Memur-Sen calls for all national and international labour organizations to demonstrate a common stance against terrorism

On behalf of Turkey's labour sector, Memur-Sen Confederation sent an open letter to the representatives of labour movements in all over the world and invited all national and international labour organizations, notably the International Labour Organization (ILO) to demonstrate a common stance against terrorism and to support Turkey’s struggle against terrorist organizations namely the PKK/YPG/PYD.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

Terrorism is the Common Enemy of All Humanity

Dear Madam/Sir,

For centuries terrorism has been one of the greatest threat to peace, security, democracy and freedom. In a world where we witness more and more wars by proxies particularly since the September 11 attacks, terrorism has become a major global issue and the human cost of terrorism has been felt in virtually every corner of the globe. During the same period, we have been witnessing the use of terrorism and terrorist ideologies as a strategic tool by some states. While these states are using terrorist organizations in order to satisfy their mighty appetite on the one hand, they are using these same organizations as an excuse to break and submit the states they need to exploit.  

Many countries continue to face the problem of terrorism and fight against terrorist organizations with different ideologies. Turkey's long-going fight against PKK/YPG terrorism is the one that comes closest to this example. For the last 35 years, Turkey’s exposure to terrorism, whether directly or indirectly, has negatively affected all spheres of life. Terrorism has affected all areas of life from economy to politics, from education to public safety, from health to judiciary and has caused the deaths of more than 40,000 people in Turkey, including infants, children and women. By the fault of terrorism, many people have been forced to flee their homes and crossed the borders in search of a safer and better life.

This terrorist organisation namely PKK/YPG, Turkey had to fight starting from early 1980s, disregards human dignity, threats the State's internal and external security, targets working life, damages freedom of religion and beliefs, access to relevant information and through actions of terror targets the civilians and institutions.

In this context, to prevent terrorism and fight against it, Turkey has taken several initiatives inside and outside of its territory. The latest example of it is the "Operation Peace Spring" which was launched recently in northern Syria.

Against this backdrop, Turkey, which has a 911-kilometers (566 miles) border with Syria, launched the “Operation Peace Spring” against the terrorist group PKK /YPG in order to ensure its border’s security, the safe return of Syrian refugees on the basis of the international law, in accordance with the right to self-defence as outlined in the Article 51 of the UN Charter and the relevant Security Council resolutions and in full respect of Syria’s territorial integrity and unity.

This operation is carried out in a region, where more than 6 million people have been internally displaced and another 6 million people (Turkey alone currently hosts over 3,6 million Syrian refugees) were forced to cross national boundaries including 2.6 million children, working life has been severely destroyed and there are no more fundamental workers' rights nor working life.

As labour organizations, we have to consider the existence of terrorist organizations as the beginning of the end of ourselves. We need to carry out the fight against terrorism on a global scale with greater vehemence. States which regard themselves as the cradle of democracy must not cooperate with terrorist organizations in order to satisfy their imperialistic needs.

The same way as we cannot talk about basic rules and values of working life in Afghanistan, Palestine or Myanmar, terrorist organizations might tomorrow achieve their evil goal in our own countries. In order to prevent this from happening, we should fulfil our duties as representatives of civil society and unionists by creating pressure on our own states and societies to fight against terrorism with due vehemence.

We know that; if we do not take a coherent stance against this bloody phenomenon today, if terrorist organizations reach their ambitions in northern Syria, no one can guarantee that such terrorist organizations will not spread in the heart of Europe, America and Asia.

Being against all forms of terrorism, which is a war against humanity, is to meet with common values to all of humankind. Therefore; as long as terror will exist, working life will adversely suffer, and as long as terrorist organizations will strengthen, labour organizations will weaken.

We should recall that the main target of terrorism is all humanity and that terrorism is the common enemy of all humanity.

In this context, on behalf of Turkey's labour sector, as Memur-Sen Confederation, we invite all national and international labour organizations, notably the International Labour Organization (ILO) to demonstrate a common stance against terrorism and to support Turkey’s struggle against terrorist organizations namely the PKK/YPG/PYD.

#OperationPeaceSpring

Click for English text

Click for Arabic text

Click for French text

Click for Turkish text