However, the political repression remained strong. The coup rounded up members of both the left and right for trial with military tribunals. Within a very short time, there were 250,000 to 650,000 people detained. Among the detainees, 230,000 were tried, 14,000 were stripped of citizenship, and 50 were executed. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people were tortured, and thousands are still missing. A total of 1,683,000 people were blacklisted. Among the prosecuted were Ecevit, Demirel, TurkeÃ...Ÿ, and Erbakan, who were incarcerated and temporarily suspended from politics.
This coup by Evren placed Turkey under martial law. There were several efforts to return the country to civilian rule after 1983 but the excesses which abounded after every liberalisation led to the imposition of states of emergency over many regions of Turkey. It wasn't until the economic shocks which affected Turkish growth in the new millennium that this unrest led to the victory of the Justice and Development party (AKP) of Istanbul's Mayor Recip Tayit Erdogan in the 2002 election. Erdogan promised reform but actually pressed forward with the Islamisation of Turkey.
The AKP oversaw an explosive increase in the budget allocated to the Religious Affairs Directorate and in the number of personnel, which has increased from 70,000 in 2002 to over 120,000 in 2014. For example, from 2010 to 2014 about 40,000 people were recruited as Quran teachers, imams, preachers and muezzins. In 2003 there were 3,000 Quran courses, but at the beginning of the school year in 2014 there were 24,757. There are now 85,000 mosques compared to 75,000 in 2003, and there are plans to build mosques at more than 80 universities; by law prayer rooms ("mescit") are required in shopping malls, cinemas, theatres and other public places. Religious high schools (imam-hatip schools) play a major role in the AKP's plans to transform Turkish society. In 2002 they had 65,000 students, but now there are about 1 million. Originally planned to train imams, their numbers far outstrip this need and instead they are intended to provide the cadres for "the new Turkey." From 2010 to 2014, there has been a 73 percent increase in the number of imam-hatip schools, and in the same period almost 1,500 general high schools have been closed and around 40,000 students have been placed in religious high schools against their will. [iv]
In April 2007, the Turkish military reiterated that they were "the absolute defenders of secularism." The AKP retaliated with a series of show trials designed to crush military and secular opposition. Around 40,000 police officers and 4,000 judges and prosecutors have been reassigned and 4,000 preparatory schools ("dershane"), many of which were managed by the Gulen movement and prepared students for university and civil service exams, have been closed. When the military resisted Erdogan he arrested the military leadership. On 22 February 2010 more than 40 officers were arrested and formally charged with attempting to overthrow the government with respect to the "Sledgehammer" plot. The accused included four admirals, a general and two colonels, some of them retired, including former commanders of the Turkish navy and air force (three days later, the former commanders of the navy and air force were released).
This rigid control of the Turkish political scene continued unabated until the 2013 mass demonstrations and sit-ins triggered by protests against the rebuilding plans for the Taksim Gezi Park. This soon expanded to a protest about the whole AKP domination of the political scene. Spurred on by social media 3.5 million of Turkey's 80 million people are estimated to have taken an active part in almost 5,000 demonstrations across Turkey connected with the original Gezi Park protest. 11 people were killed and more than 8,000 were injured, many critically. [v]
The protests and the demonstrations of the Taksim Park opposition marked the beginning of Erdogan's unchallenged control of the political process in Turkey. In the 2015 election the AKP lost its outright majority in the Parliament and is still seeking a partner party to join the AKP in governance of the country. This erosion of the AKP dominance was based on the realisation that the repressive social and industrial policies of the Turkish Government had left the country in a deteriorating state.
On the eve of the election, the government's Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) found that 22.4 percent of Turkish households fell below the official poverty line of $1,626 a month for a family of four. While national income has, indeed, risen over the past decade, much of it has gone to the wealthy and well connected. When the AKP came to power in 2002, the top 1 percent accounted for 39 percent of the nation's wealth. Today that figure is 54 percent. In the meantime, credit card debt has increased 25 fold, from 222 million liras in 2002 to 5.8 billion liras today. In 2001, Turkey was in a serious economic crisis, with the unemployment rate at 10.8 percent. Today 11.3 percent are out of work, and that figure is much higher among young people and women. TUIK estimates that over 3 million Turks are jobless, but at least another 2.5 million have given up looking for jobs. The total size of the Turkish workforce is 28 million. Women have been particularly hard hit. Over 227,000 women have been laid off in 2015. [vi] The political parties, even in opposition, are relatively powerless to confront the AKP because the mobilising arm of the working people, the trade unions, have been frozen out of power by the AKP.
