As the Central Executive Board of the Communist Movement of Türkiye, we share our political assessments regarding the AKP’s March 19 coup process and the social struggle against this coup with the public. We salute the resistance and struggle of the workers, especially the youth, against the despotic regime that means the darkness of our country. We know that this reactionary regime is theirs, but tomorrow is ours and this country is ours.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING, CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE!
1. AKP, which presents itself as a victim of February 28 at every opportunity, has lost its victimization and democratic mask with the March 19 coup. March 19 is not the beginning of a corruption investigation conducted by an independent judiciary as claimed by the AKP, but the date of the AKP government’s operation to silence and neutralize its direct political opponents. The similarity of this operation to the September 12 junta practices and the FETÖ conspiracy cases is obvious. The despotic regime based on Erdoğan’s one-man rule operates with ‘coup methods’. Like the July 15 coup, March 19 has taken its place in the country’s political history as a civilian coup of political Islamism.
THERE IS NO ‘NATIONAL WILL AND DEMOCRACY’ WITH THE STATE STICK
2. The “national will” and “nation against the state” rhetoric of the Turkish right wing was shattered with the March 19 coup. The elimination of legitimate mayors elected by judiciary with the judicial stick was the most concrete example of the trampling on the national will and the right wing directly using the state stick against the nation. The fact that the concepts of democracy and national will cannot coexist with the Turkish right wing, which uses them as a form of heroism, was revealed once again with the March 19 coup.
AKP’S MINORITY GOVERNMENT IS BASED ON FORCE
3. Similarly, it is clear that AKP, which has been embracing the discourse of “national will against tutelage centers for years”, has built a regime based on the power of tutelage centers and the representation of minority power that protects the interests of a handful of bosses. On the other hand, it should be seen that the presidential regime, where the elected Parliament has become a symbolic institution, has narrowed down to a junta rule since it is based on the power of those who have been appointed. AKP, which has lost its social legitimacy, continues its power by using the instrument of force. This regime represented by Erdoğan today represents a form of government that is more backward than the constitutional government, similar to the period of Abdulhamid.
THE “NATIONAL AND LOCAL” DISCOURSE OF THE IMPERIALISM COLLABORATORS IS A LIE
4. It is certain that the new regime, which the AKP coded as the new Türkiye and was built upon the destruction of the 1923 Republic established against imperialist occupation, was “established” in line with the Greater Middle East Project and the regional interests of imperialism. The sale of the country’s economic assets to imperialist monopolies through the privatization policy and the economic policy of direct dependence on foreign hot money resulted in the surrender of the country’s factories, ports, shipyards, roads, bridges, mines, forests and banks to imperialism. Today, the “national and local economy” discourse is nothing more than a big lie. The fact that every movement of foreign capital causes a foreign exchange crisis in the country is a simple indicator of this simple truth. The fact that even the names of the capital groups that are propagandized to the society as national and local capital are foreign, the vast majority of the major companies in the country have foreign partners, the banking system is directly controlled by imperialist finance capital, the sale of local banks to imperialist finance capital, the dependence on foreign capital with the high interest rate policy, and even the Minister of Finance being a British citizen are clear evidence that the AKP is a comprador party.
CHP REPRESENTS THE RESTORATION PROGRAM
5. The fact that the CHP has emerged as the main opposition party against the one-man regime and has assumed the leadership of the opposition to the establishment does not change the fact that it is the party of capital. The CHP has long transitioned from the center left to the center right with the Nation Alliance and the policy of “reconciliation and normalization”; it conducts politics not through the paradigms of the 1923 Republic, primarily secularism, statism and populism, but through the program of restoration of the new regime established by the AKP. Along with his positive stance against NATO, US and EU imperialism, the “strengthened parliamentary system” he defends against the presidential government system, along with the “symbolic president but strong prime minister instead of a strong president” formula, is nothing more than a similar defense and representation of the centralization that capital needs in our country. The unjust and unlawful arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu by the direct despotic regime today should not cover up the fact that İmamoğlu represents the right wing of the CHP. It is not possible to prevent poverty, inequality, exploitation and dependence on imperialism in our country with a restoration program that will be put on the agenda to eliminate the damage caused by the 22-year AKP rule.
