‘We are registered as AKP members in cities we have never been’

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A few days ago, several teachers, journalists and physicians announced on social media that they were registered as the members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) without their knowledge.

Seeing these social media messages, several other citizens followed suit in both checking their accounts on the online information platform of the state (e-devlet) and finding out that they were also enrolled as AKP members without their knowledge, consent or will.

One of the most striking of all was that teachers were also among the ones registered as AKP members without knowing it.

Teachers from the Education and Science Laborers' Union (Eğitim-Sen) in İstanbul, Ordu, İzmir, Malatya and several other provinces saw that they were now members of the ruling party without their will.

While main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Ordu MP Mustafa Adıgüzel and Ankara MP Yıldırım Kaya brought this unlawful action into the Parliamentary agenda, Eğitim-Sen Chair Prof. Nejla Kurul has announced that they, as the union, are working on the issue.

Speaking to bianet within this context, teachers and executives from the Eğitim-Sen have referred to the civil service law and underlined that what is done on their behalf constitutes a crime.

'We are registered as members in other provinces'

Sezgin Yılmaz, the Ordu Provincial Chair of the Eğitim-Sen, was among the people who announced on social media that he was registered as a member of the ruling AKP without his knowledge. Yılmaz has said that six teachers, apart from himself, were also made members.

Indicating that they have filed a criminal complaint about the issue, Yılmaz has briefly stated the following: "I read that public officials were made members of political parties without being informed. When I saw this news, I was curious and checked it on the e-state system. When I checked my account, I saw that I was registered as an AKP member in January 2020.

"In response to this, I filed a criminal complaint on January 16, then, I shared it on my social media account. Upon seeing my post, several fellow teachers checked their accounts on the e-state system and saw that they were made members as well. Six fellow teachers have so far informed us that they were registered as members. There are also teachers enrolled as members without their will in other provinces."

'It is against the civil service law'

Yılmaz has stressed that civil servants cannot be members of political parties as per the Civil Service Law no. 657:

"As we cannot be members of political parties, I honestly did not think that someone would do something like that in my name. When several friends check it, they see that they were made members retrospectively.

"A friend of ours works in Ordu, but was made a member in Tokat, where he was born. Another friend checked her account and saw that she was made a member in 2014, while she was working in Çarşamba, Samsun. Another friend was registered as a member while working in Fatsa.

"Our information was apparently obtained and the papers were signed in our name. Our signatures were forged, it is forgery and forgery is a grave crime. We do not know who filled out the forms in our name. Judicial authorities are to find out how they accessed my information. We all need to reconsider how safe our personal data is."

'It also happened in election time'

Mehmet Emin Kırşanlıoğlu, the Chair of Eğitim-Sen Branch no. 7, has said that the same thing happened in the election period as well.

According to Kırşanlıoğlu, several teachers were not assigned to work during the electoral process on the grounds that they were members of political parties: "Not assigned during the electoral process on the grounds of alleged party membership, our friends checked the system and saw that they had been registered as AKP members."

"230 fellow teachers were not assigned to work at the elections before," Kırşanlıoğlu has told bianet and briefly added:

"These numbers are limited to our region, our region consists of 8 districts. These numbers hit thousands in İstanbul and across the country.

"In fact, a criminal complaint would be filed against our friends; they themselves filed a criminal complaint, indicating that 'they had been enrolled as members without their knowledge.' But nothing has been done about it. Those files are still pending at the prosecutor's office."

'Our 13 teachers registered as members'

Kırşanlıoğlu has noted that 13 teachers from his branch have so far informed them that they were also made members of the ruling party.

"Our friends check if after seeing the news and see that they were made AKP members. They see that they were registered as AKP members in 2011, 2012, 2014 in provinces where they had never been. 13 teachers, only in our region in İstanbul, have been registered as AKP members.

"One needs to fill out a form for membership and, as far as I know, it can be done only with an identity number. Then, they put fake signatures under the form. This needs to be investigated. An illegal act is done in the name of a person, but prosecutor's offices have made no inquiries."

'We cannot understand how it happened'

Eğitim-Sen Malatya Provincial Branch Chair Kazım Albayrak has indicated that five teachers in Malatya were made AKP members:

"I am also among the teachers enrolled as members. When teacher Sezgin, our union chair in Ordu, announced that he was made a member, I checked it and saw that I was a member as well. We also learned that our former executive, his wife and child were enrolled as members as well.

"We cannot understand how such a thing could happen. According to the civil service law, we cannot be members of political parties. It is, in fact, a reason for being dismissed from public service. They will probably deny it, they will say, 'Some people sabotage us.'

"It needs to be found out who did it and how. We sent messages to our members, asked them to check it. We think that the number is much higher, but people are afraid of telling it. We will file a complaint tomorrow."

Eğitim-Sen İzmir No. 1 Branch Chair Necip Vardal has also informed bianet that two teachers were registered as AKP members without their knowledge in their region, as far as the branch has been informed by its members. Noting that the number is probably much higher, Vardal has noted that they are still inquiring about the issue.

What does the law say?

The Article 7 of the Civil Service Law no. 657 openly indicates that civil servants cannot be members of political parties under any circumstances. Moreover, it stipulates that civil servants shall not act in favor of any political party, person or group. The Article 125 of the same law foresees dismissal from public service in the event of party membership. (RT/SD)