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Communist Party Of TurkeyThe Communist Party of Turkey (Turkish: Trkiye Komnist Partisi (TKP)) is a political party in Turkey. There are at this moment several factions in Turkey who claim to be the true representators and succesors of the Communist Party of Turkey which was founded by Mustafa Suphi in 1920. The legal political party TKP which was found in 2001 after they changed their name from SIP (Party for Socialist Power). By the year 2005, they started to organise a Patriotic Front against "pro-EU and liberal collaborators". Detailed History of TKP TKP is a party, which critically embraces the entire legacy of the leftist and revolutionary movement in Turkey. As a result, the history of TKP doesn't only consist of a narrow line, but we accept a broad range of movements, organizations and figures in the left as part of our history. Early Years Although there were leftist and revolutionary groups in the Ottoman Empire, most of these were either divided along ethnic and religious lines or they were unable to develop into widespread mass organizations. In the aftermath of the WWI, at which Ottoman Empire suffered a definite and fatal defeat, working class organizations in major cities of Turkey started to get mobilized against the imperialist occupation. In the heat of the Liberation War, these organizations joint their forces and founded TKP in September 10th 1920, in Baku, with the inspiration of the Great October Revolution. Immediately after its foundation, TKP was recognized as a member of Comintern. The founders of TKP, Mustafa Suphi (1881-1921) and his 14 comrades were massacred in January 1921 on orders of Mustafa Kemal, who gradually eliminated all of his political opponents and became the sole leader of the Turkish liberation movement. That terrifying event also marked the commencement of the illegal struggle of the party and revealed the bourgeois identity of Mustafa Kemal's movement. During 1920's and 1930's, when Republic of Turkey was emerging from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, TKP operated illegally. While the party enjoyed a significant popularity among the rapidly emerging proletariat, oppression by the regime and internal problems of the party hindered TKP to develop into a powerful organization. Still, many intellectuals, including the famous communist poet Nazim Hikmet (1903-1962), joined the lines of the party at that era and made important contributions to the revival of the communist movement in the following decades. However, we can't talk about a continuous history of the communist and revolutionary movement until 1960's. 1960's: A Strong Intervening Force: The Workers' Party of Turkey The Most important event of the 1960's was the foundation and political influence of the Workers' Party of Turkey (Trkiye İşi Partisi-TIP). Founded in the relatively liberated atmosphere of 1960's, TIP should also be considered as an offspring of the communist movement. By the joint efforts of labor unionists and leftist intellectuals, TIP became a mass organization in a short while. As early as 1965, TIP managed to get 3% of the votes and 15 seats in the parliament. Short after that, in 1967, Revolutionary Labor Unions' Confederation (DISK) was founded as a massive and revolutionary working class organization under the influence of TIP. In addition to that, TIP became the first political party, which put the Kurdish Question into its agenda. Meanwhile, TIP experiment also popularized the discussions of socialism and revolutions. Theoretical and political literature started to get translated en masse, enriching and inspiring the political discussions among leftists. A kind of dissociation took place in the ranks of the party and two strategic paths originated. The "socialist revolutionary" side advocated for a main role to be given to the proletariat in the revolution process while the "national democratic revolutionary" side claimed that the bourgeois revolutionary process in Turkey had not yet been completed and that this had to be the primary aim before the struggle for socialism. Although the socialist revolutionaries seemed more accurate in their arguments, neither side was on firm ideological ground. While these arguments were taking place, the political condition of Turkey was becoming increasingly fragile. This atmosphere led the student movement to engage in armed struggle against Turkey's ruling class, and to alienate from TIP. TIP was also unable to lead the working class movement. In 1970, upon a decision by the parliament to ban DISK, hundreds of thousands of workers marched to Istanbul and occupied the city for two days. Its political and ideological confusion and indecisiveness of TIP hindered it to assume the leadership of this proletarian uprising. A significant conclusion to be drawn from this event was that the proletariat in Turkey was ripe enough to lead a socialist revolution. On March 12, 1971, a coup d'tat was staged against the strengthening of the working class and the leftist movement, putting an end to TIP as a legal party. In early 1970's, various small militant groups