Five members of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) on Tuesday were taken into custody by the police in the southern Turkish city of Mersin on the grounds that they distributed newspapers in front of a factory.
The TKP members were distributing the party newspaper in front of a metal factory on January 9. The police arbitrarily and unlawfully prevented the political work while the party members were distributing newspapers during the shift time of the metal workers. The five TKP members are still in custody at a police station.
The last issue of the workers' newspaper published by the TKP is addressing Turkey’s metal workers. The newspaper calls on the metal workers to get organised against the capitalist Turkish Employers Association of Metal Industries (MESS).
As unlawful custody preventing political works have escalated during the ongoing state of emergency, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is known to have said, "We do not give permission to [workers’] strikes by taking advantage of the state of emergency."
