BY MAHMUT OVUR
SABAH- Today is May 1, the holiday of workers. Unfortunately, workers in Turkey are unable to celebrate and enjoy this holiday, because the Turkish state doesn't trust its people and wants to put pressure on it. Let's look at the recent discussions. Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies challenge laborers and workers with the same understanding. This same stubbornness can be seen not only in banning celebrations of May 1 at Istanbul's Taksim Square, but in the headscarf issue, the Kurdish and Alawi issues, and even party closure cases. We produce no solutions, only problems. But in modern democracies all over the world, May 1 is celebrated the way it deserves. In Turkey, efforts were made to make people forget this date by painting it as just a spring festival. This should change.
Today everybody who defends democracy and supports Turkey's European Union membership should confront the dark 1977 incident in Taksim which left 37 people dead (through shooting and trampling by a panicked crowd). Those who ignore it will be unable to fight such gangs as Ergenekon which today threaten democracy and civilization. Maybe we can't get rid of coups and tensions. Turkey has to confront those who turned May 1 into a blood bath, when I too experienced the danger of being crushed. As long as we fail to confront this, the figures who committed a massacre on May 1 re-emerge by brazenly attacking the Council of State, assassinating Hrant Dink, and committing murders at Malatya's Zirve Bookstore.
The current situation is hard to grasp. Let's say that in the past, perhaps dark powers used to stoke societal tension by raising the fear of leftists or communists taking power. But what about today? Today, we live in a global age and Turkey and the world have changed so much since the 1990s, including the workers' movement and socialist thinking. Only the state remained the same, and it resists change. Actually, the state is afraid of May 1. If it didn't, would celebrations of May 1 in Taksim Square be banned? Such an approach can never ensure democratization and a transparent state.