Turkish workers have seen their unions virtually dismantled under the AKP government, and many have lost their collective bargaining rights. According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, unionized workers have fallen from 57.5 percent of the workforce in 2003 to 9.68 percent in 2015. And, of those unionized workers, only 4.5 percent have collective bargaining agreements. Add to this police repression, the widespread use of the subcontracting system, and a threshold of 3 percent to organize a new union, and there are few barriers to stop employers from squeezing their workforce.
Trade unions have had a history of repression in Turkey. There are four national trade union centres in Turkey. The oldest and largest is the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TÃÅ"RK-degreesÃ...ž)
- The Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TÃÅ"RK-degreesÃ...ž, founded 1952, 1.75m members)
- Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey (DdegreesSK, founded 1967, 327,000 members)
- Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (HAK-degreesÃ...ž, founded 1976, 340,000 members)
- Confederation of Public Workers' Unions (KESK, founded 1995, 300,000 members)
Turk-Is was founded in 1952 as part of the Menderes liberalisation of the Turkish economy and was closely allied to the centrist political parties throughout its history. It was the only union confederation to survive the 1980 Evren military coup. TÃÅ"RK-degreesÃ...ž claims a membership of 1.75 million, and is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation, and the European Trade Union Confederation. It is also a member of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD.
DISK was founded by Kemal Turkler, Riza Kuas, degreesbrahim Guzelce, Kemal NebioÄŸlu and Mehmet Alpdundar representing Turkiye Maden-degreesÃ...Ÿ, Lastik-degreesÃ...Ÿ, Basin-degreesÃ...Ÿ, Turkiye Gida-degreesÃ...Ÿ and Turk Maden-degreesÃ...Ÿ; unions which were until that time affiliated to Turk-degreesÃ...Ÿ, except Gida-degreesÃ...Ÿ which was independent. DdegreesSK was born at a time when relatively broader rights and freedoms had been recognized by the Constitution of 1961. The trade union acts of 1964 accepted the right of the workers to collective bargaining and strike, and revolutionary and socialist movements gained momentum in the political arena. In fact, with the exception of Mehmet Alpdundar, the founders of DdegreesSK were also among the founders of the socialist Workers Party of Turkey (TdegreesP) in 1961.
Disk began to attract other Turk-Is unions to its side. In 1970 the Turkish politicians of the Justice Party (AP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) submitted to the parliament a draft law that would endanger the existence of any other confederation than Turk-degreesÃ...Ÿ. On June 15 and 16, 1970 the workers employed at enterprises organized by DdegreesSK stopped work and started to march. This action ended with the declaration of martial law in Istanbul in the evening of June 16. DdegreesSK leaders and a large number of workers were arrested and tried at military courts.
DdegreesSK leaders were again arrested after the military intervention on 12 March
1971. On 22 July 1980 the founder of DdegreesSK and chairman of Turkiye Maden-degreesÃ...Ÿ,
Kemal Turkler was killed in front of his house in Merter, Istanbul. The public
prosecutor indicted several right-wing militants but they always escaped trial
and sentencing. With the Evren coup DISK was banned.
The 1980 military intervention severely restricted trade union activities. Following the 1980 coup, the military government prohibited collective bargaining (this lasted until May 1984). After September 12, 1980, the National Security Council suspended the activities of DdegreesSK and its affiliated unions. Their assets were confiscated and put under trustee administration. Fifty-two DdegreesSK leaders were arrested and put on trial with the demand of death penalty on the grounds that they had attempted to demolish the constitutional regime. By the time the military court delivered its verdict in 1986, the DISK trial had 1,477 defendants. The DISK trial was one of many mass trials that progressed ponderously through the military courts, presided over by high-ranking officers of the Turkish armed forces.
The trial at Istanbul Military Court 2 ended on 24 December 1986. The court sentenced 264 trade unionists and experts to sentences between five years, six months and 15 years, eight months' imprisonment. The military court decided in 1981 to close DdegreesSK and ban its members. This ruling was appealed and in 1991 the Military Court of Cassation overruled this decision and acquitted the union leaders. Thus DdegreesSK was able to resume its activities after an interval of 12 year. It was reconstituted in 1992. DdegreesSK is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation, and the European Trade Union Confederation.
The Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (HAK-degreesÃ...ž) was founded October 22, 1976. Hak-Is was founded by the Islamic MSP party of Erbakan. The union defended a sort of corporatism based on the union of employers and employees. While retaining its strong Islamic ties Hak-Is has loosened its ties with the religious political parties of Turkey and evolved towards a secular, pro-capitalism, pro-privatization union. HAK-degreesÃ...ž is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation, and the European Trade Union Confederation.
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