Gul receives executives of unions

Head of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) Lami Ozgen, accompanied by executives from the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) and the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK) yesterday visited President Abdullah Gul. A total of 71 people, many of them high-level figures in the KESK, were detained on June 25 on charges of membership in the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), which is the alleged urban wing of the terrorist PKK. As a result, Ozgen has taken his complaints to President Abdullah Gul, calling the investigation and arrests since the operation kicked off on June 25 "unfair and illegal." Speaking to reporters following the meeting with Gul, Ozgen told reporters that he had handed over a file to the president which contained questions prosecutors had asked him and others about their union activities. Ozgen added that Gul pledged to do his part in the upcoming process and told representatives of unions that everybody should be able to voice and discuss his or her views in line with pluralism and that it would be unacceptable for a country to be described as a land of fears.