Education and Science Workers' Union (Turkey)
Eğitim Sen (Education and Science Worker's Union) is a trade union of teachers and other education workers in Turkey. It was founded on January 23, 1995. It is a member of KESK (Confederation of Public Employees Trade Unions, Education International the International Trade Union Confederation.[1][2]
Ban attempts
2004
In 2004 an attempt was initiated to shut down the organization by Attorney General of Ankara on the grounds that its statute contained the statement "...the defence [of the right] of individuals to receive education in their mother tongue", which was claimed to be against the Article 42 of the Constitution of Turkey which says that "No other language than Turkish may be taught in educational and teaching facilities to Turkish citizens as their mother tongue". The closure was demanded because Eğitim Sen refused to remove the phrase in question from its statute during the series of reforms associated with the aspiration of Turkey towards joining the European Union.[1]
After a long and controversial litigation Eğitim Sen was closed by the General Assembly of the Supreme Court of Appeal on May 25, 2005. To avoid the closure, Eğitim Sen later revoked the clause in question from its statute.[3]
2008
In 2008 however, a complaint by Adnan Oktar did lead to the banning of the organisation's website. This was a reaction to a press-release about Adnan Oktar’s Atlas of Creation, which was sent to schools free of charge.[4]
Decision of the European Court of Human Rights
In September 2012 the European Court of Human Rights ordered adjudged Turkey to pay 2,340 Euro (around 5,150 Turkish Lira) in compensation for restricting trade union activities of Güldeniz Kaya, Ahmet Seyhan and Saime Özcan, members of the Education and Science Workers Trade Union (Eğitim-Sen). Their complaint not only applied to a disregard of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees "freedom of assembly and association". Furthermore, the complaint also applied to Article 13 which defines the "right to an effective remedy".[5]
References
- Ödev Ödev Eğitim Portal - Turkiye
- ^ a b "Teachers Union Threatened With Closure Because of Controversial Laws"
- ^ Eğitim Sen website
- ^ "Amnesty Report on Turkey", a CHAK webpage
- ^ http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/109951/creationist-adnan-oktar-manages-to-shut-down-another-internet-site
- ^ Report of the independent communication network BIA on 17 September 2012 ECHR: Turkey Guilty of Disregarding Union's Rights; accessed on 29 September 2012
Further reading
- Serap Boz, "The School Teachers of Ankara" pp. 97–125 in: Erol Kahveci, Nadir Sugur, Theo Nichols (Eds) "Work and Occupation in Modern Turkey", 1996, ISBN 0-7201-2319-4, contains, in part, a brief history of Turkish trade unions of teachers
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