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Turkey's Labor Unions Slam PM Erdogan For His Humiliating Remarks
After many years of requests by labor unions, Turkish government declared May 1 as “labor and solidarity holiday” but did not authorize taking the day off work in observance of the day. The government also refused to lift the ban on holding demonstrations in Istanbul’s Taksim square where in the 1970s bloody clashes had occurred between the workers and the police. PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday, "May 1st should not be a day of tensions anymore. The insistence to celebrate May 1st in Taksim square is not nice. When the feet try to govern the head, it becomes doomsday." Erdogan said that everybody ought to respect the rules and added, "If the unions insist on the mentality of 'I will do whatever I want, wherever I want', you can't stop chaos". Revolutionary Labour Unions Confederation (DISK) and Turkish Confederation of Labor Unions (Turk-Is) immediately responded to PM Erdogan's remarks. DISK chairman, Suleyman Celebi said that the PM showed his political mentality with these remarks and said, "What you regard as ‘the feet’ are what we call the workers and civil servants of this country. You will see the response of the feet on May 1 in Taksim square”. Turk-Is chairman, Mustafa Kumlu, said that the PM's remarks were harsh and saddening, and he vowed to insist on celebrating May 1st in Taksim square. Following the controversy over PM's speech, AKP released a statement in the evening explaining that the PM did not imply anyone with his remarks. Source: Milliyet, Turkey April 23, 2008
Posted at: 2008-04-23
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