European Trade Union Committee for Education

EGITIM SEN keeps on fighting for the respect of human and trade union rights all over the country. "We will win" said Mesut Firat at the opening session of the General Assembly that took place in Ankara from May 26 to 28 with 515 delegates. While pointing out the difficult period  that the education union is going through, especially after the April referendum, Kamuran Karaca, the President of Egitim Sen emphasized the fact that "the organisation has never stopped fighting for democracy, equality and peace...  Anyone who is an opponent to the Turkish authorities is targeted by repressive measures". The education personnel who are facing pressures, threats and intimidations are still determined to resist all the punitive measures such as suspensions, dismissals and confiscation of passports. During the General Assembly, the delegates urged again the Turkish government to put an end to the state of emergency and return dismissed and suspenders teachers and workers in general to their posts. This means that they should have access to to fair and independent appeal procedures.

A strong message of support was also conveyed by the President of  the Confederation KESK, Lami Ozgen who stated that "despite all  the attacks, workers  will not yield". He also mentioned that, as an important backbone within the Confederation, Egitim Sen is playing an important role in setting up future strategies .

In such a context, solidarity is more than ever necessar. This is the reason why EI-ETUCE along with KTOEOS and DAU-SEN (Cyprus), DLF (Denmark), SNES-FSU (France),OLME and DOE (Greece), NASUWT (United Kingdom), GEW (Germany) and AOB (the Netherlands) attended the Assembly.

In her address to Congress, Odile Cordelier , Vice-president of ETUCE reasserted that "EI and its European region  ETUCE stand firmly with its member organisation and the Turkish community as a whole ... The  European trade union movement is actively backing  Egitim Sen in its fight for the preservation and respect of human and trade union rights and freedoms, quality education, women rights , academic freedom, university autonomy , the rule of law and justice as well as people's dignity".