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Draft:Socialism in Turkey

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Socialist movement in Turkey has first started with the formation of TKP by Mustafa Subhi in 1920. Since then,several political parties have tried to achieve a Marxist revolution. Marxism-Leninism,Maosim and democratic confederalism has been the most frequent socialist ideologies. It has been tied with Kurdish rights,Alevi rights, LGBT rights and more.

Mustafa Subhi and TKP

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The first congress of TKP was held in Baku in September of 1920 where Subhi was elected the first chairman.[1] The party consisted of communists that had the goal of having a victory against the West that had invaded Anatolia and declaring a communist state. Many of these people like Mustafa Subhi,has been alongside Bolsheviks before this.[2] He went to Anatolia with 14 other communists,after this the party started to become more prominant in Anatolia.[3] Ataturk and the Ankara Goverment were against communism in Turkey but they also had close relations with USSR who aided them in the Turkish War of Independence.[4] Ataturk formed his own socialist party named Turkish Communist Party(TKF) as a way to stop TKP's influence from growing. TKF even demanded to join the Comintern however it wasn't allowed mostly due to the pressure by TKP,which was already in the international organization.[4] TKF was closed in 1921 after the Edhem the Circassian uprising.[4] While sailing back to Azerbaijan, Subhi and his 14 friends have been murdered by the sailor of the boat.[5]

Ataturk's Reign (1923–1938)

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During Ataturk's precidency,CHP goverment have tried suppresing socialist thought by arresting socialists and banning their party.[3] In 1925, Takrir-i Sukun law was passed,allowing the goverment 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.[3]

The party also had internal troubles,on their positions against Kemalism. They mostly acted accordingly to what Comintern wanted,however not everyone agreed.[6] 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 arrestings on TKP members.[7]

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.[8][9]

'68 Generation

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With the increased political and worker freedom after the 1960 coup,socialism started to get more popular in Turkey.[10] In 1961 the Workers' Party of Turkey(TİP) was established and even got 3% of the votes in the 1965 general elections,winning 15 seats in the parliament.[11] Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey(DİSK) was established by the founders of TİP in 1967 as a socialist trade union centre.[12] It was a breakaway from the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions(TÜRK-İŞ).[12] Marxism-Leninism was especcialy popular between university students.[3] The Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey(DEV-GENÇ) was formed in 1965 as a Marxist youth organization.[13] TİİPK broke away from DEV-GENÇ in 1969 on Marxist ideals.[13] Unlike TİP,it was an illegal political party.[3]

The rightist-leftist conflicts was one of the major events of 1970s for Turkey.[14] It was fought between ultranationalists and Marxists. Communist-armed parties had a huge role in these conflicts,as they were fighting for a Marxist-Leninist revolution.[14] In 1970,THKP-C was formed by Mahir Çayan,[13]their first action was kidnapping Ephraim Elrom,an Isreali consul. He was killed in May,1971.[15] Çayan was arrested 4 days later.[13] TİİKP and THKO(Another Marxist party formed in late 1960s) sent their militans to PFLP in Palestine for guerilla education.[13] THKO first robbed a bank in Ankara,several months later they kidnapped 4 USA military personel and asked for 40,000 dolar ransom. They let the soldiers go as they weren't able to get the money.[13]

After the 1971 Turkish military memorandum,the army took an agressive turn against these leftist parties.[16] Deniz Gezmiş,Hüseyin İnan and Yusuf Aslan(the leaders and finders of THKO) were arested several days after the military memorandum.[17] They were sentenced to death.[17] Mahir Çayan,who have already broke out of prison at that point,decided to make an alliance with THKO[3].8 THKP-C and 2 THKO militans kidnaped several NATO techinicians,and went to a village named Kızıldere.[13] They demanded that the death sentences would be taken back. Conflict started as commando soldiers surrounded the house the militans were hiding in. All the hostages and 9 of the militans (including Mahir Çayan) died.[18] Gezmiş,İnan and Aslan were executed on 6th of May,1972.[17]

