“I am not retired, or working for the government, or a rich person. I am a worker. I am a truck driver. There is no bread if I don’t work. This virus is not what will kill me, your system is what will kill me.”
It was so easy for the politicians in Turkey to call for everybody to stay home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Just like that. Don’t infect others, simply stay at home.
When they couldn’t impose that, they made it illegal for those over 65 years old to go out. Never mind the stupidity of such a decision, even that could not be imposed because there are a lot of 65 years and older who need to go out to get their needs and to work and help out their families put bread on the table. There is no social organization to help those who would be quarantined at home.
The same politicians are refusing to answer why thousands of pilgrims who returned from their religious visit to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were allowed to go home without a single day in quarantine. Many pilgrims who were tested proved to have contracted the virus while staying at the holy grounds.
In the middle of this three-ring circus a truck driver’s social media video post became viral.
Speaking to his cell phone at the wheel, the driver asked a simple question: “I am not retired, or working for the government, or a rich person. I am a worker. I am a truck driver. There is no bread if I don’t work. This virus is not what will kill me, your system is what will kill me.”
In a country where any opposition voice immediately gets shut down like Turkey the complaint of the truck driver, Malik Yılmaz, was too much of a threat for the entire Turkish state.
The Turkish police, working to keep the social order, captured Yılmaz in the south-east province of Hatay after the chief prosecutor there demanded his immediate detention.
The Hatay Province Security Administration announced that after an investigation and putting their resources to the case they identified the truck driver and raided his home at 11:30AM. After his capture the suspect was brought under police escort to be questioned and face the court. The truck driver is being charged with, “Inciting others to disobey the laws.”
Sendika.org News (M.B.)