Education and Science Workers' Union (Turkey)

[1][2] In 2004, an attempt was initiated to shut down the organization by Attorney General of Ankara on the grounds that its statute contained the statement "...the defence [of the right] of individuals to receive education in their mother tongue", which was claimed to be against the Article 42 of the Constitution of Turkey which says that "No other language than Turkish may be taught in educational and teaching facilities to Turkish citizens as their mother tongue".

The closure was demanded because Eğitim Sen refused to remove the phrase in question from its statute during the series of reforms associated with the aspiration of Turkey towards joining the European Union.

In September 2009 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered adjudged Turkey to pay 2,340 Euro (around 5,150 Turkish Lira) in compensation for restricting trade union activities of Güldeniz Kaya, Ahmet Seyhan and Saime Özcan, members of the Education and Science Workers Trade Union (Eğitim-Sen).

It is attached to KESK (Kamu Emekçileri Sendikaları Konfederasyonu, the Confederation of Unions for public employees), which is a member of EI (Education International)..." As far as the demand for closure was concerned the ECHR argued that "the impugned action brought against the complainant amounted to an interference by national authorities in the exercise of his right to freedom of association."

[7] "On 28 October [2012], the Izmir Criminal Court sentenced 25 members of the teachers’ union Egitim Sen, affiliated to the public sector confederation KESK and Education International (EI) to 6 years and 5 months in prison under the country’s anti-terrorism legislation.