Teachers protesting for rights: 'We are being discredited by the minister'

Teachers in Turkey, fighting for their rights, experienced police intervention with pepper gas on their first week of a hunger strike in Ankara. They had intended to hold a press conference in front of the Madenci Monument but were blocked by police who surrounded the headquarters of the Special Sector Teachers' Union.

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Yusuf Tekin views teachers and students as a burden. Given this, the violence we have experienced from the police is actually normal. Because we are being discredited by the minister of this country.

The following day, teachers, joined by Ankara's Labor and Democracy Forces, proceeded to the monument to make their statement. Evin Turgut, a member of the Special Sector Teachers' Union's executive board, criticized Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin, stating he sees teachers and students as a burden. Turgut described the police violence as unsurvivable, given that the minister himself is discrediting them.

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We have 10-month contracts and minimum wage salaries that we stand to lose. These are not more valuable than our dignity.

"We have 10-month contracts and minimum wage salaries that we stand to lose. These are not more valuable than our dignity," Turgut said. She described the difficulty of teaching effectively while worrying about unpaid rent and grocery shopping, as her salary is consumed by rent. Turgut addressed Minister Tekin directly, vowing that the protests would not be deterred and that they would not leave Ankara without their demands being met. She argued that granting teachers their rights would not create a precedent, but rather address widespread rights violations in the country.

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Is Yusuf Tekin's 'interview-like interview' fair?

Ayşenur Çalışkan, a teacher affected by the interview-based appointment system, questioned the fairness of Tekin's "interview-like interview" system. She recounted an interviewer telling her, "Welcome. You answered the questions very well. Did you choose which province you will be appointed to?" Çalışkan stated she was rejected despite being qualified and demanded the return of her right to be appointed. Education union leader Kemal Irmak also spoke, criticizing the presence of private sector employers, not educators, on the education policy board. He likened the situation to a mother abandoning her child and vowed that the struggle for teachers' rights would continue until they are secured.

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Teachers are demanding their rights. These are very legitimate demands. It is like a mother withholding her milk from her child and abandoning them to death. They are asking for their rights, which are as pure as their mothers' pure milk. How else can this be explained?