The government of the ruling AKP and its junior partner MHP party gets irritated when the people of Turkey celebrate labor, with or without public dancing and picnicking. Talking about labor, women’s issues, minorities, democracy or press freedom are very sensitive subjects in Turkey
May Day is a day for dancing and picnicking for some, it is the Labor Day, the day to celebrate the world created by human labor, for others.
Many combine both understandings and celebrate the labor, the workers, the only thing that creates value in the world by public ceremonies of dancing and picnicking.
No matter how and for what it is, the world celebrates the May Day.
The government of Turkey disagrees.
The government of the ruling AKP and its junior partner MHP party gets irritated when the people of Turkey celebrate labor, with or without public dancing and picnicking. Talking about labor, women’s issues, minorities, democracy or press freedom are very sensitive subjects in Turkey.
The now tired “membership to an illegal organization” or “aiding or abating an illegal organization” or the catch-all accusation of “association with or being a terrorist” claims were again used by the Turkish government to charge those who danced on May Day.
The government even forgot that they had granted a permit -let alone the outrageous requirement that May Day celebration to picnic- for the celebrations and charged those who participated with “propagandizing an illegal organization.”
The event had taken place on May 1st, 2018 in Diyarbakır, a South-Eastern city in Turkey with a majority of Kurdish population. State has been trying to suppress the Kurdish identity in Turkey, forcing the 25% of the total population who identify themselves as Kurds to assimilate and become Turks.
The banning of May Day comes in the heel of other pressures Turkey exerts on Kurdish movements and the left in the country.
Recently, charges were brought against 13 people in Mersin region, including college students, for “propagandizing for an illegal organization.” Three of the charged have already been arrested. The suspects are also charged with “being a member of an illegal organization.” The District Attorney listed the charges for the accused which includes, “trying to publicize the hunger strikes” that had been going on for months. The leaflets that called attention to the ongoing hunger strikes that called, “Don’t let Leyla die” were considered as breaking the law.
Others elsewhere were charged for attending the Youth Assembly of a legal, electoral HDP opposition party. HDP is the third largest party in the National Assembly. However, because it is pro-democracy, pro-women and pro-Kurdish, the government has targeted all activities of HDP as being illegal. The president and co-president of the party is in prison with fake and trumped up charges. Court after court drops the charges against the accused in cases against them, however, the government immediately conjures other charges to keep them in prison.
The Turkish government uses broadly defined charges as a weapon against all opposition. A picnic, a dance, a press conference, a photography exhibit becomes a punishable offense against the people of Turkey.
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