The wave of labour struggles in Turkey is facing increasing repression. Following protests by construction workers in Istanbul and Ankara who marched outside office buildings of employer Türkerler Holding against layoffs, which police attacked in both locations,
several unionised workers in Istanbul disappeared the morning after the protests, having already been arrested and released at night. Only later it turned out that they had continued the protest in the morning and were then again detained for hours at the police station in Besiktas. What the old Turkish state is once again brutally defending there is quickly obvious at Türkerler Holding: foreign financial capital. What Kazım Türker, head of the company, describes as „removing the obstacles that national and international investors have encountered in Turkey“, through which „Turkey is becoming a regional centre of attraction“, and as the „ideal of a ‚strong Turkey and a strong economy‘ as a compass for investors“, shows once again that it is the will of the imperialists, and not solely that of an openly reactionary president, that the Turkish people are exploited and oppressed.
