Date: Thu, 16 Jan 97 20:24:20 CST
/** labr.global: 390.0 **/
** Topic: Turkish Workers Protest Corruption **
From: Institute for Global Communications <labornews@igc.apc.org>
/* Written 1:54 PM Jan 10, 1997 by tabe@ozgurluk.xs4all.nl in igc:misc.activism. */
/* ---------- "Thousands march to protest corrupti" ---------- */
Thousands march to protest corruption in Turkey
January 5, 1997
12.42 p.m. EST (1742 GMT)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Nearly 100,000 workers marched in the Turkish capital Sunday to press for anti-corruption measures after reports linking mobsters, politicians, and police.
"We are here to show the gangs trying to overtake our government that we, the workers, are the real owners,'' said Bayram Meral, head of Turkey's largest confederation of labor unions, which organized the rally.
A November traffic accident involving a car carrying a legislator, a police chief, a wanted hitman and a beauty queen, drew allegations of state ties to the underworld.
The fugitive was Abdullah Catli, who allegedly provided a gun and false passport to Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981.
The scandal has already cost the jobs of an interior minister, several police chiefs and officers, who were accused of ties to Catli.
Workers marching Sunday also expressed their dissatisfaction with the 7-month-old Islamic-led government on many fronts, including soaring inflation and what they said were attempts to undermine secularism.
Police said they detained 26 people suspected of belonging to outlawed leftist groups.
Classwar in Turkey and Kurdistan: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ozgurluk
Kurtulus Nachrichten Zentrale: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ozgurluk/knz
Turkey Mailinglist Mirror: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ozgurluk/ml.html
KURTULUS HAFTALIK SIYASI GAZETE: http://www.kurtulus.com