GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

I now hand over to our General Secretary to introduce our next guest speaker.

Thank you. (Applause)

THE GENERAL SECRETARY: The GFTU was originally the source of all the

international solidarity work of the whole of the British trade union movement,

so this is a very important section in that we keep that tradition alive and, as

Oshor said, we have particularly focused on the position in Kurdistan which is

not in the headlines every day. We have had great speakers at previous

BGCMs and it is always a privilege to introduce very brave people. Osman

Baydemir, our next speaker, was the Mayor of his home town for 10 years. He

is by training a lawyer and specialised in human rights law. As with many

human rights lawyers, trade unionists, journalists and even the judges in

Turkey, he has found himself continually up against completely unjust and

unfair allegations. Many of the judges and the lawyers and trade unionists, of

course, have been completely sacked and removed from their jobs. He was an

MP for the HDP Party in Parliament in Turkey and he has now been exiled in

effect from his home country with a range of trumped up court cases hanging

over his head. One of them is for using the letter W in correspondence,

because the letter W is a Kurdish letter, not a Turkish one and the Turks

banned the Kurds from using their own language and their own letters. So it is

a really great privilege to introduce Osman Baydemir who is going to update us

on the situation in his country. He has now been living in Brighton in exile for a

year and he has been learning English for just one year which is absolutely

incredible, so a big welcome, please, for Osman. (Applause)

MR OSMAN BAYDEMIR

OSMAN BAYDEMIR: Mr President, dear friends, sisters and brothers, thank you

very much for having me, thank you very much for the invitation and also I

would like to thank you heartily for your support. In this presentation I would

like to specify what has been happening in Turkey, mainly in the Kurdish

region, in relation to human rights abuse since the Turkish Government, under

the leadership of Recep T. Erdogan has imposed isolation upon Mr Ocalan in

Imrah Type F Closed Prison. Mr Ocalan was not allowed to see his lawyers for

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