Hazelnut Workers Depart from Diyarbakır by Train: Seasonal workers living in Diyarbakır and its surroundings set out to collect hazelnuts to Sakarya with the train journey organized today. In order to draw attention to the problems of seasonal workers, including women and children, CHP Deputy Chairman and Istanbul Deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu also took the train to Ankara. Tanrıkulu said that the workers who have the same trouble every year will not have to make this journey if there is a job in their hometown.
With the coming of the harvest season, Diyarbakır Train Station started to witness the seasonal workers' journey to hope. Hundreds of seasonal workers families who wanted to go to Sakarya to collect hazelnuts waited for the train to carry them to garda. While waiting for the train, the workers who took their children and babies with them accompanied them for the first time this year by CHP Deputy Chairman and Istanbul Deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu. Tanrikulu from the train station, in a statement to reporters, seasonal workers problem is one of Turkey's severe problems, each year, said thousands of workers or train or from regions with different means Turkey to the west of Sakarya and the Army as the provinces went nuts collection this season. Arguing that seasonal workers are subject to great discrimination during their travels and wherever they go, Tanrıkulu stated that seasonal workers have great problems regarding nutrition, shelter and working conditions. Tanrıkulu said:
“There is a problem of seasonal worker women and children being abused and their labor being exploited. I will travel with them today to draw attention to all these problems. If possible, I will try to be with them by accompanying them from Ankara to Sakarya. My goal is to draw attention to the problem that these people are experiencing as a party and to establish a commission in the Assembly to solve their problems. Indeed, no research commission has been set up in Parliament to date on the problems of traveling seasonal workers. There are problems arising from legislation and implementation. For all these to be handled comprehensively and resolved, parliament needs to take steps and guide the government. So I will travel with them 24 hours a day. Thus, I will both observe the travel conditions and talk to them and try to get information about the problems they have experienced in the past years. I want to be a partner to their problems. There is no record of seasonal workers migrating from the East and Southeast to different regions. I received the information that 10 thousand people migrate from Diyarbakır to the middle of September every year, every year. ”
“SEASONAL WORKERS WILL NOT VOTE AT ELECTION”
CHP Deputy Chairman Tanrıkulu pointed out that it is not possible for seasonal workers who immigrate to other regions to vote in the Presidential election and said, “It is wrong to hold the Presidential election in August. The law was passed in 2007 in this way. However, this needs to be corrected after the election. ”
Explaining that high-speed train services have started between Ankara and Istanbul, but commuter train services have been canceled, Tanrıkulu said, “In fact, State Railways should put a special route for seasonal workers. Because workers will go to Ankara by train, then they will continue their journey by road unhealthy. Every year, many traffic accidents occur in this way. We hope this year does not have a sad accident. I plan to visit them in the environment they work in this month. ”
CHR's Tanrıkulu said that if there are livelihoods, people will get rid of working as seasonal workers, “Prime Minister Erdoğan announced the GAP Action Plan in 2008 and said it would be completed in 4 years. The areas where these workers can work are mostly places with irrigated agriculture. While the rate of realization of irrigation channels was 13 percent at that time, this rate increased to 5 percent in the past 20 years. There are no working conditions here. We need to provide working conditions in the region. Unemployment is not resolved by the migration of these people. We need to solve the problem on the spot. We are not in power but if we do, we will try to find permanent, on-site solutions to this problem. ”
As every year, the workers, who traveled to hope to collect hazelnuts this year, complained about their problems. The workers, who said that they could not find a proper place to stay where they went, had great difficulties and even set out by borrowing their money, said that they would not go to other places if there were jobs in their living areas. Şeyhmuz Gürhan, one of the workers, said: “If we found a job in our hometown, we would not go anywhere else if there was a factory here. We have to go to feed our babies and take care of our children. If we leave the children here, then the children will go bad. Therefore, we have to take them with us as we do every year. There are those who have been on this journey for 30 years without interruption, and now we want the state to create job opportunities in our region. ”
"I am going to collect hazelnuts as seasonal workers to save Dershane money," Ayfer Çimen, who prepared for the university, said. While the seasonal workers on the train set out to go to Sakarya where they will stay for about 40 days, they hugged and said goodbye to their relatives who came to the garage to see them. The workers, who told CHP Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu about their problems in the train, stated that they would continue on the road after Ankara. It was seen that seasonal workers traveling with them also took their food with them.
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