The rulers, who deliberately turned a natural disaster such as an earthquake into a massacre, did their best to prevent the solidarity of mine and construction workers, health workers, lawyers, engineers, women, students, old and young people who mobilized starting from the morning of the earthquake.
They showed their stance against the earthquake nakedly by blocking all the aid sent by the solidarity of the people, from tents to food parcels, by selling tents and food, and attacking solidarity centers and volunteers. They are trying to remove the earthquake coordination from Pazarcık to Osmaniye and from there to Antakya, and by threatening and detaining the volunteers, they are trying to prevent solidarity and prevent the people from taking their own destiny into their own hands.
At the point we reached today, everything from health to education, from basic vital needs to keeping evidences from being obscured in the earthquake-affected regions are done with the efforts of people who say “solidarity keeps alive”. Today, honorable people are still needed in order to build stronger solidarity in the region.
Primary health care services have collapsed in the areas affected by the earthquake. Volunteer health workers have been in the area since the first day, working village by village, street by street, in order to reorganize public health and primary care. Trying to prevent this is a crime against humanity.
Volunteer lawyers work day and night against those who try to create a great corruption in all damage assessment efforts, against the abduction of files by illegal structures, against the torture of people who have lost their lives and homes in the middle of the street by the state law enforcement officers. Trying to prevent this is a crime against humanity.
Revolutionaries, patriots, socialists, women and students continue to organize solidarity with the people against all these obstacles for the organization of the needs of the people, from tents to dry food, from infirmary to heaters. Trying to prevent this is a crime against humanity.
The real power is in the volunteers, who participate in voluntary search and rescue efforts despite all the obstacles of the state, take support trucks to the earthquake zones, organize the needs of the people, from electricity to water, shelter, food, and establish infirmaries for health; that is, the real power is in the people themselves! It is in human dignity that cannot be bought with money and cannot be silenced by threats.
As the Istanbul Labor Peace Democracy Forces Earthquake Crisis Coordination, we declare that we will not remain silent against the attempts to prevent the mobilization and solidarity of the people, and we call on the solidarity to grow.
March 3, 2023
