ANKARA – European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) representative Pablo Sanchez Centellas remarked that the labour movement and trade unions should have a significant role in the Peace and Democratic Society Process, noting that democracy starts at the community level.

 

Union of All Municipality and Local Administration Services Employees (TÜM BEL-SEN) organized the 2nd International Symposium on Local Government, Labour, and Democracy. Participating the symposium EPSU representative Pablo Sanchez Centellas expressed his views on the significance of autonomy in peace processes.

 

Centellas expressed that it is important for symposium to occur at a time when the state was still enforcing its trustee (Kayyum) system: “Turkey should stop using trustees. This is unacceptable. It's not democratic. It's one more proof of this authoritarian drive that there is in this country. And unfortunately, this is not just the only country in the world with this being used and is more common. We really refuse this. It's bad for democracy, for equality and for social justice. In that sense we have written to the European Commission, to the representative of the EU, to the other countries saying that this is unacceptable and the EU, the international organizations and other countries should denounce the situation in Turkey.”

 

CULTURAL AND LANGUAGE IMPOSITIONS 

 

Highlighting the importance of local governments' autonomy Centellas said: “If you were in a conflict with a government or with a regime, and that government or regime was imposing certain types of policies, for instance on cultural or linguistic issues, it is very relevant that the local communities can reclaim their own culture and the management of it, and can have the funds to do it.”

 

TRUSTEES DESPITE THE PROCESS

 

Centellas indicated that Turkey should enhance the autonomy of local governments during the ongoing negotiation process, emphasizing that this is essential for public trust in the process. But he observed that the opposite is currently occurring in Turkey due to the appointment of trustees.

 

“It’s important that there are resources put at the local level to support communities and to empower communities to support themselves. In that sense the unions and the local communities have an extremely important role to play in this process. If they manage to have that, it means that the process is actually advancing. If it is only a top-level discussion in which the people on the ground are not involved, it is likely that the problems that created the conflict in the first place are not going to be tackled,” he said. 

 

IRISH EXAMPLE IN THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

 

Centellas remarked that the Peace and Democratic Society Process represented a significant opportunity and highlighted the crucial role of the labour movement in Turkey's process, similar to its role in other peace processes. 

 

He emphasized the importance of trade unions in contributing to reconstruction following a conflict period, and continued: “In Ireland, for example, after the civil war and in the Irish Republic, trade unions play a specific role, and this is because of their capacity to negotiate, discuss, integrate people, and actually find common ground. Involving unions and giving them a specific role in the peace process is important, and it is actually an acid test of its real meaning. If the government involves trade unions, peasant organizations, and professional organizations in that dialogue, it means that they are serious. If they just operate entity-to-entity without involving the rest of society, it tends to be short-sighted.”

 

MA / Deniz Karabudak