1 month before this,in April of 1972,TKP/ML broke away from TİİKP under the leadership of İbrahim Kaypakkaya.[19] Unlike many of the socialists in that time,Kaypakkaya was a Maoist and Anti-Kemalist. He thought that USSR wasn't really Marxist,and that it became a state of bourgeois again. He found his party on these ideas too.[20] On January of 1973,Kaypakkaya got shot from his neck in a conflict against the Turkish gendarme.[21] Ali Haydar Yıldız,one of TKP/ML's commanders,died in the conflict together with several other militans.[21] Kaypakkaya survived and escaped.[21] 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.[21] Kaypakkaya was arested and sent to Diyarbakır Prison. He was tortured and interogated for weeks before dying in May of 1973.[21] TKP/ML continued to operate under Süleyman Cihan.[19]

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 opression on Kurds and Alevis to the surface.[22]In fact,minority rights is still one of the main problems that leftists bring up.[22] An example is Kaypakkaya,who had Lenin's idea of "The Right of Nations to Self-Determination" and thought that it should be implimented for Kurds too.[20]

Bloody 1st of May (1977)

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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.[23]

PKK,1980 Coup and Democratic Confederalism

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In 12th of September 1980,a military coup was done by the Turkish Army under the leadership of Kenan Evren.[24] Economic problems,the rightist-leftist conflicts and the growing idea of Kurdish nationalism were shown as reasons for it.[25] After the coup,650,000 people were arrested.[24] 50 people were going to be executed,many for political reasons.[24] A famous example is a socialist named Erdal Eren who was charged with murder and was executed while he was 17 years old.[26] A lot of socialists and Kurds have also been tortured in prisons.[27]

Abdullah Öcalan embraced Marxism-Leninism in early 1970s. In 1974 he formed ADYÖD,a student organization for Marxists.[28] He was arrested one year later for making "communist propoganda".[28] In 1978,he found Kurdistan Workers' Party(PKK),a Kurdish-Marxist political party. As some PKK members started to get arrested,he escaped to Syria in June,1979. After this point on,PKK started to have urban conflicts against rightist and also,some rival communist organizations like the "People's Liberation".[28] PKK quickly got very influential.[29]

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 Serxwebun.[30] Both of these people got sent to Diyarbakır Prison where they died due to tortures.[31] In 1984, PKK declared a "Kurdish Insurgency".[30] This started the years long PKK Insurgency. Mahsun Korkmaz,one of PKK's commanders,died during PKK insurgency in 1986.[32]

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.[33] They also gave up on Marxism-Leninism for Abdullah Öcalan's new ideology called "democratic confederalsim".[34] An ideology that took huge inspirations from communalism,Öcalan represented it as a way for Kurds and Turks to live together.[34] In 1999 he was arrested in Nairobi and brought to Turkey.[35] He was first sentenced to death which was later changed to life-long imprisonement.[36] Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) was found in 2005 as a political organization that embraced democratic confederalism.[37] It became very active in Syrian Cvil War.[38]

Current Years

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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.[39] Workers' Party of Turkey(TİP) ,not the same with TİP in 1960s,have 3 seats in the parliament.[40] TİP also heavily supports the LGBT movement.[41]

