Struggling for the past 10 months over their factory they have occupied, Kazova workers finally declared their victory after a court ruled that their former employers Ümit Somuncu and Mustafa Umut Somuncu will hand them their machines to compensate their unpaid salaries. 

Now Kazova workers are planning to found a cooperative and produce goods themselves. 

“We have rented another site in Istanbul for production and retail. We will move there in a month,” Kazova worker Bülent Ünal told bianet. 

Previously, they started fabricating sweaters out from what was left in the facility. They sold their products at a counter in front of the factory as well as in various Gezi Forums in Istanbul.

Ünal said they will also remove the resistance tent that they have set up at the factory courtyard. 

The occupation, said writer and film director Metin Yegin, who followed the struggle since the very beginning, had witnessed a two sides advance.

On one hand, workers have started to produce pullovers, as must be done in an occupied factory.  On the other hand, workers are addressing to the Minister of Labour.

Workers had also opened a coffee house in the occupied factory, as well as a 'cooperative classroom' where they have been able to take unpaid lessons, and a 'cooperative salesroom' where they were selling not only their own products but also those of cooperatives, communes and small villages across Turkey.

Shut down 7 months ago, Kazova Factory left 94 workers unemployed with no repartitions or deserved wages. Factory owners Ümit Somuncu and Mustafa Umut Somuncu vanished over a night after filling out the most equipment in the facility. 11 factory workers have been resisting ever since by setting up their tents in front of the factory. 

On May 1 police broke up their demonstration with tear gas and water cannons. On June 28, they have occupied their factory with “a strength that Gezi Resistance bolstered them”. 

On September 14, they started fabricating sweaters out from what was left in the facility. 

First products will be sent to female and child inmates who sent support letters, Kazova workers said. 

They are also planning to sell their products at a counter in front of the factory as well as in various Gezi Forums in Istanbul