accelerated the armed struggle. While revolutionary leaders like Deniz Gezmis, Mahir Cayan and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya were murdered and defeated, these early experiences of armed struggle inspired the mass armed revolutionary organizations of late 1970's. 1970's: Birth of "Socialist Power" Mobilizing the cadres of the banned TIP, TKP started "the leap" of 1973. In a few years TKP became an influential illegal party with semi-legal mass organizations and it was also masterminding DISK. In addition to that TIP (refounded in 1974) and TSIP (Socialist Workers' Part of Turkey) were struggling legally, while Dev Yol (Revolutionary Path) and Kurtulus (Liberation) emerged as massive armed organizations. Parallel to the strengthening of the left, the bourgeoisie assumed a contra-guerrilla war centered on paramilitary gangs and fascist MHP (Nationalist Movement Party), with high points like the assault on May 1st 1977, at which over 30 people were murdered during the May Day Parade on Taksim Square in Istanbul. As a result of the continuous attacks by fascists, left organizations assumed an "anti-fascist" struggle, alienating themselves from the revolutionary struggle. While the main tendency in Turkey's left supported the social democratic CHP (Republican People's Party) in the name of gathering forces against fascism, opposition started to rise from the inside of many organizations and to form splits, which criticized the major movements from a revolutionary perspective. One of these splits was Socialist Power (Sosyalist Iktidar), which left TIP in 1978. 1980's: Death and Rebirth of Left In 1979, Socialist Power started to be published as a monthly journal, which lasted until the military coup in 1980. The military coup in 1980 with its pure anti-communist and anti-working class character can be considered a breaking point for the left in Turkey. While leftist organizations were unable to resist against the strikes by the military dictatorship, the dissolving of Eastern Block and Soviet Union accelerated the liquidation of the leftist organizations. By early 1990's, none of the major leftist organizations of 1970's were intact. After the military coup in 1980, following an organizational period, some former cadres of Socialist Power decided to publish a theoretical journal called Gelenek (Tradition) in 1986, which is still the theoretical publication of the Communist Party of Turkey. The decision was made with the perspective that the needs of the communist movement at the time pointed to a theoretical, ideological and political reproduction of Leninist principles with regard of present conditions in Turkey. This would in turn form the basis for the creation of new cadres for the communist movement. Gelenek also served the purpose of being a transitional bridge between the experiences of the international communist movement and the new cadres of the communist movement in Turkey. Such a role was especially important during the dissolution of the USSR and the continuation of the dreadful ideological assault on socialism. Actually the results of the same ideological assault was the main reason for the decision of the cadres of Gelenek to found an open and legal party following a period of intense discussion in Turkey's left concerning so-called unification. The party that was established was the "Party for Socialist Turkey" (Sosyalist Turkiye Partisi-STP), founded on November 7, 1992. The program of this party insisted on revolutionary, creative and "orthodox" politics, while the Turkish left in general was demoralized. After the Constitutional Court banned STP upon an article in its program regarding the Kurdish people, the Party for Socialist Power (Sosyalist İktidar Partisi-SIP) was founded in 1993. SIP aimed to organize all people devoted to four principles in order to socialize as a communist party: Anti-imperialism, collectivism (as opposed to privatization), the defense of enlightenment principles against Islamic fundamentalism, and independency from the capitalist order and its institutions. The claim of theoretical creativity and ideological casting led the party to force two important areas: Universities and trade unions. The achievements in these areas describe the position of our party today. Universities have become strongholds of the socialist struggle, while the ideological dominance of capitalism in trade unions was obstructed by a campaign called "Not a farm, a syndicate for the working class!" 