Turquía - Violence against peaceful demonstrators (2010)

On 5 June, the national March of the Teachers was prevented by the police, which used excessive violence in order to do so.

On 5 October, public sector union (KESK) President Sami Evren addressed a crowd at Istanbul’s Taksim Square during a demonstration against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings that were going to be held in the city later on. Immediately after his speech, the police dispersed the crowd using tear gas and water cannons.

On 25 November, hundreds of thousands of Turkish civil servants went on strike for the first time in ten years, to defend their right to strike. The police used tear gas against young NGO members who were demonstrating in support of the strike in the streets of Ankara. Prime Minister Erdogan warned the strikers that they would have to «assume the consequences» of their «illegal movement».

On 15 December, some 10,000 workers from former tobacco and alcohol state monopoly TEKEL started demonstrating in front of the ruling party’s (AKP) offices in Ankara. After being violently driven out by the police, they continued their actions in front of the offices of Türk-Is and staged a sit-in strike to demand respect for their basic workers’ rights, as the privatisation of TEKEL had caused 12,000 workers to lose their job, and, contrary to the Turkish law on privatisation, they had not had the possibility of other positions under at least the same conditions. The TEKEL workers were continuing their actions at year’s end. Prime Minister Erdogan has shown particular intransigence towards the workers, attacking them in the media.

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