Turkcell fires staff for supporting foundation created in memory of 19 year-old killed during Gezi
A staff member in Turkey’s Turkcell has been fired for taking part in a campaign promoting ALİKEV, the foundations created in memory of 19 year old Ali İsmail Korkmaz who was killed in Eskişehir by a group of shop owners and police officers during the Gezi Park protests of 2013.
Also a licensed swimmer and an executive member of Chamber of Physics Engineer, Turkcell’s former staff member Alper Mertoğlu had launched a campaign for ALİKEV as part of the Bosporus Swimming Race.
Mertoğlu, who had worked for Turkcell as a manager in the finance department for the past 12 years, was fired one day before the race, after having run a two weeks long campaign for ALİKEV, which holds activities in the fields of education and sports.
Talking to BirGün about it, Mertoğlu said he had also previously faced discrimination and pressure at his job due to his political views. Turkcell fired him due to his acts deemed by the company as ‘breaking trust’.
Mertoğlu drew attention to the sponsorship provided by Turkcell for Ensar Foundation – the foundation where a teacher was involved in a major child abuse case of at least 40 children – and said: “However, Turkcell could not bear the campaign that I had run to support education of children through the ALİKEV foundation”.
Mertoğlu will take legal action, as he told BirGün.