Workers fired under the pretext of fight against terrorism

"For Kurds there is no work, no food, no life. Even the dismissal of municipal workers is being portrayed as an anti-terrorist measure," says HDP MP Muazzez Orhan.

Turkish Ministry of the Interior has recently appointed trustees to seven municipalities in Van province won by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the local elections of 31 March 2019.

M. Emin Bilmez, the governor of Van who was appointed as trustee to the metropolitan municipality, made an announcement after taking office that municipal employees would not be dismissed. In spite of the assertion, 175 workers have been sacked in Van and the surrounding districts.

HDP member of parliament Muazzez Orhan is outraged by the dismissals. She points out that; “The previous governments would suppress the democratic public opinion anyway but dismissals have been made a method for the first time during the AKP government.”

She says it is unacceptable that the government is systematically dismissing public employees as part of the "fight against terrorism".

"For Kurds there is no work, no food, no life. With the system of trustees, a discriminatory policy is pursued against the population of this country. This policy is directed against the labor, income and life of the Kurdish people. They portray the dismissals as anti-terrorist measures. Having already usurped the will of voters and appointed trustees to the municipalities taken from the HDP, the AKP/MHP bloc is now attempting to discipline the people by subjecting them to hunger by means of the dismissals,” said HDP MP Muazzez Orhan.

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