Theatrical actor Deniz Tüzün lives in the city of Batman in Turkey. Tüzün’s municipal theatre group had been closed down by the Turkish government appointed trustee to Batman Municipality in 2016.
After becoming unemployed in this manner, Tüzün decided to run a coffee shop and contacted the Zapatistas, a political movement in Mexico, South America, that is famous for its struggle against colonialism and capitalism in the country since the 1990’s.
Tüzün buys ‘Zapatista coffee’ from collectives that were formed by the Zapatistas and sells it in Batman.
He points out that the Zapatista collectives sell their coffee in other parts of world, but with conditions attached. One of these conditions is that Zapatistas’ collectives disallow employing child workers in places where Zapatista coffee is sold. Exploitation of the labour force is also disallowed. If any abuses of rights are detected, the collectives will stop trading their coffee immediately upon this being confirmed.
Tüzün states that these principles are admirable and prove that Zapatista collectives’ coffee growers do not aim to earn money from any exploitative processes.
Tüzün also sells Turkish coffee and Kurdish coffee in his store in Batman.
