Protest in front of Çalık Holding! Photo of the murdered worker hung

The TKP, the Left Party and Umut-Sen made a statement in front of the building where Çalık Holding's Ankara Representative Office is located. While the TKP was making a press statement, a scuffle broke out between the police and TKP members. A TKP member wrote Erol Eğrek's name on the wall of the Çalık Holding building with red spray paint. Thereupon, the police wanted to detain the person who wrote the writing, but the situation was negotiated with the intervention of the TKP's lawyer. After the TKP members left the area after the press statement and the lawyer said that he would bring the citizen who wrote the writing to the police to give a statement without detaining him, an agreement was reached. Later, the "Erol Eğrek" text written on the Holding wall was covered up by drawing shapes with red spray paint.

Slogans like “AKP’s system is the murderer of Erol”, “Workers will hold the holdings accountable”, “There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us”, “Workers and youth, hand in hand in the struggle” were chanted in the square.

"WE WILL TAKE AWAY ALL THE WEALTH THAT BELONGS TO US"

In the TKP's press release, the following was noted:

"The bosses work in inhuman conditions so that they can get fatter and fatter. We die. They see us as poor people who only have to live to work. Thousands of our worker brothers die while seeking their most basic rights in return for their work. Çalık Holding with its dollar billionaire bosses, we know them very well. We know very well how they got rich. Çalık Holding, one of the fastest rising companies of the AKP government. Çalık Holding, which makes profits, rises and adds profits with privatizations, TOKİ tenders, incentives and so on. Çalık Holding, which we know from its activities in tax havens in order not to pay taxes. Çalık Holding, which is the partner of Anagold Altın Mining in İliç, which became the grave of nine of our worker brothers. A rising wealth that grows on the sweat and blood of workers. We are angry. We will demand accountability from those who see death as a right for workers seeking their rights. Let us have a say for our worker brothers who lose their lives so that the order of the holdings continues. Let us have a say that we will demand accountability from these murderers, these parasites and the political power that represents them. We will expel them from this country. "We will take away all the wealth that belongs to us. We will definitely establish a country where we will live humanely and without exploitation."

"Çalık Holding has become one of the most prominent actors of the AKP's neoliberal plunder system"

Following the press statement made by the TKP, the Left Party came to the area and made the following statements:

"Another worker has lost his life in this plunder system, this lawless, conscienceless capital wheel. Erol Eğrek fought for 10 years to receive his rightful compensation. He repeatedly knocked on the doors of the law. He won, but AKP-backed Çalık Holding did not pay a single penny. Erol Eğrek worked for Çalık Holding's factory in Turkmenistan for years. He could not receive his rightful compensation of 7 million TL for 10 years. Despite being found right by the courts many times, this palace-backed Holding did not pay for the labor of the worker and when he finally went to their door to receive his receivables, he was beaten and murdered by the hitmen of this system. We know how Çalık Holding grew with public resources during the AKP government and how it monopolized the media and energy sectors. Let's remember. It grew rapidly with major tenders in the media, energy and construction sectors during the AKP government. The loans used in the purchase of Sabah and ATV Group in 2007 were provided through public banks. The name at the head of the holding was Erdoğan's son-in-law Berat Albayrak. In other words, we are talking about a family, a structure directly connected to the palace. Çalık Holding is one of the partners of the Çöpler mine in İliç, where 9 workers lost their lives under the rubble. Çalık Holding has become one of the most visible actors of the AKP's neoliberal plunder system. Today, this system not only exploits a worker, but also silences, beats and murders them when they seek their rights. We are calling out from here. Çalık Holding is directly responsible for the death of Erol Eğrek. The government that turns a blind eye to this crime and ignores the justice and compensation of the working class is also responsible."

"AHMET ÇALIK HAS A FORTUNE OF ONE AND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS, BUT HE CONSIDERS THE MONEY FOR A HOUSE AS MORE THAN A WORKER"

Following the press release of the Left Party, Güneş Gümüş, the Chairman of the Socialist Workers Party, from the group that gathered upon the call of the Umut Union (Umut-Sen), said the following:

"We are in front of Çalık Holding in Ankara against the murder of a worker who wore out the door of Çalık Holding to receive his compensation, and not content with wearing out, even attempted suicide. We will always continue to fight to defend the rights of the workers who were killed, but this struggle saddens us, it breaks our hearts, but the government, but capital, has sworn to turn this country into a hell for workers and a heaven for capital and bosses. More than twenty years of AKP rule passed with workers being disorganized. It passed with workers being disorganized. Unions were destroyed. The unions were emptied. Workers were forced to set out to determine their own fates, ownerless and disconnected from the unorganized struggle. Erol Eğrek was at the entrance of Çalık Holding to receive his compensation, which was worth the price of a house. The security may have thrown the punches that killed him. But this is a collective murder. We must not forget this. It is the government that gave Çalık Holding security the right to beat a worker, gave them the courage, and gave them the awareness that their crimes will go unpunished. Ahmet Çalık, the owner of Çalık Holding, has a fortune of one and a half billion dollars, but he thinks that the price of a house is more than the price of a worker, and Ahmet Çalık is responsible for this murder."

"EROL EĞREK IS A VERY CLEAR EXAMPLE OF WHAT KIND OF LIFE AND DEATH THIS SYSTEM IMPOSES ON WORKERS"

The press release was read on behalf of Umut-Sen by Doğukan Akan. The statement read as follows:

"We are here today to demand an account from the gods of the holding company who think they are unreachable. We are here to demand an account for Erol Eğrek, who was beaten and murdered yesterday. Erol Eğrek was the father of four children. He was just one of the one hundred and eighty workers who were employed without insurance in a textile factory affiliated with Çalık Holding. He worked for five years between 2004-2009 in Çalık Holding's factory in Turkmenistan and was thrown out without being paid a single penny of compensation. However, he did not give up on his sweat, did not turn a blind eye to being beaten and his bread taken away, and started a resistance that lasted more than 10 years. He won all the lawsuits that were filed. He left no door untouched for his right to compensation. Erol Eğrek was beaten and murdered by the holding company gangs at the gate of Çalık Holding, where he went not to steal but to demand his rights yesterday, on May 9, 2025. We have heard and read this story countless times, and we are witnesses to it ourselves. We are the resisters of this story. There is nothing beyond this. We are here to demand an account, to demand an account. We will not leave without being given. Erol Eğrek is a very clear example of how this system treats workers with life and death. In this system, you can go to Turkmenistan with your four children and your wife to work and be thrown out in one day. In this system, you have page after page of court decisions in your hands, you can be beaten and killed at the workplace where you go to demand your rights. In this system, while working without insurance, security or future, you can die because of the precautions your boss did not take just so he could earn 3 cents more. If you are subjected to mobbing, harassment, bullying and speak up, you can be thrown out in front of the door and condemned to hunger. If you have a heart attack, your body can be burned and thrown on the side of the road because you will be a pain in the neck for the boss. We are enemies of this system, we have come to demand an account. So who have we come to demand an account from? Only the holding guards who threw those punches? The security chiefs? Maybe we can easily find an engineer or a janitor. No, we know the criminals well. We also know well that they will not accept responsibility. Çalık Holding has assigned Erol Eğrek's claim to the Turkmenistan Ministry of Textile Industry."

Source: ANKA