Mayor Aydin Aral's
being in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. As soon as Aral returned home he
opened a lawsuit against the workers charging that they had acted against
the strike-and-lockout laws and had stopped work with bad intentions and
had caused losses to the municipality.
The situation got more tense when the Mayor of Tepebasi accused the workers
with treason in the local government meeting. When this remark was
published in a local newspaper, the issue got out of hand.
REACTIONS
Immediately, Belediye-Is (Municipal Workers Union), Genel-Is (General
Municipal Workers Union), Eskisehir Platform of Democracy, Platform of
Public Workers Unions and Turk-Is (Confederation of Workers Union)
representatives responded back by calling the Mayor himself a traitor.
Mayor of Tepebasi called for a press conference as soon as the news spread
around that he had called the workers traitors. Soydas, changed his words
in the press conference and said that he had not called the workers
traitor, but he had meant that those workers who had participated in the
July 20 action were the traitors to the people of Eskisehir.
Rumor has it that when he worked in the Eskisehir municipality as a clerk,
Soydas had to resign from his post due to accusations of fraud. When Ahmet
Kilic, the President of the Eskisehir Branch of Belediye-Is (Municipality
Workers Union) asked him to first give the reason why he had resigned from
his position and left the municipality, Soydas chose to ignore the
question.
The workers said there was no difference between calling them traitors to
the motherland and traitors to the people of Eskisehir, but really showed
how the Mayor viewed the workers. And they continue; "yes, if this is
treason, we will continue to be traitors. But the people will one day find
the real traitors."
Gercek
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A CALL FOR CONTINUOUS ACTION
Executive committee of Petrol-Is (Petroleum Workers Union) met on August
20 to discuss the general action taken on July 20. The topics were the
overall action, the methods of future struggle and the what action should
bee taken against the unions who sabotaged the action on July 20.
Bayram Meral, the president of Turk-Is (The Confederation of Workers
Unions), said, "This action was done in 76 cities and some towns. This was
a success for us. The only thing that went wrong was to see the Ankara
municipality buses running". He said the media wanted to show the action
as a failure, but the people expected a lot from Turk-Is.
But many other union leaders do not see the July 20 action as rosy as
Bayram Meral. They do not think that the action was as successful as
stated by the Turk-Is president, and they say they have no answers to the
rank and file about why some unions did not participate in the action.
Petrol-Is executives said "If we allow these to get away with breaking the
solidarity and unity of the workers, we will not be successful in our
future actions". They stated that they had participated in the action with
full knowledge that they may be fired from their jobs, but that the Turk-Is
president Meral Bayram had asked the workers in Ankara not to participate
because they may loose their jobs if they took to the streets.
An executive from Samsun said, "I do not have anything to say to my rank and
file. You try to tell the worker in TUG-SAS who did not work for three
days and occupied the factory that the July 20 action was a success".
Batman branch manager said all kinds of weapons are speaking in the country
today but, those unionists who should be speaking now were not. He
criticized Turk-Is for not having an ideological stand.
Petrol-Is executive committee will meet again on August 8 and will assess
the situation. They will decide to take the future actions on themselves
and will carry it out if the Turk-Is executives can not come up with a
decision.
Gercek
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ARAS CARGO WORKERS STRUGGLE CONTINUES.
While the attack on the workers by the capital continue as firings, lay
off's and contracting the work out, the 55 workers organized under
Nakliyat-Is (Freight Workers Union) at Aras Cargo are paying their dues.
The workers of Aras Cargo had stopped work on July 3 because they had not
been paid the portion of their wages from January 1994. This was a
spontaneous reaction to the bosses, but the workers were determined to
struggle to the end. But the employer Celal Aras had given his promise to
the workers saying, "I will pay your wages from January in three days.
Nobody will loose their jobs for this action. If I am the Celal Aras, the
owner of this business, I am a man of my word, I will not lick what I
spit". On this promise the workers had started work again.
But, Celal Aras did lick what he spat. He terminated three workers on
July 12. The workers responded by stopping work and requested that the
terminated workers be hired again. This raised the number of workers
fired from Aras Cargo to 55. The employer also called the soldiers to
scare the workers away from the work place. There were around 5 soldiers
per fired worker.
Despite the presence of the soldiers, a tent was erected by the plant on
Istanbul-Ankara highway and the workers were able to resist here for 12
days. After a while the tent was destroyed by the gendarmerie and the
workers were forced to carry the struggle to the center of Ankara, the
Capital.
Here, the workers had the chance to talk to the prospect customers of Aras
Cargo and persuaded them to take their business elsewhere. One terminated
worker said, "The employer is squeezed to the corner, we will win for sure.
And, the victory will be for the working class but, won by the cargo
workers". The Resistance Committee formed to conduct the struggle has
stated that the average worker here did not even have primary school
education, but, this struggle had become the best school for the workers.
The workers in the Resistance Committee said, "We are actually fired for
union organizing. We were conducting the organizing for Nakliyat-Is
(Freight Workers Union). The time had come for us to start the
negotiations. But the employer fired us because of this. Our worker
brothers did not even know how to do anything. They were scared of police
and gendarmerie oppression. But, all of them became concious in the
struggle. They could not have learned what they have learned in the
resistance even if they had gone to school for years.
Cargo workers enjoy the support of the other workers who are still working
for the employer. The workers are visiting every neighborhood and are
distributing a flyer prepared to explain their struggle door to door. They
have gotten support from workers in Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa, Adana and
Ankara.
Gercek
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