LABOR DAY MESSAGE BY MINISTER BAGIS

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis made a written declaration on "May 1 Labor and Solidarity Day" and said that with AK Party government Turkey had begun to celebrate May 1 as a festival.

Indicating in his message that May 1 Labor and Solidarity Day was celebrated with enthusiasm and in solidarity, Bagis stated that celebrating May 1 in Taksim Square after 32 years was meaningful for it was the confrontation of Turkey with its past and the indicative of Turkey's democratic maturity.

Bagis said that May 1 Labor and Solidarity Day represented the elbow grease of laborers and the sacredness of labor and it had been a day when the democratic maturity of Turkey was tested.

Indicating that the celebration of May 1 had become a part of the intrigues against Turkey and the dirty schemes designed with evil intentions towards the labor and subsistence of the people, Bagis stated that they remembered in sorrow and pain the bloody days when the people who gathered to celebrate May 1 in sunny spring days were killed in the hail of bullets.

Bagis continued his message as follows:

"Fortunately we left behind the days when May 1 celebrations were a kind of incubus for our nation. With the AK Party government, Turkey, as a country carrying out EU accession negotiations and having a strong will power to progress towards an advanced democracy and adopt modern legal norms has begun to celebrate May 1 as a festival. As a matter of fact, our decisive fight against the illegal establishments and gangs is a historically important process which will uncover the provocations made in the past and move Turkey towards an enlightened future rapidly. The sensitivity of our government to go behind the unidentified murders and its willpower to identify them will be effective in enlightening the events such as the May 1 1977 case which were hidden with a curtain."

Egemen Bagis concluded the message he issued in order to celebrate the Labor and Solidarity day of the laborers as follows:

"As it is expressed in the lyrics of that famous march, enlightened days of future are in our hands"