MAY DAY EVENTS

DİSK introduces bianet’s ‘1 May 1977’ book

“The voices of those who lost their loved ones/ 1 May '77 and Impunity” book by Tuğçe Yılmaz from bianet, a special issue by LeMan, a new song adapted from Nazım Hikmet's poem... “We are approaching May Day with enthusiasm.”

İstanbul

DİSK introduces bianet’s ‘1 May 1977’ book

* Photo: bianet

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Ahead of May Day, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) introduced this year's events in a conference held in Şişli Nazım Hikmet Culture and Arts House yesterday (April 28).

Attended by DİSK Chair Arzu Çerkezoğlu and General Secretary Adnan Serdaroğlu, the conference also featured the "1 May '77: The voices of those who lost their loved ones/ 1 May '77 and Impunity" book prepared by Tuğçe Yılmaz from bianet, a special issue prepared by LeMan humor magazine for May Day and the new song "Today is May 1" adapted from a poem by Nazım Hikmet Ran and composed by Ozan Çoban and Güneş Demir.

The event was also followed by Nadire Mater, the Chair of IPS Communication Foundation and bianet Project Advisor, and Sami Evren, who contributed to bianet's book on May 1, 1977.

Longing for the squares

Speaking at the conference, DİSK Chair Arzu Çerkezoğlu reminded the audience that this year's May Day will not be celebrated in squares due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

"The working and living conditions of Turkey's working class are getting even worse," Arzu Çerkezoğlu said, underlining that "both their rage against the destruction caused by the outbreak and their enthusiasm for the May Day celebrations are still very high."

"We continue holding May Day events with the widest participation, from workplaces to houses," noted Çerkezoğlu, reiterating that "the struggle of Turkey's working class for May Day is a struggle to free Taksim."

"We have a new May Day song this year. We share our longing for squares and our belief for the days when we will sing this anthem with hundreds of thousands of people," Çerkezoğlu indicated further.

bianet talked about May 1, 1977

At the press conference, Tuğçe Yılmaz also presented her book "1 May '77: The voices of those who lost their loved ones/ 1 May '77 and Impunity", which was published in Turkish and English on April 6.

Yılmaz shared information about the preparation phase and content of the book which specifically focuses on the unheard stories of the ones who lost their lives on May 1, 1977 through the accounts of their loved ones and the articles penned by the witnesses of the time, educators and legal professional regarding the impunity that followed the massacre.

Noting that the information as to the number of people who lost their lives is not certain, Yılmaz said that "according to the autopsy reports that we could obtain via the Social History Research Foundation of Turkey (TÜSTAV), the number of the deceased is 34."

Indicating that the identity of one of these 34 people is unknown, as the autopsy report refers to him as an unidentified man around the age of 35, Yılmaz said, "Six of the deceased are teachers, seven of them, including an 11-year-old, are students, 16 of them are workers, three of them are health workers and one is a police officer. Five lost their lives with bullets and 29 by being crushed. From the age of 11 to 60... Their age average is 30."

Stories of 27 people

Talking about the content of the book, Tuğçe Yılmaz said that the first part consists of the interviews done with the loved ones of those who lost their lives in İstanbul's Taksim on May 1, 1977.

Noting that "she unfortunately could not do face-to-face interviews due to the outbreak," she said that she could only speak to Zekiye Eyi, the son of Bayram Eyi, in a face-to-face interview, adding that the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Turkey right afterwards.

Sharing information about the course of other interviews, Yılmaz said that "in this uncompleted work, we now have information about the stories of 27 people who were killed in Taksim" on May Day of 1977.

She added that "what happened on May 1, 1977 is among the 'severe violations' listed by the Council of Europe as extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, neglects that risk lives and health by the state."

"What happened on May 1, 1977 also meets the titles of 'right to justice', 'right to know the truth', 'right to compensation', 'guarantee of non-recurrence,' as materialized in various human rights conventions that were signed by Turkey and in the texts of local and global rights organizations."

Tuğçe Yılmaz further underlined that "it is, in fact, a great problem that despite all these, the massacre has not been brought into light for the past 44 years and we do not have definite information regarding the number of people who lost their lives in the massacre."

* Tuğçe Yılmaz is speaking

Impunity

Within this context, Yılmaz stressed that the second part of the book specifically focuses on the issue "impunity."

In the second part entitled "1 May 1977 and Impunity," DİSK chairpersons Süleyman Çelebi, Kani Beko, and Arzu Çerkezoğlu, one of the DİSK secretary generals, Fehmi Işıklar, and Eğitim-Sen Chairperson Nejla Kurul wrote on what happened in the '77 May Day and impunity.

Reminding the audience that the case was dropped due to statutory limitations, Tuğça Yılmaz underlined that "even though the perpetrators are obvious, the revolutionaries and democrats are put on trial in court cases held for show." She stressed that "a public official or a state official who was on duty at the time is never put on trial" over what happened on May 1, 1977.

* From "The voices of those who lost their loved ones/ 1 May '77 and Impunity"

From May 1, 1977 to October 10, 2015...

At this point, Tuğçe Yılmaz emphasized that "when we look at May 1, 1977, we - in fact - see why the perpetrators of the massacres that we have recently witnessed are not put on trial. "The perpetrators are known and they are - of course - protecting one another with a highly broad protective shield," she said, briefly adding the following remarks:

"With a brief research, one can see who was on duty in those days, who got away with this without a trial, one can see how they all got away with it.

"But, instead of doing this, they try the revolutionary and democrat people who lost their loved ones on May 1, 1977. Speaking about the ones who died on May 1, they say, 'They crushed one another, they shot one another', as if they had started to run around all for no reason.

"The Ankara Massacre on October 10 is cited as one of the bloodiest massacres in Turkey's history. The massacre of May 1, 1977 was committed with almost the same motives, it has the same traumatic effect on all of us."

Special issue by LeMan

LeMan humor magazine, together with the DİSK, also prepared a special issue for May Day, it came out yesterday (April 28).

Speaking about the special issue of the LeMan, DİSK Chair Arzu Çerkezoğlu said, "Humor is always a part of our lives. Humor has been resisting against tyranny and injustice in this land for centuries. What is told in this issue of Leman is - in fact - the story of us."