Two of the Chamber of City Planners members won the reemployment lawsuit they had against İBB and Beylikdüzü Municipality. They were fired because they were against the Taksim project as members of Taksim Solidarity.
İBB fired first
First, İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Subcontractor Company fired Chamber of City Planners Board Member Süleyman Balyemez on March 12th, 2012.
The reason was city planners presenting their personal objection petitions on the construction plans prepared for Taksim Square at the press statement Taksim Solidarity organized in front of İBB.
During this protest security guards recorded Süleyman Balyemez’s identity information and one week after the protest they fired him from the job he had for 7 years.
Beylikdüzü fired during the Gezi Resistance
Secondly, right after the Gezi Resistance Beylikdüzü Municipality (belonged to AKP at that time) fired Chamber of City Planners Board Member Gürkan Akgün on July 18th, 2013.
Gürkan Akgün said he got fired because of the stand Chamber of City Planners and Taksim Solidarity had during the Gezi Resistance.
Both members won the reemployment lawsuit and the right to indemnity.
"It was a political decision"
Gürkan Aygün is back to his job as a city planner at Beylikdüzü Municipality now.
He talked to bianet on this issue and said:
“I was fired because of Taksim Solidarity constituent ŞPO’s stand during the Gezi Resistance. It was a very unfair and a political decision. The court confirmed that the reasons they presented to fire me weren’t judiciary. To be clear, we were expecting this decision.”
Taksim Solidarity was founded on March 2nd 2012 to fight against the Taksim Square Project which was planning to move the Taksim traffic underground and foresee the reconstruction of the Topçu Barrack (demolished in 1939) to the Gezi Park. (NV/ENÜ)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
