Socialism in Turkey

The socialist movement in Turkey began with the formation of Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) by Mustafa Subhi in 1920. Since then, several political parties have attempted to achieve a communist revolution. Marxism–Leninism, Maoism and democratic confederalism have been among the most prominent socialist ideologies. The socialist movement has also been closely linked to support for Kurdish rights, Alevi rights, LGBT rights and other social causes.[1]

Mustafa Subhi and TKP

The first congress of the TKP was held in Baku in September 1920, where Mustafa Subhi was elected the party's first chairman.[2] The TKP was composed of communists seeking victory against the Western powers occupying Anatolia and aimed to establish a communist state.Many of its early members, including Suphi, had previously been active alongside the Bolsheviks.[3] Subhi and 14 other communists later traveled to Anatolia, after which the party's activities there became more prominent.[4]

Although Mustafa Atatürk and the Ankara Government opposed communism, they maintained close relations with the Soviet Union, which provided aid during the Turkish War of Independence.[5] Atatürk founded a separate socialist party, the Turkish Communist Party (TKF), to curb the influence of the TKP. The TKF even applied o join the Comintern, but was rejected mostly due to the pressure from the TKP, which was already a member.[5] The TKF was dissolved in 1921 after the Ethem the Circassian uprising.[5] On their return journey to Azerbaijan, Subhi and his 14 companions were murdered by the ship's crew[6]

Atatürk's Presidency (1923–1938)

During Atatürk's presidency, CHP government have tried suppressing socialist thought by arresting socialists and banning their party.[4] In 1925, Takrir-i Sukun law was passed, allowing the government to close other parties. TKP was banned too, however, the party continued to operate secretly. In 1926, the party decided to be more critical against the current CHP and Ataturk reign.[4]

The party also had internal troubles, on their positions against Kemalism. They mostly acted accordingly to what Comintern wanted, however, not everyone agreed.[7] In 1927 Vedat Nedim Tör, who was the general secretary of TKP at that time, left the party and handed all the files to the police. This started mass arrests of TKP members.[8]

Socialist magazines like "Aydınlık" and "Orak-Çekiç" have been banned. Similarly, Marxist writers and poets like Nazım Hikmet Ran and Sabahattin Ali have been imprisoned.[9][10]

'68 Generation

With the increased political and worker freedom after the 1960 coup, socialism started to get more popular in Turkey.[11] In 1961 the Workers' Party of Turkey

The rightist-leftist conflicts was one of the major events of 1970s for Turkey.[12] It was fought between ultranationalists and Marxists. Communist-armed parties had a huge r ole in these conflicts, as they were fighting for a Marxist-Leninist revolution.[12] In 1970, THKP-C was formed by Mahir Çayan,[13] their first action was kidnapping of Ephraim Elrom, an Israeli consul. Heials killed in May 1971.[14] Çayan was arrested 4 days later.[13] TİİKP and THKO (another Marxist party formed in late 1960s) sent their militants to PFLP in Palestine for guerilla education.[13] THKO first robbed a bank in Ankara, several months later, they kidnapped 4 US military personnel and asked for 40,000 dollars ransom. They let the soldiers go as they were not able to get the money.[13]

After the 1971 Turkish military memorandum, the army took an aggressive turn against these leftist parties.[15] Deniz Gezmiş, Hüseyin İnan and Yusuf Aslan (the leaders and finders of THKO) were arrested several days after the military memorandum.[16] They were sentenced to death.[16] Mahir Çayan, who have already broke out of prison at that point, decided to make an alliance with THKO.

One month before this, in April 1972, TKP/ML broke away from TİİKP as İbrahim Kaypakkaya their first chairman.[17] Unlike many of the socialists in that time, Kaypakkaya was a Maoist and Anti-Kemalist. He thought that USSR was not really Marxist, and that it became a state of bourgeois again. He found his party on these ideas too.[18] On January of 1973, Kaypakkaya got shot from his neck in a conflict against the Turkish gendarme.[19] Ali Haydar Yıldız, one of TKP/ML's commanders, died in the conflict together with several other militants.[19] Kaypakkaya survived and escaped.[19] After days of traveling alone in the mountains, he gets down to a village where he was reported to the gendarme by a teacher named Cafer Atan.[19] Kaypakkaya was arrested and sent to Diyarbakır Prison. He was tortured and interrogated for weeks before dying in May of 1973.[19] TKP/ML continued to operate under Süleyman Cihan.[17]

