- Katılım
- Ocak 16, 2025
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Bilge Su YILDIRIM
Today marks the 15th anniversary of the largest mass work stoppage in Turkey since 12 September—the nationwide general strike. It has been 15 years since the TEKEL Resistance, one of the most significant mass mobilizations in Turkish working-class history and a pivotal moment that created a rupture in the Republic’s political trajectory.
The 78-day resistance in Ankara against the privatization of TEKEL factories not only revived the labor movement, which had been systematically suppressed since 12 September, but also became the largest mass uprising against the AKP, which was then in its seventh year in power. In fact, just three years after this resistance, the Gezi Resistance—the most extensive popular uprising in the country's history—erupted with all its enthusiasm and determination.
In late 2009, TEKEL’s cigarette factories privatized and sold to British American Tobacco for 1.7 billion dollars. While the company announced that it would lay off workers, the AKP government refused to transfer the workers to other public institutions. Instead, it proposed Article 4/C, which would place workers on temporary contracts with half the wages and no job security. Ten thousand workers were set to be dismissed on 31 January 2010 and transferred to 4/C status. The resistance began as workers refused to accept these harsh conditions. Thousands traveled to the capital to defend their rights, without even buying a return ticket and 'turned winter into spring' in the bitterest days of the Ankara frost.
On 15 December 2009, 6,000 TEKEL workers gathered in Ankara and attempted to march to the AKP Headquarters but were blocked. The workers continued their protest in Abdi İpekçi Park and were intervened by the police the next day. However, the voice of the TEKEL workers began to spread in waves across the country. On 22 December, they set up tents in Abdi İpekçi Park, and by 25 December, unions and confederations staged a one-hour work stoppage. On 28 December, the Türk-İş Presidents' Assembly met and marched from Güvenpark to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. On the first day of 2010, then Prime Minister Erdoğan dismissed the 10,000 protesting workers in the resistance tents, claiming: ‘These are 300-500 people.’
Workers did not give up. On 8 January, 42 TEKEL workers chained themselves in front of the AKP headquarters, and on 15 January they started a 3-day sit-in strike. On 17 January, TEKEL workers' words of resistance echoed through the streets of the capital. A rally of 100 thousand people was organised in Sıhhiye Square. The wall of fear had cracked -TEKEL workers would not give up, and the whole country was standing by their side and demanding their rights.
Finally, on 4 February 2010, the biggest work stoppage after 12 September was carried out and a one-day general strike was held across the country.
Suat Karlıkaya, an Organization Specialist at Tekgıda-İş and a young TEKEL worker at the time, spoke to BirGün about the TEKEL Resistance—one of the most significant uprisings in the history of the Turkish working-class movement. Underlining that the most important legacy of the TEKEL Resistance is the lesson that “if those who seek their rights come together and struggle, anything can be done, anything can be overcome”, Karlıkaya said:
"In those days, just like today, the assets of the Republic were being sold. TÜPRAŞ, TEKEL, Sugar Factories... As TEKEL workers, while we were seeking our rights, we were also opposing the looting of what was left of the Republic. AKP is a government that is already under the guidance of imperialism and has been trying to open up space for its own capital by undermining the values of the Republic from the very beginning. Unfortunately, TEKEL was sold, but that resistance in Ankara, which lasted 78 days, left a lot of things behind, such as the right to leave, an increase in wages. But I think the most important lesson it left behind was to show the public what struggle can make possible. We had a slogan during the resistance: ‘If KAVEL is the spark, TEKEL is the fire that burns.’ Today, the fire that TEKEL lit may have burnt out, but it only takes a single spark to rekindle that fire. As a matter of fact, when we look at the course of the country, it is not difficult to see that the days when this fire will blaze again are not far away."
