SOLIDARITY CALL TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OF ENGINEERS, ARCHITECTS AND CITY PLANNERS

Our colleagues, members and board members of the union of chambers - engineers, architects and city planners- are subject to the oppression of Turkish government by Justice and Development Party (JDP/AKP) during the state of emergency.

We would like to emphasize why this call for international solidarity is significant and urgent. State of emergency declared on July 2016, was ended on 18th July 2018. However authoritarian and unlawful rules of state of emergency that has been causing numerous violations of human rights, are still in use and the political power increases human rights violation with numerous new laws in addition to the decree-laws. Thus, even though the state of emergency ended on 18th July 2018, there is an increasing public concern about the continuation of unlawful conditions that threatens human rights in Turkey. The aim of this letter is to inform international society and call for international public awareness, and ask for solidarity with our colleagues.

State of emergency was declared in Turkey, just after the failed coup-attempt on 15th July 2016, to fight against Gülen Organisation. As it is known, the state of emergency can only be declared under exceptional circumstances and it’s power should be limited in scope to deal with defined threat -in this case Gulen Organization- without violating fundamental human rights of the citizens. However, the state of emergency which was in practice in between 20th July 2016 and 18th July 2018, took a different pattern through violating fundamental laws and exceeded its intended limits. It has become obvious that political power misused its power generated from state of emergency to oppress the society in a a revanchist manner. 129410 public officers - almost 3000 of them are engineers, architects and city planners- were purged and banned from public works by fifteen (15) different governmental decrees implemented during the state of emergency. Furthermore, “Academics for Peace” were also purged from the universities through decree-laws. Without any judicial process and legitimate excuse, our colleagues are subjected to a long, uncertain and heavy punishment. These processes has been done through violating wide range of essential human rights such as right to fair trial, education, labour, healthcare, international travel and settlement. Thus, they are subjected to a civic death.

From the very beginning of these executions, our union has been severely criticizing and rejecting these unlawful implementations of the political power and it has been intending to create public awareness against them (Related public statements can be visited through our official website:https://www.tmmob.org.tr/).

We are asking for an immediate act for our colleagues to return their jobs and get their basic human rights that are violated by governmental decrees of state of emergency.

We ask for your solidarity for engineers, architects and city planners dismissed under the state of emergency in Turkey. This solidarity is not only for fulfilling our professional and social responsibility, but also for strengthening our efforts to struggle for critical thinking, freedom of speech, independence of our occupations dedicated to defend humans, societies, environment and urban space.

Sincerely,

Emin Koramaz
Chairman
Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (UCTEA)