KURDISH POLITICS IS AT CROSSROADS
6. The Kurdish political movement is at a major crossroads. The Kurdish political movement, which has been a component and an important actor of the democratic political and social struggle for years, has shown through its direct work with the AKP and MHP that the country will be democratized and that it expects a solution to the Kurdish issue in the “solution process” brought to the agenda by the MHP. The inactive attitude of the CHP towards the unlawful and anti-democratic practices that went as far as the arrest of the presidential candidate reminded us of this movement’s boycott of the 2010 referendum. It is not possible for the Kurdish political movement to seek integration into the despotic regime that was the perpetrator of the March 19 coup and for the Kurdish workers, who are part of the working class of Türkiye, to integrate into the despotic regime. This reactionary regime, which is directly hostile to labor, cannot pave the way for the democratization of the country and does not have the capacity to solve the problems of poverty, unemployment and lack of future for the workers.
THE REPUBLIC LIVES WITH REVOLUTION
7. The political and social resistance supported and personally participated by a large segment of society against the March 19 coup demonstrates Türkiye’s progressive accumulation and the country’s revolutionary potential. Those who participated in the marches and rallies and those who supported them have once again demonstrated that they have the capacity to transcend the political boundaries of the CHP. The actions and resistance of university youth in particular, which transcends the CHP, have once again demonstrated that Türkiye’s progressive struggle could not be broken despite all the attacks and sieges. In fact, the dynamism of the youth, which transcends the boundaries of universities, has pulled the resistance against the March 19 coup to the left; it has also empirically broken the stereotypes that the leftist nature of the struggle will regress the massification. However, it has once again been seen that the socialist struggle will be groundless without seeing the 1923 Republic as historically progressive and without relying on Republican social segments.
FOR A NEW REPUBLIC
8. The regime that the 22-year AKP government claims to have established on the separation of powers and calls the presidential government system essentially corresponds to an autocratic regime. This situation was seen once again during the March 19 coup process. The new regime, which was not established on the separation of powers but on the contrary on the unity of the executive, is a despotic regime that represents the interests of a handful of bosses. The despotic regime did not fall from the sky, but came to the present day as a logical result of the September 12 junta and the direct NATO state structure in line with the interests of the Turkish capitalist class and the needs of the capitalist state. The 1923 Republic collapsed and a new regime that was hostile to labor, reactionary and collaborator was built in its place. Türkiye does not resemble the one from 100 years ago economically, politically, culturally and socially. The conditions of 100 years ago do not exist today and it is not possible to return to the Atatürk era. Today, a struggle against imperialism, reactionism and tyranny can be carried forward with a struggle against capital. Today, a new Republic slogan should be raised against the reactionary tyranny regime. A new Republic will lean on the historical accumulation of the Republic and will rise on the shoulders of the workers who constitute the vast majority of the country. In such a period, the fundamental orientation of the counter-revolutionary forces in our country will be to name this regime in its true sense and to bring the tyranny constitution to the agenda under the name of a new constitution in order to put it in place. From this perspective, the struggle against the new constitution is as important as the struggle against the injustices and oppression experienced in the recent process.
ESTABLISHING THE INDEPENDENT LINE OF SOCIALISM IS A REVOLUTIONARY DUTY
9. The social reaction that has accumulated against the 22-year AKP rule is also a class reaction. The elimination of the gains of the 1923 Republic, turning the country into a market for imperialist monopolies and opening it up to full-scale plunder by capital also shows the direction of the political quest of this reaction. The reaction of the country’s progressive social accumulation against futurelessness, poverty and reactionism should not be sacrificed to the calculations of the establishment politics. The socialist movement of Türkiye should not present a struggle line behind the restorationist wing of capital but an independent class politics. While the conditions are in place for socialism to become a strong political focus, it is not the left’s business to oscillate between the CHP and HDP under these conditions.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING, CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE!
10. Our party has met the recent public resistance with actions on the streets; it has stood by the youth, women and laborers who took to the streets to advance the struggle of the workers and youth and gain democratic positions. The people’s response to the March 19 coup is a positive trend that should be taken into consideration for the future of the country. In this context, the work we started with the slogan “Türkiye is Greater than 1” is being implemented throughout Türkiye as the political activity of TKH to carry the resistance forward. In this context, all our work carried out with the goal of an independent, secular republic for the workers, youth and women means the word of the communists for the bright future of the country. We call on all our progressive citizens to support this struggle; to increase our organization against the reactionary and exploitative forces that stand before us in an organized manner: Give strength to the struggle for a bright, equal and free tomorrow, for a Socialist Türkiye, a socialist Republic. This reactionary order is theirs, this country and tomorrow are ours!
