In total, 167 arrest warrants had been issued for alleged links with terrorist organisations. In the meantime, 58 of the arrested unionists have been detained, while the rest of them has been released.

We need you to increase pressure on the Turkish Government to respect human and trade union rights. Send your message to the authorities through LabourStart now:

http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1742&src=ei

Please give high visibility to the campaign by recommending it to your colleagues, to networks, to union members and friends. Post it on your website, blog, Facebook and Twitter.

This is not the first time that the Turkish authorities have used anti-terrorism laws to crack down on trade unionists. In recent years, EI protested many times against such arrests that are part of a disturbing pattern of harassment and repression against individuals and groups – many are teachers, trade unionists, journalists, political activists, or members of the human rights community – seeking to exercise their basic rights as citizens.

On 28 October 2011, 25 members of Egitim Sen and other KESK affiliates were sentenced to six years’ and five months’ imprisonment by the Izmir Criminal Court. In February 2012, 15 women union leaders were dragged from their bed and taken into custody. In June 2012, 71 union leaders and members were arrested at their homes and offices. Many of them remain in detention waiting for their trial to start in April this year, including Mehmet Bozgeyik, Egitim-Sen General Secretary, and Sakine Esen Yilmaz, Egitim-Sen Gender Secretary.

In 2012, the European Commission expressed concerns as regards the Turkish criminal justice system, and in particular regarding the limited access to the prosecution file, the failure to give detailed grounds for arrest and detention decisions, and the length of pretrial detention.  The Commission deplored the “wide application of the legal framework on terrorism and organised crime, which leads to recurring infringements (of fundamental rights)”.

We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all the arrested union members; and urge the authorities to stop harassing and labeling trade unionists as terrorists. Turkish trade unions should be allowed to play their role in a climate free from violence, pressure or threats of any kind.

Thank you for your support.