President Erdoğan hosts dinner for workers on May 1 Labour Day

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with workers and laborers of various professions during a dinner at the Presidential Complex.

"I celebrate the May 1 Labor and Solidarity Day of all our workers and laborers whose sweat plays an important role in the growth and development of our country," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tweeted early in the day. 

Erdoğan expressed his condolences to the families of five seasonal workers who lost their lives in a traffic accident today in the eastern province of Sanliurfa. 

Speaking at the event in the presidential complex in the capital Ankara, he went on to say that Turkey is a "unique" country by all measures and added: "The potential of Turkey is so great that it is sufficient for 182 million, let alone 82 million [Turkey’s current population]." 

Erdoğan also criticized governments from the years before 2002, when his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party came to power, accusing them of exercising discrimination among labor unions. 

"Victimizing people who had no agenda other than putting dinner on the table for political or ideological reasons and depriving them of their jobs is a very heavy burden to bear," he said.