AKP attacking all opposition to 'new Turkey': Engineers

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) is moving to destroy all opposition its vision of an authoritarian new Turkey, according to the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB).

?The government?s project is to make a new Turkey, so they are trying to design everything ? the media, the judiciary. It wants a Turkey that sides with it. They get 50 percent of the votes; they call it the national will and say, ?People want this.? No, only 50 percent want this; the other 50 percent do not want it,? said Mehmet So?anc?.

Tell us briefly about TMMOB.

Professional unions are defined as a public institution by our constitution. There are seven such professional unions with an academic title, meaning their members are university graduates. Each one has its own law, and we are one of them. We are neither a nongovernmental organization nor an association. The law was enacted in the 1950s. Engineers and architects need to be a member of TMMOB in order to work in this profession. We have 475,000 members. We have 24 chambers, below them there are branches in the cities with the required numbers of members. The general assembly is made of 100 members of each professional branches. Each of the 24 chambers elects one representative forming the 24-member board of directors.

The director of the board is elected for a two-year period. This is a very democratic structure.

When was the last time the law on TMMOB was amended?

Whenever there has been instability and chaos in Turkey, governments have interfered with the law. The last time the law was amended was in 1980 [after the Sept. 12 military coup]. Now we are again face to face with a new effort.

TMMOB has three missions: one is to enable the development...