TURKISH teaching union Egitim-Sen has demanded the release of three high-profile members detained at the weekend, including national women’s secretary Derya Yulcu, insisting that it will not be intimidated.

She was detained in the coastal town of Antalya and is expected to be taken to Mus for further interrogation.

Selman Karasu and Saim Atilgan were also taken into custody, with the union warning that arbitrary detentions have long been used in Turkey to punish those who oppose the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.

“We know that such unlawful punishment is also an expression of the discomfort felt by our union’s struggle,” an Egitim-Sen statement said today.

Branding the detentions heavy-handed, the teaching union said that members would have voluntarily provided statements if they had been asked to do so by the authorities.

But it insisted that it would not be intimidated into dropping its opposition to government policies, including plans to reopen schools despite Covid-19 safety concerns.

The Education Ministry initially ignored warnings from scientists, teaching unions and others as it tried to force schools to reopen on August 31.

Education Minister Ziya Selcuk insisted: “It is necessary to return to schools and start face-to-face education.”

But the government backpedalled after a survey by Ankara-based Metropoll earlier this month showed some 64 per cent of Turkish people oppose government plans to reopen schools this month,with just 26.5 per cent believing that it would be safe.

The figures show that 55 per cent of AKP supporters also oppose the plans as Turkey’s number of coronavirus cases hit the highest level since the end of June.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca confirmed today that there had  been 1,256 new cases and 21 deaths in the previous a 24-hour period. For three weeks last month, new cases had hovered just under 1,000.

Trade union confederation Kesk insisted that a study compiled by Egitim-Sen, which exposed the government’s failure to take necessary precautions against coronavirus and opposing the reopening of schools until scientific evidence says it is safe, had made it a target for the authorities.

But speaking at a press conference of the Kesk women’s platform in Istanbul today, Egitim-Sen No 3 branch women’s secretary Seher Gogercin insisted that  “we will not back down from our struggle for democratic, scientific…education.”

The union said that the detentions and other attacks on the labour movement undermine Turkey’s “fragile democracy, justice and the future of society.

“We demand that … our members are released immediately. We demand that policies that ignore democracy, the rule of law and justice should come to an end as soon as possible,” a statement concluded.