Venting their fury at the governing AKP and its de facto leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish citizens of all walks of life put their lives on hold on Oct 12 to boycott school, walk off the job, take part in rallies, or attend funerals for those killed

Citizens across Turkey stopped to pay tribute on 12 October to the more than 100 people who were killed in a twin suicide bombing at an Ankara peace rally on 10 October.

Observing the first of a two-day strike that was called by the Confederation of Public Sector Trades’ Unions (KESK), the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), workers walked off the job, students refused to go to school and teachers canceled classes amid a series of marches, protests and funerals in the four corners of the country against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) over its apparent acquiescence to the massacre.

In Istanbul’s Fatih district, a ceremony was held outside the Istanbul University Medical School Hospital located in Fatih’s Çapa neighborhood on Oct. 12 to commemorate victims of the Ankara bombing, as medical staff and union members gathered outside at 10:04 a.m., the time when the twin blasts occurred in Ankara on Oct. 10.

College students in large numbers, including those from the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Boğaziçi University, Marmara University, Koç University and Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul, as well as Middle East Technical University in Ankara, boycotted their classes on Oct. 12 in protest.

In the southern province of Adana, members of the TMMOB, KESK, DİSK, the Adana Medical Association and several other unions and civil organizations marched to a main square in downtown Adana after gathering outside Adana Metropolitan Municipality in protest against the Ankara bombing.

 

In the wake of the Ankara Massacre, one of the provinces with the biggest participations in terms of the two-day strike was İzmir, with thousands of people marching to the central Gündoğdu Square.

Following the protest, mourners set Berna Koç and Ayşe Deniz, both of whom lost their lives in the massacre, off on their final journey. İzmir residents’ display of solidarity with Koç and Deniz was unprecendented, leaving an indelible mark on the memory. As in Ankara, revolutionaries provided their own security.

Speaking at a funeral in Adana, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ took umbrage with government suggestions that they had shed light on past massacres.

“Did you find the perpetrators of Reyhanlı, Suruç and Diyarbakır? The perpetrators of all of these are freely walking among us. The perpetrators of this massacre [in Ankara] will also not be caught,” she said.

In nearby Antakya, mourners attended the funeral of Halkevleri (People’s Houses) member Necla Duran, who perished in the massacre, under a banner that read “We know the murderers, and we will bring them to account.” Mourners also held pictures of Palestinian Halkevleri activist Ahmet Khaldi, who also died in the blast.

Speaking on behalf of several labor unions and organizations, Ankara Medical Association head Çetin Atasoy said they condemned the terrorist attack and expressed deep sorrow over the deadly attack.

“We are all in mourning. We’re on strike today and tomorrow all across Turkey,” Atasoy said Oct. 12.

Burial ceremonies are being held one by one as bodies of the victims of the Ankara Massacre are sent to their hometowns, with many funerals becoming impromptu anti-government rallies with mourners and protesters repeatedly chanting “Murderer Erdoğan” and “The murderous state will pay.”

In the eastern province of Malatya, a mass burial ceremony was held on Oct. 12 for Gözde Aslan, Gülbahar Aydeniz, Sezen Vurmaz, Onur Tan and his cousin Umut Tan, and Mehmet Ali Kılıç, members of the CHP Malatya Youth Branch, which lost a total of 11 members in the massacre.

The presence of Parliamentary Speaker İsmet Yılmaz, a member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), infuriated the crowd, with mourners chanting “Murderers out.” While suspicion has fallen on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for the twin bombings, most mourners believe the AKP government and Erdoğan are politically responsible for the massacre.

The strike will continue on 13 October with more events, including a two-pronged march by members of DİSK from both Sirkeci and Çapa in Fatih to Beyazıt Square. Both events will begin at 10:30 a.m.

 Sendika.Org, Hürriyet Daily News