1990's were marked by neo-liberal assaults from all sides. While almost all public investments were privatized, labor unions were fading away. A rotten and degenerated culture was imposed by the bourgeoisie, as imperialism was deepening its impact on society. Meanwhile, Islamic fundamentalists, who were supported during 1980's by the military regime to replace and wipe out the ideological influence of the left, were getting more powerful, institutionalized and aggressive. In July 1993, a mob provoked by Islamic fundamentalists put a hotel in the inner Anatolian city Sivas in fire, murdering 35 intellectuals, who were there for a festival. Throughout 1990's SIP enforced a unique political line, confronting all faces of bourgeoisie from Islamists to secularist, revealing their links, and promoting socialism as a current alternative. In 1990's, parallel to the impasse in which the system found itself concerning the Kurdish question, a crisis emerged. In 1994, the national elections were boycotted by leftist parties as a gesture of support against the oppressive measures faced by the Kurdish party DEP. SIP participated in the general elections in 1995 forming an electoral block with the Kurdish movement and other leftist parties. The coalition was named the Labor-Peace-Freedom Block, and received over 5% of the vote in Turkey. This block was instrumental in introducing class character and the communist line to the Kurdish masses. This was the first election experiment of the party. In 1999, SIP participated alone in the elections and got around 39 thousand votes. In 1990's SIP confronted imperialism from various dimensions, struggling against the USA, EU, IMF and NATO simultaneously. In contrast with some leftists groups, SIP considered the European Union as an imperialist organization and revealed the dark face behind its hollow promises. In 2000, SIP initiated a wide-spread campaign for the repatriation of the communist poet Nazim Hikmet and collected over 500 thousand signatures. This campaign not only intended to broaden the public basis of the party, but it was also an initial attempt to promote the communist identity embodies in the popular figure of Nazim Hikmet. Another significant campaign at that time was the "People's Memorandum" in 2001, which was an attempt to propagate the basic socialist demands among public. Looking from a broad historical perspective, 1990's and early 2000's were the transition period from a narrow cadre organization to a mass political party for our movement, and in this era our movement gained significant experience in developing and popularizing socialist policies. SIP also played an important role in the weakening of ideological degenerations in left like left liberalism, Trotskyism and left nationalism. The period stretching from the foundation of the STP, then SIP, to the year 2001, was also a process of the formation and organization of the Communist Party of Turkey, in all three ways: ideologically, politically and theoretically. SIP fought against the anti-communist hysteria propagated by forces of capitalism in Turkey and struggled in order to form the ideological and organizational basis of a communist party throughout the working classes of Turkey, while the party itself inwardly changed in essence not formally, but actually. As early as 1995, at its first congress, SIP made the decisions to assume its real name, "communist", as early as possible. In 2000, while the name of the party newspaper was changed from Socialist Power to Communist, KP (Communist Party) was founded with 30 members as an intermediary phase on the way to TKP. In 2001, everything was ready for the establishment of the Communist Party of Turkey. With the 6th Congress of the party, the name "Party for Socialist Power" changed to "Communist Party of Turkey", despite the still existing ban in Turkish law forbidding the establishment of a political party with a name including the word "communist" in its title. Communist Party of Turkey was not a direct organizational and political continuation of the former TKP, but claimed to include its legacy and experience in its roots, among the legacy of the all revolutionary movement in Turkey. TKP participated at the elections held on November 2002, with its own identity, thus including the word "communist" in its title. After an intensive election campaign, which propagated the communist identity and socialist policies, the party got around 60 thousand votes. Communist Party of Turkey knew that the voting preferences of the Turkish and Kurdish people depended on many factors other than ideological support. The real support for TKP was in fact many times more than the voting percentage reflected. In 2003, TKP mobilized all its forces and founded the Committees against the Occupation in Iraq) against the imperialist war plans against. As a result of the struggle of TKP and other leftist organizations, hundreds of thousands of people got mobilized against the war and Turkey's participation in it, and hindered the pass of the decree allowing the USA to use Turkey's territories for troop deployment in Iraq. When it was determined that a NATO Summit would be held in Istanbul in June 2004, TKP mobilized all its forces to hinder the summit. While Committees against Occupation were founded at many factories, high schools, universities and neighborhoods, TKP also utilized the municipal elections in March 2004 to mobilize people against NATO and increased its electoral support to over 85 thousand votes. The mass rallies against NATO on June 2004 not only showed TKP's success in mobilizing masses against NATO, but they also revealed the central role TKP started to play in Turkey's left. External links - http://www.tkp.org.tr/en/index.asp
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