‘AKP Dismissed me for Three Times, I am Resisting Again’

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Since she was discharged from public service by a Statutory Decree, Türkan Albayrak has been resisting in the park next to Sarıyer District Governorship in İstanbul. As she is taken into custody in almost all her attempts of protest, she starts her protest every morning from scratch.

Albayrak used to work as a cleaning worker at Sarıyer District Health Department. Then, on August 15, 2018, she was discharged by a Statutory Decree. "Back then, they said, 'We will hire subcontracted workers as permanent staff." I was employed as a permanent worker; four months later, I was discharged", Albayrak has told bianet.

Türkan Albayrak has also stated that her sole demand is to be reinstated in her job: "I have been resisting for a year, I have been unemployed for a year. It is no longer enough that they say, 'We made a mistake, let's take her back.' I also want them to be called to account before the law for the unlawfulness I am subjected to."

Employed permanently to be dismissed 4 months later

"The AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] dismissed me for three times. Firstly, I was dismissed from Türk Telekom in 2002. I was working there as a cleaning worker, too", Albayrak has indicated.

The resistance of Albayrak was also widely covered by the media in 2010.

Having worked there for five years as a subcontracted cleaning worker, Albayrak was dismissed from Paşabahçe Public Hospital due to her union activities on July 9, 2010. In response, she set up a tent at the hospital garden. Staging a sit-in protest under the tent for 117 days, Albayrak signed a labor contract with the Provincial Health Department and was employed as a contract laborer. Winning her lawsuit for reinstatement, Albayrak's financial losses were also compensated.

Employed as a subcontracted worker at the hospital from this time onwards, Türkan Albayrak was discharged from public service four months after she was hired as a permanent worker.

'I am resisting when I don't go to hospital'

Speaking to bianet about what she has gone through over the past year, Albayrak has stated the following in brief:

"I began the sit-in protest on last September 3, I staged a sit-in protest at the park next to Sarıyer District Governorship every weekday. I was detained almost every day, they took an action against me as per the Law on Misdemeanour, they fined me. I was taken into custody the moment I went to the park, I did not even have the opportunity to explain what I went through. I visited the resistance of other workers once a week.

"This March, my husband has been diagnosed with cancer, I took a break in my protest for some time. When his treatment process was specified, I started protesting again in May.

"I did not want to stop resisting, because I did not want to give in to the circumstances. When I do not go to the hospital, I take to the field of resistance, to the park. I am waiting everyone to support me on September 3, 2019 at 1 p.m., on the first anniversary of my resistance."

Albayrak has also indicated that she has not been made to pay the fines yet and added, "My lawyer has been objecting to these fines. Some of these objections have been accepted by local courts and the fines have been annulled. And, as for the objections that are not accepted, we have taken them to the Constitutional Court. We have not yet received any written notice about the payments." (AS/SD)

* Photographs: Twitter account of Türkan Albayrak