Turkey’s biggest unions strike to protest Ankara attack

ANKARA

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Turkey’s leading labor unions and work organizations have declared a general strike Oct. 12-13 in order to protest Oct. 10’s double suicide bombing in Ankara with an official death toll of 97 people, one of the worst in Turkey’s history. 

The Confederation of Public Sector Trades’ Unions (KESK), the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), which were the organizers of the attacked rally, called for a general strike shortly after the attack.

“To protest the fascist massacre and to commemorate the death of our friends, we are now in mourning for three days. The general strike will be on Oct. 12 and Oct. 13,” the groups said in a joint statement.

The Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which had a major presence at the march, lent support to the unions’ call.

“We should unrelentingly show every day and in every place to those who tried to silence the people who gathered in Ankara for peace, that voice of life and peace will not keep quiet,” the HDP said in a written statement released on Oct. 12.

“We are going on general strike for spreading the struggle of our people whom we lost in every field of life and with our power emanating from production,” it said. “Let’s come all together to stop life and get the voice of peace heard.”