Turkish unions to march in Ankara to denounce corruption allegations

ISTANBUL – Cihan News Agency

Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK) General Secretary Arzu Çerkezoğlu makes a statement in Istanbul's Galatasaray Square, Jan. 9. AA photo

Several unions and NGOs will march in Ankara on Jan. 11 to denounce the government over massive corruption allegations.

The organizers of the march, called “The Freedom, peace, democracy, justice and labor rally,” include the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK), the Turkish Chamber of Architects and Engineers (TMMOB) and the Turkish Medical Association (TTB).

A group of representatives of the unions revealed their slogan for the rally during a gathering in Istanbul’s Galatasaray Square Jan. 9, namely, “There cannot be a safe wheel in a broken system.”

“Join us and let’s shout together our revolt … Let’s clean this filth [together],” DİSK General Secretary Arzu Çerkezoğlu said during the press statement on behalf of the organizers.

“Those partners of interest who have repeated their chorus ‘we walk together on these roads’ at their rallies yesterday and who allocated themselves all the state institutions are now divulging their filth one by one,” she said in reference to the feud between the government and its erstwhile ally, the movement of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

The latter’s followers, who are known to hold key position inside the police and the judiciary, are said to be behind the damaging probes targeting business and political circles close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). In response, the government has stage an unprecedented purge of the police forces and has moved to increase its control over the judiciary.

The march is set to start at 9:30 a.m. at the Ankara hippodrome in Yenimahalle and will conclude at Sıhhıye Square in the center of the Turkish capital at around noon.