February 2010, Ankara/İstanbul:
The Turkish literary translators' association Çevbir took action in order to back the Tekel workers' fight for their rights.
On Saturday, February 20, a delegation of Çevbir members came to Ankara in order to join the nationwide Tekel Solidarity
Day and were warmly welcomed like old friends. The Çevbir delegation gave the workers three presents: a couple of books of
foreign authors translated into Turkish by Çevbir members, a nice brochure containing newspaper articles from abroad (France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, Spain, USA) about
the Tekel workers' strike, every article also being translated by Çevbir members, and a fund of about 660 TL raised from
Çevbir's members.
The Turkish government had sold Tekel holding to British American Tobacco for 1.7 billion $ in summer 2008. Now 12,000 workers of
the remaining tobacco plantation and processing plants are to lose their jobs or continue employment under much worse conditions.
So they went on strike on December 14, 2009. Solidarity demonstrations and meetings were held throughout the country and even
abroad since then. You can see some photos of the actions here.
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