(en) blackrosefed: POLICE RAID TEACHERS UNION IN ANKARA,
TURKEY
Black Rose / Rosa Negra is publishing this news summary as a notice to our friends and
comrades who are members of teachers' unions in the United States about the brutal
war-mongering activities of the Turkish state and their repression of the segments of the
labor movement that have been in solidarity with Rojava and the Kurdish Freedom Movement.
Teachers' union activists are encouraged to push their unions to send solidarity to
Egitim-Sen and protest the government's actions, as these are only the first movements in
what is becoming a full war in Turkey and Kurdistan, and every bit of international
solidarity is needed now. ---- On July 25th the headquarters of the left-wing teachers'
union Egitim-Sen (Education and Science Workers' Union) was raided by police forces,
without a search warrant or a court decision. The raid was part of the wave of operations
against terrorism initiated by the AKP government. The raids were initiated by the
government in response to the ISIS suicide bombing on July 20th of a gathering of
socialists in Suruç, Turkey, who were supporting the reconstruction of the Kurdish city of
Kobane (which successfully resisted a siege by ISIS last year) across the border in Syria.
The bombing killed 31, including the Egitim-Sen representative and English teacher
Suleyman Aksu. Instead of targeting ISIS, the government's anti-terrorism operations have
so far mostly targeted leftist groups, social movements and unions in Turkey.
At the time of raid, Syrian refugees from the city of Kobane were staying in the union's
guesthouse at their headquarters. All of the refugees had official papers from the Turkish
authorities. Some of these refugees were injured and were recovering in the guesthouse.
The police arrested the refugees from Kobane who were hosted by Egitim-Sen. Officials of
the union were not allowed to enter to the building while the search was going on.
Unlawful police actions
The Police carried out the raid with only a prosecutor's request, and not by a judge's
decision. The arbitrary nature of the raid was also evident in the arrest of the voluntary
translator Ibrahim Bas. He was a voluntary translator who was helping the injured in the
guesthouse. Police asked him to come with them to the police center and help with them in
taking statements from the arrested Syrian refugees. Bas declined this request. The Police
in front of eye witnesses made just two telephone calls, and then arrested him with the
charge of being a member of a terrorist organisation.
On July 26th it was revealed that the whole raid was based on only one telephone call that
blamed Egitim-Sen with helping terrorists. As there was thus no real basis all but one of
the arrestees have been released now.
Egitim-Sen in its press release said that "The operations must be made against ISIS
terrorists, not labor or democracy activists.... HDP's crossing of the electoral threshold
made the temporary government and President Tayyip Erdogan angry.... So now they turned to
war politics.... Security forces, instead of finding the supporters of the murderers of of
Suleyman Aksu, who was our representative in Yuksekova but killed in the massacre in Suruç
by IS, targeted our union."
Sources:
http://www.sendika.tv/2015/07/egitim-sen-genel-merkezine-polis-baskini/
http://www.sendika.tv/2015/07/egitim-sen-baskininda-hukuk-askida-gonullu-cevirmen-polise-calismak-istemedi-5-dakikada-yakalama-karari-cikarildi/
http://www.sendika1.org/2015/07/ankarada-hukuk-rezaleti-egitim-sen-baskininin-gerekcesi-telefon-ihbari/
http://www.kesk.org.tr/content/e%C4%9Fitim-sen-operasyonlar-emek-demokrasi-m%C3%BCcadelesi-veren-insanlara-de%C4%9Fil-suru%C3%A7%E2%80%99ta-31
http://www.blackrosefed.org/police-raid-teachers-union-in-ankara-turkey/