Several other socialist parties and organizations were formed later on like MLSPB and Progressive Youth Organization.[13] TİİKP dissolved in 1977.[13] During this entire decade, socialists brought the oppression on Kurds and Alevis to the surface.[1] In fact, minority rights is still one of the main problems that leftists bring up.[1] An example is Kaypakkaya, who had Lenin's idea of "The Right of Nations to Self-Determination" and thought that it should be implemented for Kurds too.[18]

Bloody 1st of May (1977)

During the 1st of May celebrations in Taksim, İstanbul a group of unidentified people started shooting to the mass from the hotel next to Taksim Square and from inside the mass. 34 people died and 136 people were injured.[20]

PKK, 1980 Coup and Democratic Confederation

In 12th of September 1980, a military coup was done by the Turkish Army headed by Kenan Evren.[21] Economic problems, the rightist-leftist conflicts and the growing idea of Kurdish nationalism were shown as reasons for it.[22] After the coup, 650,000 people were arrested.[21] 50 people were going to be executed, many for political reasons.[21] A famous example is a socialist named Erdal Eren who was charged with murder and was executed while he was 17 years old.[23] It's been claimed that some Kurdish socialists were tortured in prisons.[24]

Abdullah Öcalan embraced Marxism-Leninism in early 1970s. In 1974 he formed ADYÖD, a student organization for Marxists.[25] He was arrested one year later for making "communist propaganda".[25] In 1978, he found Kurdistan Workers' Party

After the 1980 coup, more PKK members got arrested like Kemal Pir who is one of PKK's founding members and Mazlum Doğan who was the general editor of Serxw ebun.[26] Both of these people got sent to Diyarbakır Pr ison where they died due to tortures.[27] In 1984, PKK declared a "Kurdish Insurgency".[26] This started the years long PKK Insurgency. Mahsun Korkmaz,

After and during 1990s , PKK gave up on the idea of a Kurdish nation state, and instead started to fight for an autonomus region inside Turkey.[28] They also gave up on Marxism-Leninism for Abdullah Öcalan's new ideology called "democratic confederalsim".[29] An ideology that took huge inspirations from communalism, Öcalan represented it as a way for Kurds and Turks to live together.[29] In 199, he was arrested in Nairobi and brought to Turkey.[30] He was first sentenced to death which was later changed to life-long imprisonement.[31] Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) was found in 2005 as a political organization that embraced democratic confederalism.[32] It became very active in the Syrian Civil War.[33]

Current Years

Despite having less amount of followers, socialist parties still exist, but most of them are legal and even join elections. Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) not the same with TKP in 1920s, won the local elections in Tunceli in 2019.[34] The Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP), not the same with TİP in 1960s, have 3 seats in the parliament.[35] TİP also heavily supports the LGBT movement.[36]

