An investigation was launched against the Education and Science Workers' Union (Eğitim Sen) for supporting the protests that started after the arrest of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The union had decided to organise a one-day boycott after İmamoğlu's arrest.

 

Within the scope of the investigation initiated by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, members of the union's Central Executive Board were sentenced to house arrest. In reaction to this situation, the Nationalist Workers' Committees (Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak-LAB) from the Basque published a written statement on its official website.

 

The statement reads: "The attacks and pressures launched by the judiciary, under the control of the Turkish government, against members of Eğitim Sen’s central executive board attempt to silence voices opposing the government’s strategy.

 

This judicial initiative is a clear attack on freedom of association and free expression and is part of the repressive attempts that the Turkish government has long launched against social, political, and union movements, as well as against national and religious minorities that do not share the aforementioned government’s autocratic roadmap.

 

In the face of the Turkish government’s repressive and criminal strategy, the grassroots and union sectors remain steadfast in their demands for justice and in defense of their rights. Therefore, we want to express our solidarity and full support to the comrades of the Eğitim Sen union, as well as to the mobilizations called by the union movement, demonstrating that they are once again willing to confront, with the tools at their disposal and the legitimacy, support, and will of the working class, the reactionary and repressive measures of the current Turkish government.

 

From LAB del País Vasco, we want to express our fraternal and sincere support for their struggle, which also serves as an example to expose the neoliberal, far-right, and authoritarian model of the current Turkish political system."