∗∗∗
Another TEKEL worker, Tekin İşlekoğlu, the “Tekin brother” of the young workers, who was at the centre of the capital in those days. Reflecting on the 78 days that were kept warm by the fire of solidarity, İşlekoğlu described the movement as: "It was the cleanest, clearest resistance ever seen in the history of Turkey". İşlekoğlu continued:
"Our action was just, it was for labour, for sweat of the brows. In fact, we had the opportunity to succeed, but it was broken as a result of the attitude of some friends in the resistance. We did our best, but sometimes doing your best doesn't help either. Nevertheless, there was such a beautiful, sincere and friendly atmosphere in the capital. Sensitive people were with us. We saw people from other cities jumping on buses and trains and coming to support us. They came from far away to support us, to be a voice for us. There were young friends, in the cold and frost of Ankara, never letting our tea or soup run out, sometimes staying awake through the night to support us. We were all together for 78 days in the middle of the Ankara winter, for our rights, for labour, for bread... I was born in '64, I am 60 years old. If the same thing happened today, I wouldn't think twice, I would do the same. TEKEL was such a stance, what else can I say..."
Ayten Yarılan and Hülya Okatar, who travelled to Ankara to defend their rights, spoke about that winter. Yarılan said, “If it were today, I would go again without a second thought,” while Okatar said “Such a spirit of struggle is ours.”
Yarılan said: “I think it was the last labour protest of this magnitude that the country saw under the AKP rule. Of course, there are those who do not give up now, like the Polonez workers. But they have created such an empire of fear that no one can move.”
Okatar, picking up where Yarılan left off, shared her own experience: “We were separated from our children for months. I'll never forget, I couldn't sleep for 3 nights, and lastly I started hallucinating with my eyes open.”
Yarılan added: “We stayed in a nylon tent, snowmelt running underneath us.”
Okatar continued as follows: “A police officer squatted down and sprayed pepper spray right into my eyes. I already have asthma, I thought I was going to die. We were the last ones to leave the resistance area. The outcome is debatable, but we didn't give in to all the pressure, and that's what remains of those days.”
Mustafa Türkel, President of Tekgıda-İş Union, who had just been elected to office when the resistance began. Reflecting on Turkey’s history of privatization since the Özal era, he remarked: “After Özal, every leader who came to power declared, ‘I will push privatization even further’—and they did. Turkey was trapped in a ruthless spiral of privatization.” Türkel continued:
“It was perhaps the first days of the looting order that the AKP is still building today. Public factories were looted for nothing, as if they were rented out. The process had actually started in the 90s. The tobacco factory in Akhisar was sold before it was even opened, and the fate of the factory in Maltepe, İstanbul was the same. Subsequently, factories in Tokat and İstanbul were tried to be privatised. We prevented the sale in Tokat in '97 with a demonstration of 40 thousand people. However, they did not stop. With the change in the government, privatisation accelerated. Factories were sold for nothing. This is how the process leading to the TEKEL Resistance began. We struggled for days, months, years. First labour factories were sold, then leaf tobacco, then cigarettes... Eventually, only one cigarette factory remained. That's how the resistance started, because there was nowhere left to go. We bought a one-way ticket to Ankara.
At first the resistance was underestimated, even the attitude of the General Assembly of Türk-İş was “They will stop for a day or two and leave”. I'll never forget when we were on guard duty, they came and said, “We will arrange a hotel for our women friends.” I said, “How many days will you be able to accommodate them?” I got the answer, “You will leave in a few days anyway.” I said then, 'You are wrong. We are determined, we will resist. The workers were about to overcome their fate, we were on the eve of victory over the AKP government. We used to call our friends “the last mohicans of the working class”. After many years, the wall of fear had been overcome. But if 8,000 workers had been able to stand, the history of privatisation in the country would have changed. Left, socialist organisations, democracy forces and sensitive citizens embraced the resistance more than the workers. Students came and ironed their own socks and clothes before bringing them back to us. In my opinion, it is the students and citizens who made history, who did not leave the workers alone in the cold of Ankara.”
Note: This text has been translated from the article Ankara ayazını ısıtan ateş: TEKEL direnişi 15 yaşında published in BirGün newspaper on February 4, 2025.
Today marks the 15th anniversary of the largest mass work stoppage in Turkey since 12 September—the nationwide general strike. It has been 15 years since the TEKEL Resistance, one of the most significant mass mobilizations in Turkish working-class history and a pivotal moment that created a rupture in the Republic’s political trajectory.
