Turkish Student Union needs international support

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday November 11, 2009 12:29 by Sevinc Karaca - WSM Intl Personal Capacity

Turkish Student Union face a legal case

In its 30 years strugle to form itself Turkish Student Union face another legal setback by the state.

Here is info

SOLIDARITY WITH THE STUDENT UNION OF TURKEY

The Governorship of Istanbul on behalf of the Ministry of Interior has
brought a court case against GENÇ-SEN claiming that the “Trade Union
Act no. 2821 does not provide for the freedom of association for
students”. The first hearing of the case was on 10th July 2008. The
next and the fifth one will be on 17 November 2009.

The attempt to ban GENÇ-SEN is a blatant attack on the fundamental
right of freedom of association. There are student unions all over the
world. The right of students to form a union is provided for by duly
ratified international conventions and clause 90 of the Constitution.

Turkey’s first student union GENÇ-SEN was founded in December 2007 and
instantly attracted great interest across the country and brought
students together. Branch and membership figures grew beyond our
expectations.

However since its foundation our branches were attacked one by one.
Branch meetings were unlawfully barred posters and leaflets
confiscated. Moreover some state officials again completely
arbitrarily declared some of our branches ‘illegal’. Now such attacks
have taken a leap towards banning our union altogether.

The attack on our union and the freedom of association is neither
unique nor a local exception. The local representatives of global
powers that privatize and restructure education systems according to
neo-liberal policies are trying to clear the market of each and every
opposition. But they will not succeed. The attacks are rampaging
globally but our fight back is global too.

Hence our fight against these attacks should not just be a local
affair. We call upon your solidarity. As a first step please fax
protest letters to the Ministry of Interior and the Governorship of
Istanbul. Also you are welcome to Ýstanbul for the hearing on 17th
November 2009.

Thank you for you support.

Ministry of Interior, Fax: 0090 3124181795
Governorship of Ýstanbul, Fax: +90 212 512 20 86