We receive a Turkish Trotskyist leader: Volcan Gümüs, from Ankara.

Volcan, in the middle, with our comrades.

On October 27 we had the honour of interviewing the leader of the Movement for the Permanent Revolution in Turkey, Volcan Gumus, who also takes part in the management of the Ankara Transport Union, twelve of whose members died in the bloody attack that took place in that city.

Volcan had been in the demostration against Turkish Airlines, in the closing ceremony of the FIT, and taking part in different interviews and activities with PO, Izquierda Socialista and TPR.

After the interview, which we made together with the TPR and Resumen  Latinoamericano comrades, we agreed to continue getting closer to know more about the political situation of Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries.

How could you define Erdogan's government?

Erdogan's government is conservative, anti-worker, anti-left, anti-youth, and anti-women. This is part of a policy that wants to make a transformation of the current regime to a religious one.

At the same time he has his own imperialist policy, as Erdogan sees himself as a Ottoman Empire' s sultan. For this, he has an interventionist policy in the region, for example in Yemen. Erdogan gets into all matters because he has an imperialist and interventionist vocation.

In this context of elections and repression, what does the attack in Ankara mean?

This is the fourth attack in two years. The first one was in the border between Syria and Turkey, earlier this year it was one in Diyarbakir (historic capital of Kurdistan), the other attack was in Suruc, and now it is in Ankara.

In Diyarbakir's attack it was seen the presence of ISIS  and Erdogan's government complicity that allows this situation within the turkish borders.

Turkey is turning into Pakistan, that is to say a country serving military operations against other countries.  In that way, Turkey is the support base of ISIS against Syria, that it could be as Afghanistan, because whoever invade, it loses.

There are three elements that demonstrate the complicity of Erdogan's government with the attack. On the one hand, it is documented on video and photographs the bond between Erdogan and ISIS, as it is seen in the border with Syria, where they transfer lorries with weapons and terrorists, and nobody says anything.

There is no doubt that the government, at least, allows ISIS  free movement within Turkey. Before the attack, there was a public list of about 19 names of possible attackers and those who perpetate the attack were in that list.

The Turkish Intelligence Services throroughly knew this situation. What is more, one of the suicide attacker's mother denounced that her son was conected to ISIS and that he would take part of the attack, therefore she demanded his imprisonment.

The mother surely said this to save his son's life, but the government do nothing. To this it must be added that the demonstration was publicly threatened, but there was not a deployment to guarantee the security of it.

What is the economic situation in Turkey and the country's workers?

The economic situation is getting worse together with the global economic situation, as one thing cannot be separated from the other. This can be seen in the movement of the capitals and in the currency 's war.

Regarding the worker's movement, the workday and the days of work per week have increased. It is normal to work between 10 or 12 hours and 6 days a week. In Turkey the unionization is low and the few existing unions are in the mafia's hands.

From the legal proceedings' point of view the worker's rights are being trampled and justice acts with an anti-worker guideline. In spite of this situation, the labour movement is active, fighting and goes forward.

This could be seen in May with a very important strike of the metallurgical workers that raised against the government. The elections will have an influence on the later development of the labour movement, because a weaker Erdogan's government will cause better conditions for the worker's intervention.

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