The 78-day resistance in Ankara against the privatization of TEKEL factories not only revived the labor movement, which had been systematically suppressed since 12 September, but also became the largest mass uprising against the AKP, which was then in its seventh year in power. In fact, just three years after this resistance, the Gezi Resistance—the most extensive popular uprising in the country's history—erupted with all its enthusiasm and determination.
In late 2009, TEKEL’s cigarette factories privatized and sold to British American Tobacco for 1.7 billion dollars. While the company announced that it would lay off workers, the AKP government refused to transfer the workers to other public institutions. Instead, it proposed Article 4/C, which would place workers on temporary contracts with half the wages and no job security. Ten thousand workers were set to be dismissed on 31 January 2010 and transferred to 4/C status. The resistance began as workers refused to accept these harsh conditions. Thousands traveled to the capital to defend their rights, without even buying a return ticket and 'turned winter into spring' in the bitterest days of the Ankara frost.
On 15 December 2009, 6,000 TEKEL workers gathered in Ankara and attempted to march to the AKP Headquarters but were blocked. The workers continued their protest in Abdi İpekçi Park and were intervened by the police the next day. However, the voice of the TEKEL workers began to spread in waves across the country. On 22 December, they set up tents in Abdi İpekçi Park, and by 25 December, unions and confederations staged a one-hour work stoppage. On 28 December, the Türk-İş Presidents' Assembly met and marched from Güvenpark to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. On the first day of 2010, then Prime Minister Erdoğan dismissed the 10,000 protesting workers in the resistance tents, claiming: ‘These are 300-500 people.’
Workers did not give up. On 8 January, 42 TEKEL workers chained themselves in front of the AKP headquarters, and on 15 January they started a 3-day sit-in strike. On 17 January, TEKEL workers' words of resistance echoed through the streets of the capital. A rally of 100 thousand people was organised in Sıhhiye Square. The wall of fear had cracked -TEKEL workers would not give up, and the whole country was standing by their side and demanding their rights.
Finally, on 4 February 2010, the biggest work stoppage after 12 September was carried out and a one-day general strike was held across the country.
SUAT KARLIKAYA: THE ASHEN FIRE WILL BE RE-IGNITED
Suat Karlıkaya, an Organization Specialist at Tekgıda-İş and a young TEKEL worker at the time, spoke to BirGün about the TEKEL Resistance—one of the most significant uprisings in the history of the Turkish working-class movement. Underlining that the most important legacy of the TEKEL Resistance is the lesson that “if those who seek their rights come together and struggle, anything can be done, anything can be overcome”, Karlıkaya said:
"In those days, just like today, the assets of the Republic were being sold. TÜPRAŞ, TEKEL, Sugar Factories... As TEKEL workers, while we were seeking our rights, we were also opposing the looting of what was left of the Republic. AKP is a government that is already under the guidance of imperialism and has been trying to open up space for its own capital by undermining the values of the Republic from the very beginning. Unfortunately, TEKEL was sold, but that resistance in Ankara, which lasted 78 days, left a lot of things behind, such as the right to leave, an increase in wages. But I think the most important lesson it left behind was to show the public what struggle can make possible. We had a slogan during the resistance: ‘If KAVEL is the spark, TEKEL is the fire that burns.’ Today, the fire that TEKEL lit may have burnt out, but it only takes a single spark to rekindle that fire. As a matter of fact, when we look at the course of the country, it is not difficult to see that the days when this fire will blaze again are not far away."
