The third Istanbul airport is a prestigious project by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which is to receive military honors in Berlin at the end of September. The airport is to become the largest in the world. The construction started in 2015 and the opening is planned for the end of October.

Due to catastrophic working conditions, the workers started a protest after 17 workers were injured in an accident on Friday. Altogether 27 workers have died since the start of construction according to official data. Hundreds of workers were arrested during the protests.

The Construction Workers' Union of Turkey today issued a written statement on the events following the arrests. The statement says that hundreds of workers were taken by special buses to detention centers, which took the form of concentration camps. In these centers, the workers were mistreated by the bosses of the consortium IGA. With the torture, the workers were reportedly forced to divulge the "ringleaders" of the resistance. The IGA maintains an organic relationship with the AKP government and has become a paramilitary force within Turkey, the union said.