GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

complying with the laws of the country and they have been jailed for actually

upholding the laws of their own country.

When I went there I took the opportunity wearing a different hat, not

representing our federation, but representing the International Transport

Workers Federation, because I sit on its urban transport committee to meet our

sisters and brothers within transport unions in Turkey and they told me that

protest now is almost a thing of the past. Trade unionists who try to protest

against anything are likely to be jailed, beaten up and then maybe released

after a few days. I want to give you an example of this before I go on to

Kurdistan, because I think that it is really important that we have a focus on

Kurdistan, because by far, by far the people that are worst treated within

Turkey are the Kurds, but this malaise now is affecting all society. I will give

you this example and this will be close to all of you, because we are all trade

unionists. They are building a new airport in Istanbul and Erdoğan wanted the

airport completed before the elections because he saw that that would boost

his party. They threw away all the regulations around health and safety and

people started to die, workers were dying on an industrial scale. 50 odd people

were killed in the space of a year. So the unions had the temerity, the temerity,

they did not even call a strike, to call a protest, to call a protest. Do you know

what the response to that was? To jail all the union leaders. They were never

charged, but they were locked away for almost six months just for having the

temerity to call a demonstration. So that is the level of repression that we have

got there.

I was moved when we actually went to Kurdistan by what the people of

Kurdistan are putting up with. I had the privilege to meet Leyla and I am really

worried now for her health. The picture that you showed there shows that she

has deteriorated from when I saw her and she is now in a critical condition.

The stories that we were being told were harrowing. Paul Scholey from Morrish

Solicitors who is there at the back was there with us as well and Paul actually

said (and I hope you do not mind, Paul, that I say this) that actually what we

saw in Kurdistan was worse than what we had witnessed when we went to

Palestine, and that is saying something, that is absolutely saying something.

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