∗∗∗
TEKİN İŞLEKOĞLU: “IF IT HAPPENED AGAIN TODAY, I WOULD STILL BE AT THE FRONT”
Another TEKEL worker, Tekin İşlekoğlu, the “Tekin brother” of the young workers, who was at the centre of the capital in those days. Reflecting on the 78 days that were kept warm by the fire of solidarity, İşlekoğlu described the movement as: "It was the cleanest, clearest resistance ever seen in the history of Turkey". İşlekoğlu continued:
"Our action was just, it was for labour, for sweat of the brows. In fact, we had the opportunity to succeed, but it was broken as a result of the attitude of some friends in the resistance. We did our best, but sometimes doing your best doesn't help either. Nevertheless, there was such a beautiful, sincere and friendly atmosphere in the capital. Sensitive people were with us. We saw people from other cities jumping on buses and trains and coming to support us. They came from far away to support us, to be a voice for us. There were young friends, in the cold and frost of Ankara, never letting our tea or soup run out, sometimes staying awake through the night to support us. We were all together for 78 days in the middle of the Ankara winter, for our rights, for labour, for bread... I was born in '64, I am 60 years old. If the same thing happened today, I wouldn't think twice, I would do the same. TEKEL was such a stance, what else can I say..."
WOMEN WHO LEAVED THEIR HOME BEHIND TO RESIST
Ayten Yarılan and Hülya Okatar, who travelled to Ankara to defend their rights, spoke about that winter. Yarılan said, “If it were today, I would go again without a second thought,” while Okatar said “Such a spirit of struggle is ours.”
Yarılan said: “I think it was the last labour protest of this magnitude that the country saw under the AKP rule. Of course, there are those who do not give up now, like the Polonez workers. But they have created such an empire of fear that no one can move.”
Okatar, picking up where Yarılan left off, shared her own experience: “We were separated from our children for months. I'll never forget, I couldn't sleep for 3 nights, and lastly I started hallucinating with my eyes open.”
Yarılan added: “We stayed in a nylon tent, snowmelt running underneath us.”
Okatar continued as follows: “A police officer squatted down and sprayed pepper spray right into my eyes. I already have asthma, I thought I was going to die. We were the last ones to leave the resistance area. The outcome is debatable, but we didn't give in to all the pressure, and that's what remains of those days.”
MUSTAFA TÜRKEL, PRESIDENT OF TEKGIDA İŞ: ‘THE HISTORY OF PRIVATIZATION COULD HAVE CHANGED’
Mustafa Türkel, President of Tekgıda-İş Union, who had just been elected to office when the resistance began. Reflecting on Turkey’s history of privatization since the Özal era, he remarked: “After Özal, every leader who came to power declared, ‘I will push privatization even further’—and they did. Turkey was trapped in a ruthless spiral of privatization.” Türkel continued:
“It was perhaps the first days of the looting order that the AKP is still building today. Public factories were looted for nothing, as if they were rented out. The process had actually started in the 90s. The tobacco factory in Akhisar was sold before it was even opened, and the fate of the factory in Maltepe, İstanbul was the same. Subsequently, factories in Tokat and İstanbul were tried to be privatised. We prevented the sale in Tokat in '97 with a demonstration of 40 thousand people. However, they did not stop. With the change in the government, privatisation accelerated. Factories were sold for nothing. This is how the process leading to the TEKEL Resistance began. We struggled for days, months, years. First labour factories were sold, then leaf tobacco, then cigarettes... Eventually, only one cigarette factory remained. That's how the resistance started, because there was nowhere left to go. We bought a one-way ticket to Ankara.
At first the resistance was underestimated, even the attitude of the General Assembly of Türk-İş was “They will stop for a day or two and leave”. I'll never forget when we were on guard duty, they came and said, “We will arrange a hotel for our women friends.” I said, “How many days will you be able to accommodate them?” I got the answer, “You will leave in a few days anyway.” I said then, 'You are wrong. We are determined, we will resist. The workers were about to overcome their fate, we were on the eve of victory over the AKP government. We used to call our friends “the last mohicans of the working class”. After many years, the wall of fear had been overcome. But if 8,000 workers had been able to stand, the history of privatisation in the country would have changed. Left, socialist organisations, democracy forces and sensitive citizens embraced the resistance more than the workers. Students came and ironed their own socks and clothes before bringing them back to us. In my opinion, it is the students and citizens who made history, who did not leave the workers alone in the cold of Ankara.”
Note: This text has been translated from the article Ankara ayazını ısıtan ateş: TEKEL direnişi 15 yaşında published in BirGün newspaper on February 4, 2025.