Istanbul – The president of the Chamber of Istanbul
Taxi Businesses has accused Uber of being a targeted attack on his industry
carried out by what he called “the Jewish lobby”, Turkish Jewish newspaper
Şalom said.
“The global thieving Jewish
lobby is carrying out commercial taxi piracy in Turkey,” Eyüp Aksu told a crowd
of anti-Uber protesters outside an Istanbul courthouse.
He said the Turkish media
were joining in, attacking taxi drivers with biased articles.
“While taxi drivers’ protests
in European countries have caused destruction right and left, we do not want to
carry out such a demonstration here,” Aksu said.
“If our parliament does not
do the necessary work on this issue or if the judiciary gives a differing
verdict, taxi small businesses will run out of patience.”
Taxi drivers would “do
anything” to preserve their livelihoods, Aksu said.
“Our livelihoods are as important
as our honour,” he added.
The chamber’s petition says that Uber’s systems make it almost
impossible to log the factors for which ordinary Istanbul taxi drivers are
taxed, meaning that they do not pay the taxes and represent unfair competition.
