(AFP)–A powerful civil servants’ trade union announced that it plans to hold demonstrations across Turkey next week to protest a decision by French insurer AXA to compensate heirs of Armenian genocide victims.
"We have made a decision to hold demonstrations in Turkey’s 81 provinces starting from next week," Memur-Sen chairman Ahmet Aksu said. He expects the protests–to be held outside AXA offices–to draw thousands of participants.
Last month Memur-Sen appealed to its 200,000 members to boycott AXA. The French company unleashed a wave of anger in Turkey after it agreed last month to settle a class action lawsuit filed by descendants of Genocide victims for $17 million.
AXA maintains that its decision was neither political nor amounted to a recognition of the Genocide.
The deal also dealt a blow to OYAK–an industrial venture representing the Turkish army pension fund–which has been AXA’s partner in Turkey since 1999.