References

  1. ^ a b c Kakışım, Can. "Sosyalist Hareketlerin Kimlik ve Azınlık Meselelerine Yaklaşımlarının Geçmişi ve Bugünü:Bir Paradigma Değişimi" (PDF).
  2. ^ Atasoy, Emel Sayhan (2008). Türkiye İştirakiyun Teşkilatlarının Birinci Kongresi (TKP Kuruluş Kongresi) (in Turkish). Sosyal Tarih Yayınları. ISBN 9789758683734.
  3. ^ Zenkovsky, Serge (1 January 1960). Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674653505. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  4. ^ a b c Ulus, Özgür Mutlu (15 January 2011). The Army and the Radical Left in Turkey: Military Coups, Socialist Revolution and Kemalism. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1848854840.
  5. ^ a b c Aslan, Yavuz (1 January 2007). Türkiye Komünist Fırkası'nın Kuruluşu ve Mustafa Suphi (in Turkish). Türk Tarih Kurumu. ISBN 9789751609397.
  6. ^ Kılıç, Ecevit (14 September 2008). "TKP'nin liderleri denizde öldürüldü". Sabah. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013.
  7. ^ Akbulut, Erden (January 2024). Türkiye Komünist Partisinin Bölünmesi 1928-1932 (in Turkish). Yordam Kitap. ISBN 9786051726489.
  8. ^ Ergüden, Jülide (1978). 1927 Komünist Tevkifatı-İstanbul Ağır Ceza Mahkemesindeki Duruşma (in Turkish). Birikim.
  9. ^ Dağıstanlı, Mustafa Alp (3 June 2019). "Nazım Hikmet Hopa'da:İlk tutuklama,ilk yargılama,ilk cezaevi". BBC.
  10. ^ "Sabahattin Ali'nin cezaevine girme sebebi ne,neden tutklandı? Sabahattin Ali kariyeri Sabahattin Ali neden cezaevine girdi?". Aydınpost. 31 March 2025.
  11. ^ "Analiz:1960 Darbesinin Nedenleri ve Sonuçları". akademikkaynak.
  12. ^ a b Karakurt, Mehmet Süreyya (15 October 2024). Türkiye'de Sağ ve Solun Oluşumu ve 1975-1980 "Sivil" İç Savaşı (in Turkish). Notabene Yayınları. ISBN 9786052604304.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Aykol, Hüseyin (1996). Türkiye'de Sol Örgütler (in Turkish). Phoenix Yayınevi. ISBN 9786055738426.
  14. ^ "Konsolos 3 kurşunla şakağından öldürüldü". Milliyet.
  15. ^ "Yaklaşan Fırtınanın Habercisi 12 Mart". Solhaber.
  16. ^ a b Çelenk, Halit. "1.THKO Davası" (PDF).
  17. ^ a b TKP(ML)'den MKP'ye Bu Tarih Bizim-MKP 1.Kongre Belgeleri (in Turkish). Kardelen Yayınları. 2003.
  18. ^ a b "İbrahim Kaypakkaya Seçim Yazılar" (PDF). marxists.org.
  19. ^ a b c d e "İbrahim Kaypakkaya İşkencede Katledildi". marxist.org.
  20. ^ Can, Celalettin. "1 Mayıs 1977 Katliamı Üzerine". Independent Türkçe.
  21. ^ a b c Özkaya, Tanju. "Demokrasinin unutulmayan kara lekesi:12 Eylül Darbesi". Anadolu Ajansı.
  22. ^ "İşkencenin Adı:12 Eylül Darbesi ve Sebepleri". Ensonhaber.
  23. ^ "Erdal Eren hala 17 yaşında..." Sol Haber.
  24. ^ ""Bir daha dünyaya gelsem Kürt olmak istemem"". Habertürk. Archived from the original on 13 February 2010.
  25. ^ a b Eager, Paige Whaley (16 April 2008). From Freedom Fighters to Terrorists:Women and Political Violence. Routledge. ISBN 9780754672258.
  26. ^ a b Jongerden, Joost. Chronology of the PKK: From Group formation to Party. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  27. ^ "Diyarbakır Zindanında Ölümler". Diyarbakir Zindani. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012.
  28. ^ Şenay, Gonca. ""PKK'nın amacı hala bağımsızlık"". Al Jazeera.
  29. ^ a b Biehl, Janet. "Bookchin,Öcalan,and the Dialects of Democracy". New Compass Press. Archived from the original on 15 April 2020.
  30. ^ Akan, Ali Kemal. ""Terörist başı 60 saniyede paketlendi"". Anadolu Ajansı.
  31. ^ Laizer, Sheri (1999). "Abdullah Öcalan:A plea for justice". Socialist Lawyer (31): 6–8. JSTOR 42949064.
  32. ^ "KCK Sözleşmesi". Vikikaynak. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015.
  33. ^ Boynukara, Adnan. "The issue of PKK/KCK presence in Syria". KritikBakış.
  34. ^ "Komünist başkan Tunceli'yi,Ak Parti iki ilçeyi kazandı". Kanal23.
  35. ^ "28.Dönem Milletvekilleri Sandalye Dağılımı". tbmm.gov.tr.
  36. ^ "Bir ufka vardık ki artık yalnız değiliz sevgilim". tip.org.tr. 17 May 2022.
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