Fundamental rights and freedoms in Turkey have been restricted under the state of emergency that has been in place since failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said in a written statement on May 1 Labor Day.
“The pressure on labor has been increasing day by day. The basic rights and freedoms are being destroyed by the hands of state of emergency rules,” said CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu.
Criticizing the restrictions on the working life, liberty of organization and freedom for assembly, Kılıçdaroğlu underlined the increase in unemployment rate and work-related accidents. “Poverty has taken root, the income injustice and inequality are becoming a fate of our country,” he added.
“Despite these negative circumstances, the picture revealed by the April 16 referendum has indicated that the solidarity and togetherness of all the segments of the society that defends democracy, freedom and their collective action against injustice and tyranny will triumph,” he stated.
Since July 15, 2016, over 130,000 people from state institutions have been purged by Turkish government which has already detained more than 120,000 people over alleged links with Gülen movement. According to a statement from Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on April 2, even till that date, a total of 113,260 people have also been detained and 47,155 were put into pre-trial detention as part of investigations into the Gülen movement since the coup attempt.
The military coup attempt on July 15 killed over 240 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement despite the lack of any evidence to that effect.
Although the Gülen movement strongly denies having any role in the putsch, the government accuses it of having masterminded the foiled coup. Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, called for an international investigation into the coup attempt, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
May 1, 2017
