12 October, 2015Outrage, protest and mourning in Turkey after around 100 people are killed, and hundreds are injured in two suicide bomb attacks on a rally called by trade unions and civil society organizations in capital city Ankara on 10 October.
The large “Work, Peace and Democracy” rally and mass meeting were organized by four organizations, DISK (Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions, KESK (Confederation of Public Employees), TMMOB (Union of Turkish Cambers of Engineers and Architects) and TTB (Union of Doctors of Turkey).
IndustriALL Global Union has four affiliates in the DISK Confederation, Birlesik Metal-Is, Lastik-Is, Tekstil and Tümka-Is.
The two bombs exploded in the crowd while marchers sang, danced and held banners calling for an end to war, and for the rights of poor and suffering people. Those same banners were used to cover the dead bodies on the street.
Police and security forces used tear gas and water cannons on the crowd who simply wanted to put flowers in the area where the bombings happened.
In mourning and protest of the atrocity, trade unions that organized the event are conducting a general strike on 12-13 October.
The general secretaries of IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll Europe today jointly wrote to Prime Minister Davutoğlu to demand a full, transparent, and independent investigation into this terrorist attack:
“The peace rally was organized to demand work, peace and democracy, and to give voice to millions of unemployed workers, public workers, and poor and suffering people.”
And in writing to DISK President Kani Beko:
“We fully support the general strike today and tomorrow to express our sorrow, mourn the victims, and condemn this atrocity.”
“This is the bloodiest attack in the history of Turkey. This happened to a group of people who demand peace,” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union. “While our memories of the bloody May Day killings in 1977 are still in our minds, this is another trauma for workers and unions in Turkey. But we will never give up from our demands for democracy, human rights and peace.”