Businesses should welcome state of emergency because it guards against terrorism and prevents workers from going out on strike, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday.
"The state of emergency only affects terrorists. Now it's preventing labour strikes, such as the Bursa strike, which we stopped right away. It's a struggle against terrorism," Erdoğan said in a speech to the DEIK, which represents Turkey's private sector overseas.
Earlier this year Turkish AKP government stopped workers in the northwestern city of Bursa, home to the auto industry and a hub for textile manufacturing, from going out on strike.
The government this week approved the extension for another three months of the state of emergency declared in the wake of the failed putsch in 2016 against Erdoğan.
The state of emergency declared to restructure the state or to "cleanse" the members of Gülen network, one of the masterminds of the coup attempt, is not marked by the purge in the army or the jurisdiction, but it was marked by the opportunities offered to the bourgeoisie.
The number of the regulations which are passed in a month for the interest of the bourgeoisie, are equal to the regulations passed this last decade. Barbaric assault of the market forces can be seen under each decree, each law, which comes in the name of "national consensus."
Under emergency rule, strikes, protests and displays of civil disobedience can be shut down on security grounds.
However, Erdoğan said that some people were trying to use Turkey’s state of emergency to "demotivate eager investors."
“For God’s sake, has the state of emergency been used in any area except for the fight against terrorism until today?” Erdoğan asked.
The cabinet was given the right to suspend and delay strikes with a law approved in the aftermath of the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup. In 2012, Turkish AKP government adopted a "new" trade union act numbered 6356. But it merely incorporated old provisions and kept to amend strike suspension mechanisms.
The decree was based on Article 63 of Act 6356 which allows the government to suspend any strike for 60 days if it is considered a danger to "national security" and "public health". The decree is followed by a 60-day 'postponement period' for negotiations, where the parties have to agree. In practice, this means that there is no chance to continue the strike after the 60-day period.
