The agenda of Hendek is the agenda of Turkey

* Photo: İbrahim Yozoğlu / AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

It is foggy. It is as if the smell of the firework factory that exploded on July 3 descended on the entire district. Everyone is complaining about the same things: Explosion, unemployment, poverty, pandemic... The last sentence of my father while I was about to leave Sakarya: The agenda of Hendek is actually the agenda of the whole Turkey.

It is Sunday. We are on our way to Hendek district of Sakarya province with my parents. We are actually headed for the engagement ceremony of my cousin, but what I also have in mind is to arrive in Hendek on time so that I can follow the press statement of Health and Safety Labor Watch and see the factory where the explosion occurred.

Things do not go as I hoped. Our journey, which started at 10 a.m. in İstanbul, ends in Hendek at around 4 p.m. as we also had to deal with other things on our way here.

After we pass Ormanköy, we start to smell something odd. My mother, sitting on the back seat, asks, "What is this smell?" The only thing that comes to our minds as an explanation is the explosion that took place in Büyük Coşkunlar Firework Factory and claimed the lives of seven people.

I ask my parents where the factory is exactly located. They point at somewhere in the left on Adapazarı-Düzce Highway. "Just a few kilometers away from here, it is right behind the hill," they say. 

My mother adds: "I talked to our relatives from Ormanköy the other day. They said there were still explosions. They could not close their windows due to those explosions. According to what they say, their windows break due to pressure. Children are afraid. Everyone is psychologically affected."

My father voices the same complaint which is, in fact, uttered by everyone: "How was it even possible? I cannot understand it. How could the state give permission to a place where seven other accidents took place in the past? Do the lives of these people have no worth at all?"

'No one talks about real issues on the agenda'

When we arrive in Hendek, the conversation takes a different direction. We take my maternal aunt with us and go to Bıçkı, a village with plenty of green in Düzce, to express our condolences to the family of a relative. Giving our condolences with paying attention to our social distance due to coronavirus, an old man that I meet there asks me, "And what do you do, son?"

After I tell him that I am a journalist, we find ourselves talking about the issues on the agenda of the country:

"Look, they have made Hagia Sophia a mosque and, now, none of the problems of the country is talked about any longer. There is no one mentioning the explosion, nor is there anyone talking about unemployment or poverty. Everything is just forgotten with a single move. There is no one talking about the real issues on the country's agenda."

He is right, I think to myself. While I first thought that there was supposed to be no troubles or worries in a village with such plenty of green, I realize that the agenda of the country affects everyone.

Having expressed our condolences in a brief visit, we get back to Hendek to attend the engagement ceremony. The ceremony is also held at the garden of a village house with plenty of green. There are not so many people. Only close friends and relatives... After spending time with my loved ones, we immerse in a conversation with relatives and acquaintances, sometimes under a tree, sometimes on a stool.

Whomever I talk to, they emphasize that Hendek is a workers' town. And it indeed is. The vast majority of 85 thousand people living in the district work in factories located in all corners of Hendek.

As for the locals, they go to work at factories during the day while doing agricultural work and/or animal husbandry in the rest of their time.

The issues that we mention in our small talk are more or less the same: The agenda of the country. "Hi Hikmet, how is it going," starts the conversation and definitely comes to the explosion in the firework factory at some point. It comes there because everyone in Hendek, a workers' town, is concerned about it in one way or another.

They all say that seven lives have been lost before the eyes of everyone, they are all afraid that they themselves or their relatives will come to harm. The question marks on their minds are the same:

- Did really seven people die?

After asking this question, they start talking about how big the explosion was. Because they do not believe that only seven people died. Numbers are given based on hearsay information and allegations. It is believed that the government hides the real number. But the conversation comes down to a point where everyone agrees that the deceased people are not numbers.

Criticisms are first directed at the government, then at the factory owners:

"A preventable explosion was not prevented."

"It was not inspected."

"The ember burnt where it fell."

"Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD) insulted the deceased workers and people of Hendek with the dinner they organized."

"The arrest of factory owners was delayed."

"The close relations between the factory owner and AKP will save him."

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Another issue: Severance pay

As we talk further, they start to mention other problems in the country. In this place which is a workers' town, one of the most frequently mentioned problems is the plans to transfer the severance pay to a fund.

Slamming the plans in a harsh tone, my cousin's wife says, "They will transfer my labor of years and years to a fund and they will give me a certain amount of it only when I will buy a house, right? And they will give me the rest in installments after I turn 60, as if giving alms... I have been working like an animal for years to deserve that money. What kind of a shamelessness is that? How unjust can they be?"

Laboring in factories for years, the people of this town raise their voices against the plans to abolish their severance pay. They raise their voices because the only way workers can get a sum of money is attempted to be taken away from them with a supposedly legal arrangement.

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Unemployment: A big problem for Hendek

The people that I talk to in Hendek say that they have been affected by coronavirus in the severest way, adding that life is gradually getting back to normal, factories are opened and they have started to go to work. However, it is not the case for everyone. Even though layoffs have been banned amid pandemic, chronic unemployment is a big problem in Hendek.

The ones I talk to here say that those who were unemployed before the pandemic broke out cannot still find a job.

Having listened to all of these, I enter a market, where I unfortunately confirm everything that was told me. There is a woman in her 30s or 40s... With her head bent, I see her buying two packs of biscuits, one loaf of bread and a surprise egg for her child. It costs 9-10 liras the most, she gives her credit card to the cashier, with her head bent even more now.

'Everyone talks about the same thing: Unemployment and poverty'

On our way back, we are talking about how happy we are for seeing our loved ones, but also how sad it was to hear the problems of people there. Then, my father asks, "Did you see?" and, pausing for a little while, he utters the following sentences that I will never forget:

"The agenda of Hendek is, in fact, the agenda of Turkey: Explosion, unemployment, poverty, economic crisis... Do you think İzmit is any different? When you go and sit in the coffeehouse, the agenda of everyone is the same. They think they have changed the agenda with Hagia Sophia, but the real agenda of the people is this. From the very west to the very east... Everyone talks about the same thing: Unemployment and poverty." (HA/SD)