Turkey

Attacks in Turkey target solidarity and unity

On 10 October, two bomb blasts officially killed 97 people in the Turkish capital, Ankara. The had gathered for “Labour, Democracy, and Peace Rally” to protest the resumption of war between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants, mainly in Turkish Kurdistan. The deadly atrocity, which fundamentally targeted the rapprochement and unity of the Kurdish people, Alevis, leftist and progressive social groups in Turkey, was no surprise. The attacks can be seen as the continuation of a political process which commenced with the overturning of peace process between the state and the Kurdistan Worker’s...

Workers protest after Ankara bomb

Workers struck and demonstrated across Turkey on 12 and 13 October to protest at the bombing which killed at least 97 people at a peace rally in Ankara [Turkey’s capital] on 10 October. The Confederation of Public Sector Trades’ Unions (KESK), the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) called for a nationwide strike on 12 and 13 October. A march in Istanbul gathered at Taksim Square at 6pm on 11 October. The Turkish left-wing activists of UID-DER (Association of...

Turkey's war on Kurds

After a declaration of “self-government” of Cizre by its council led by the Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party, the Turkish goverment launched an assault on the city. A 24 hour curfew was imposed. An interview with one resident by Italian paper, il Fatto Quotidiano: “First they cut off the light, water, gas, then entered with tanks and thousands of soldiers and special ‘anti terrorist’ militia. From there they began to open fire on the population.“. The interviewee went on to describe an uninterrupted siege of eight days that left 21 civilians, including a 35 day-old baby, butchered; hundreds of...

Erdogan turns to repression as he loses support

In the last week of July, Turkey began its bombing of Kurdish forces of the PKK in Syria and Iraq. The cover given for the bombings was Turkish President Erdogan’s eventual agreement to take action against Daesh (ISIS) and support the US’s bombing of them. But the truth is very different. The bombings began as the two year truce broke down between Turkish armed forces and the Kurdish PKK — the militia, primarily based in Turkey, which has had an on-off war with Turkey for 30 years. It also followed the massacre of young pro-Kurdish socialist activists in the town of Suruc who had gathered...

Turkey breaks ceasefire with PKK

The bomb attack on the youth wing of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed, the SGDF, as their members travelled to Suruc on the Turkey–Syria border to help reconstruct Kobane, has provoked a wide ranging response from the Turkish state. The SGDF according to official accounts were attacked by a suicide bomber from Daesh (ISIS), with over 30 of their members killed. The SGDF is part of a coalition of groups with close links to the People’s Democratic Party. Press reports from across the region quote their members and supporters who are sceptical of the official claims and believe they were...

Turkey: defeat for Erdoğan

The parliamentary election in Turkey on 7 June was a victory for the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) that passed the 10% election threshold which was imposed after the 1980 coup. According to preliminary results, the party more than doubled its votes from 2.8 million (6.5%) in the 2011 elections to slightly more than 6 million (13%) in the 2015 elections. The AKP’s votes decreased from nearly 50% in 2011 to 40.9% in 2015, even though the party still came first. No party has the mandate to form the government alone. Several factors played a role in this victory. First, the HDP leadership...

International news: Istanbul men protest, Turkish healthworkers and Nigerian teachers

On 6 December 2014 Maltepe University Hospital in Istanbul dismissed 98 workers, for being members of the Progressive Union of Health Workers. The workers joined the union to seek to improve their working conditions in the hospital. They demanded higher wages, which have been promised for several years, and shorter working hours. Several of the sacked workers were working in the hospital for more than 10 years and received several awards. There are disabled workers as well as couples among them. Many families have been left without income. Workers’ Liberty will be joining LabourStart to gather...

Mass strike of Turkish metal workers

UID-DER, the rank-and-file labour-movement network in Turkey which Workers' Liberty has links with, was involved in a mass strike of metal workers, who are members of the Birleşik Metal-İş (United Metalworkers) union. UID-DER write: "15,000 workers at 22 factories, where Birleşik Metal-İş is organised, chose to go on strike. On Thursday 29 January, workers shut off the power at Cengiz Makine factory in Gebze, which was subsequently followed by other factories. Thousands of workers from various unions and many democratic mass organisations, including UID-DER were present to support the strike...

ISIS defeated in Kobane

Kurdish fighters have expelled Daesh (ISIS) from inside the Syrian border town of Kobane. This is a huge physical and symbolic blow to Daesh’s ambitions. Some Daesh forces reportedly remain in the Maqtala district, on the eastern outskirts of the town. Daesh is said to have lost more than 1,000 fighters since it began its advance on the town on 16 September 2014 in an attempt to control the border between Syria and Turkey. At one point the group had taken over most of the city. Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), later reinforced by the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, slowly pushed...

Interview with Kurdish and Turkish community organisation Day-Mer

Day-Mer is a Kurdish and Turkish community organisation in London. Oktay Cinpolat, who is part of the management of Day-Mer and Day-Mer Youth, spoke to Solidarity . Day-Mer was set up in 1989 by a group of community activists, some of who had known each other in Turkey. We work with and on behalf of Turkish and Kurdish people living and working in London, to help them solve their problems and promote their cultural, economic, social and democratic rights; to strengthen solidarity amongst themselves as well as local people; and to help their integration into society. For us this is possible by...

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