Arts Workers Must Live Not at the Poverty Line, but at the Value They Deserve!

ARTS WORKERS MUST LIVE NOT AT THE POVERTY LINE, BUT AT THE VALUE THEY DESERVE!

TO THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC

Devlet Tiyatroları, now entering its 75th year as a republican institution, continues its work drawing strength from the Constitution, its founding legislation, and applicable regulations. This distinguished arts institution has seen many administrators come and go over the years. Yet it is the arts workers, artists, and technical personnel who truly sustain it, and they continue their struggle alongside the public, shouldering immense sacrifice in the face of every hardship.

Our artists have over the years seen their wages erode to near-poverty levels. The statement recently made by Devlet Tiyatroları Director General Mr. Tamer Karadağlı is, regrettably, a remarkably superficial declaration — one not grounded in any statistics — that casts suspicion on the institution as a whole, on the personnel who pour their sweat into reaching thousands of audience members through at least 150 productions per year.

Among the responsibilities of his office is the protection and improvement of the personal, financial, and social rights of the arts workers who carry out their duties with honour — making his complaints about the artists under his own administration all the more astonishing.

Rather than engaging with the unnecessary controversy generated by Director General Mr. Tamer Karadağlı's ill-considered statement, we insistently demand that the financial plight of artists, technical staff, and workers — which falls below the poverty line — be resolved within the framework of laws and regulations. We expect that artists and technical personnel be enabled to sustain their lives without recourse to additional employment, that a solution be found for wages that have been eroded for years, that at minimum the across-the-board pay rises be reflected in bonuses, and that all staff be embraced with a fair and equitable outlook.

It must also be added that artists are the guarantors of freedom of expression and thought — they are the voice of the people. Attempting to intimidate them with investigations, warnings, and similar threats in response to criticism is a futile effort. For this reason, it is essential that the following questions — arising from Mr. Director General's statements — be answered:

• —Is there a single artist among us who has been assigned duties and yet claims not to be working?
• —Why have the artists you claim have not been working for years not been assigned duties?
• —How many artists have sought projects and wished to work, yet have not been given assignments?
• —Have the incentive payments of these artists been cut?
• —What legal basis underlies the cutting of incentive payments?

The problems must first be resolved through Devlet Tiyatroları's traditional mechanisms for discussion and resolution — together with democratic civil society organisations — and then shared with the public.

We hereby declare that the negative perception being created against Devlet Tiyatroları will be shattered by the unity, struggle, hope, and organised strength of arts workers, and we present our respects to the public.