The headquarters of DISK, the Confederation of Progressive Labor Unions, was surrounded by the police from the very early hours. The roads leading to the building were also closed with police barricades.
Expecting May Day celebrations, the police in Turkey surrounded the headquarters of DISK, the Confederation of Progressive Labor Unions and preventing all access.
The government had previously banned all demonstrations, marches, strikes, rallies or even distribution of leaflets on May Day using coronavirus epidemic as the excuse. All other days, except May Day, the people are encouraged to go to work to keep the economy functioning.
The headquarters of DISK was surrounded by the police from the very early hours. The roads leading to the building were also closed with police barricades.
The labor confederation DISK’s officers and the representatives of unions were joined by the HDP representatives from the progressive opposition party in the National Assembly, and the TIP, the Workers’ Party of Turkey, and some progressive representatives from the major opposition party CHP started a march with flowers to the Taksim Square in Istanbul, the traditional celebration location of May Day.
It did not take long before the police attacked the representatives and detained the president of DISK, Arzu Çerkezoğlu, other ranking members of DISK, and many other labor unionists.
Those detained by the police include Arzu Çerkezoğlu, president of DISK; Adnan Serdaroğlu, the General Secretary of DISK; Süleyman Keskin, the President of Energy Workers’ Union; Seyit Aslan, the President of Food Workers’ Union; Olcay Ozak, the General Secretary of Food Workers’ Union; Özgür Karabulut, the General Secretary of Constructıon Workers’ Union; Erdoğan Demir, the General Secretary of Health Care Workers’ Union; Seyfettin Gülengül, the Educatıon Secretary of United Metal Workers’ Union, Cemal Bilgin, the Expert of Organizing for Government Workers’ Union; Deniz Bakır, the Expert of Organizing for Ship Builders Union; Asalettin Aslan, the President of Istanbul Branch Textile Workers’ Union; Faruk Işık, Expert at DISK; Muhammet Yurtsever, United Metal Workers’ Union; Özgen Ozan, the General Secretary of Peoples’ Houses Organization; Polat Deniz Gülşen, the Advisor to Barış Atay, the National Assembly representative for the Workers Party of Turkey; Ersin Kiriş, the Presdent of Politeknik YK.
A worker, whose glasses were broken by the police said, “How come the police that never intervened when the rights of the workers were being taken away is attacking the workers now?” He was detained immediately by the police for saying these words.
Later, around 2:15 local time, a tweet from DISK informed that all who had been detained from around the DISK headquarters were released by the police.
Sendika.org News (M.B.)