References

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  1. ^ Atasoy, Emel Sayhan. Türkiye İştirakiyun Teşkilatlarının Birinci Kongresi (TKP Kuruluş Kongresi) (in Turkish). Sosyal Tarih Yayınları. ISBN 9789758683734.
  2. ^ Zenkovsky, Serge (January 1, 1960). Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674653505. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Ulus, Özgür Mutlu (January 15, 2011). The Army and the Radical Left in Turkey: Military Coups, Socialist Revolution and Kemalism. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1848854840.
  4. ^ a b c Aslan, Yavuz (1 January 2007). Türkiye Komünist Fırkası'nın Kuruluşu ve Mustafa Suphi (in Turkish). Türk Tarih Kurumu. ISBN 9789751609397.
  5. ^ Kılıç, Ecevit (14 September 2008). "TKP'nin liderleri denizde öldürüldü". Sabah. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013.
  6. ^ Akbulut, Erden (January 2024). Türkiye Komünist Partisinin Bölünmesi 1928-1932 (in Turkish). Yordam Kitap. ISBN 9786051726489.
  7. ^ Ergüden, Jülide (1978). 1927 Komünist Tevkifatı-İstanbul Ağır Ceza Mahkemesindeki Duruşma (in Turkish). Birikim.
  8. ^ Dağıstanlı, Mustafa Alp (3 June 2019). "Nazım Hikmet Hopa'da:İlk tutuklama,ilk yargılama,ilk cezaevi". BBC.
  9. ^ "Sabahattin Ali'nin cezaevine girme sebebi ne,neden tutklandı? Sabahattin Ali kariyeri Sabahattin Ali neden cezaevine girdi?". Aydınpost. 31 March 2025.
  10. ^ "Analiz:1960 Darbesinin Nedenleri ve Sonuçları". akademikkaynak.
  11. ^ "Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Milletvekili Genel Seçimleri". TBMM.gov.tr. 12 June 2025.
  12. ^ a b Koç, Yıldırım. "Sendikacılık Tarihi" (PDF).
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Aykol, Hüseyin (1996). Türkiye'de Sol Örgütler (in Turkish). Phoenix Yayınevi. ISBN 9786055738426.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ "Konsolos 3 kurşunla şakağından öldürüldü". Milliyet.
  16. ^ "Yaklaşan Fırtınanın Habercisi 12 Mart". Solhaber.
  17. ^ a b c Çelenk, Halit. "1.THKO Davası" (PDF).
  18. ^ "'Kızıldere için dava açılabilr'". Milliyet.
  19. ^ a b TKP(ML)'den MKP'ye Bu Tarih Bizim-MKP 1.Kongre Belgeleri (in Turkish). Kardelen Yayınları. 2003.
  20. ^ a b "İbrahim Kaypakkaya Seçim Yazılar" (PDF). marxists.org.
  21. ^ a b c d e "İbrahim Kaypakkaya İşkencede Katledildi". marxist.org.
  22. ^ a b Kakışım, Can. "Sosyalist Hareketlerin Kimlik ve Azınlık Meselelerine Yaklaşımlarının Geçmişi ve Bugünü:Bir Paradigma Değişimi" (PDF).
  23. ^ Can, Celalettin. "1 Mayıs 1977 Katliamı Üzerine". Independnet Türkçe.
  24. ^ a b c Özkaya, Tanju. "Demokrasinin unutulmayan kara lekesi:12 Eylül Darbesi". Anadolu Ajansı.
  25. ^ "İşkencenin Adı:12 Eylül Darbesi ve Sebepleri". Ensonhaber.
  26. ^ "Erdal Eren hala 17 yaşında..." Sol Haber.
  27. ^ ""Bir daha dünyaya gelsem Kürt olmak istemem"". Habertürk. Archived from the original on 13 February 2010.
  28. ^ a b c Eager, Paige Whaley (16 April 2008). From Freedom Fighters to Terrorists:Women and Political Violence. Routledge. ISBN 9780754672258.
  29. ^ Davis, Paul K.; Larson, Eric V.; Haldeman, Zachary; Oguz, Mustafa; Rana, Yashodhara (2012). "Public Support for the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) in Turkey". Public Support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey. RAND Corporation. pp. 99–118. ISBN 978-0-8330-5869-0. JSTOR 10.7249/mg1122osd.12. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  30. ^ a b Jongerden, Joost. "Chronology of the PKK:From Group formation to Party". Transnational Press London. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  31. ^ "Diyarbakır Zindanında Ölümler". Diyarbakir Zindani. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012.
  32. ^ "Heykeli Dikilen PKK'lıyı Öcalan Öldürtmüş". Rahatsız. 20 August 2014. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014.
  33. ^ Şenay, Gonca. ""PKK'nın amacı hala bağımsızlık"". Al Jazeera.
  34. ^ a b Biehl, Janet. "Bookchin,Öcalan,and the Dialects of Democracy". New Compass Press. Archived from the original on 15 April 2020.
  35. ^ Akan, Ali Kemal. ""Terörist başı 60 saniyede paketlendi"". Anadolu Ajansı.
  36. ^ Laizer, Sheri (1999). "Abdullah Öcalan:A plea for justice". Socialist Lawyer (31): 6–8. JSTOR 42949064.
  37. ^ "KCK Sözleşmesi". Vikikaynak. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015.
  38. ^ Boynukara, Adnan. "The issue of PKK/KCK presence in Syria". KritikBakış.
  39. ^ "Komünist başkan Tunceli'yi,Ak Parti iki ilçeyi kazandı". Kanal23.
  40. ^ "28.Dönem Milletvekilleri Sandalye Dağılımı". tbmm.gov.tr.
  41. ^ "Bir ufka vardık ki artık yalnız değiliz sevgilim". tip.org.tr. 17 May 2022.
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