Victory Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ visited the Belediye-İş Union and met with its Chairman Nihat Yurdakul. Speaking after the meeting, Yurdakul said he considered it important for politicians to engage with unions and civil society organizations. Stating that economic freedom could not be achieved without democracy and justice in working life, Yurdakul argued that workers in Türkiye did not have easy access to justice.
Özdağ said organized labor was under pressure and that the economic crisis had led to widespread impoverishment among 90% of Turkish society. He argued that injustice and pressure were increasing as impoverishment deepened.
Commenting also on the “Terror-Free Türkiye” process, Özdağ claimed that the process, launched 22 months ago on the grounds that the PKK would dissolve itself, was progressing not toward the organization’s dissolution but toward changing the national, unitary and secular structure of the Republic of Türkiye, with the aim of establishing a multinational state with autonomous regions. Stating that the Victory Party opposed this and described the process as a “second Sèvres,” Özdağ argued that it was no coincidence that the “framework law” providing for an amnesty for the PKK was set to be adopted by the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye on August 10, 2026, coinciding with the 106th anniversary of Sèvres.
Why it matters
The interview shows that the debate over justice and unionization in working life converges with objections concerning Türkiye’s political structure on the same ground. This framework reveals that economic hardship is being addressed not only as a loss of income, but also in terms of workers’ access to justice and whether organized labor is under pressure. Özdağ’s assessments of the process and the framework law, meanwhile, show that the Victory Party bases its opposition to the issue on the claim that it poses a threat to the state’s unitary and secular structure. However, it remains unclear which concrete provisions these claims are based on, what the scope of the law in question is, and to what extent trade unions share these political assessments. The statements reported in the article reflect the parties’ positions; no additional information concerning the verification of the claims is available.
Background
Zafer is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 5 reports mentioning the name in the past 90 days; the most recent is dated September 2, 2026.