Türkiye Komünist Partisi (1920)

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Communist Party of Turkey
(CPM)
Party leader most recently Nabi Yağcı
founding September 10, 1920 by Mustafa Suphi
resolution October 7, 1987
(: Türkiye Birleşik Komünist Partisi )
Alignment Real socialism

The Communist Party of Turkey ( Turkish: Türkiye Komünist Partisi TKP ) existed between 1920 and 1987. It was Moscow- oriented and almost entirely illegal in Turkey . Long-term chairmen were İsmail Bilen (1921 to 1973) and Nabi Yağcı (party name: Haydar Kutlu, 1973 to 1987).

prehistory

Various organizations and groups can be seen as forerunners of the TKP: On the one hand, the "Socialist Workers and Peasants' Party" ( Türkiye İşçi ve Çiftçi Sosyalist Fırkası ), founded in Istanbul on September 22, 1919 by Şefik Hüsnü, then a group of Turkish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union , which under Mustafa Suphi built a "Red Army" in April / May 1920, and finally the "Association of a Green Army" founded by former prisoners of war in Anatolia under the leadership of Serif Manatov and 14 MPs. An illegal Turkish Communist Party was founded in Ankara on July 14, 1920, but the practice was in the hands of guerrilla leaders such as Çerkez Ethem . As a legal party, it took the name "Party of People's Rule " (tr: Halk İştirkiyun Fırkası ). The different currents were brought together by Mustafa Suphi.

Foundation, 1920s

Party founder Mustafa Suphi (right) and Secretary General Ethem Nejat (center)

The foundation stone of the TKP was laid with a first party congress in Baku (then the USSR, now Azerbaijan ) on September 10, 1920. Mustafa Suphi became chairman and Ethem Nejat general secretary of the party. The Congress decided to move the party headquarters to Anatolia and to participate in the Turkish Liberation War . On the way to Turkey, Suphi and the entire 15-member Central Committee were killed by Kemalists on January 29, 1921 in Trabzon . Nevertheless, a founding member of the CP, Tevfik Rüştü Bey , later became foreign minister under state founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as a member of the Republican People's Party (CHP).

The second TKP congress took place in Turkey in August 1922. The party wavered between reform and revolution. The Kurdish-Islamic Sheikh Said uprising in 1925 and the "Law to Ensure Public Peace" ( Takrir-i Sükûn Kanunu ) gave the Inönü government the pretext to abolish all democratic rights of political and trade union organizations. The laws passed in parliament to “suppress reactionary elements” were also applied to the left. Ultimately, the TKP also had to go underground. The party was banned and more than 200 members and officials were arrested. The 3rd Congress took place in Istanbul in January 1925. Şefik Hüsnü became the general secretary. In 1925, 1927 and 1929 there were mass arrests of party members.

After the Second World War

In 1946, Şefik Hüsnü founded a legal party called the “Socialist Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey” ( Türkiye Sosyalist Emekçi ve Köylü Partisi ). At the same time Esat Adil Müstecaplioglu founded the "Socialist Party of Turkey" ( Türkiye Sosyalist Partisi ). Both parties were banned in December 1946 and 43 officials were imprisoned.

As a result of the Cold War , there were again mass arrests in 1951 and 1952, known in Turkey as 1951 komünist tevkifatı . More than 184 people were charged, 131 of whom were sentenced to prison terms. Some of the TKP members spared the arrests organized the Fatherland Party ( Vatan-Partisi ). In 1957, many members and supporters of this party were arrested.

The Turkish Constitution of 1961 allowed the establishment of legal socialist parties. As a result, union members founded the "Turkish Workers Party" ( Türkiye İşçi Partisi , TIP) in February 1961 . This fought with the "Socialist Workers' Party of Turkey" ( Türkiye Sosyalist İşçi Partisi , TSİP) for the legacy of the TKP. A unification of both parties failed because of the Secretary General's question.

At the end of the 1960s, the Turkish left faced two different orientations: a parliamentary one, represented by the TİP, and the proletarian revolutionary, represented by the MDD (National Democratic Revolution) movement by old TKP members. In 1967 some old cadres of the TKP began to publish the weekly newspaper Türk Solu ( Turkish Left ), which saw itself as the voice of all national and democratic forces in Turkey.

1970s and 80s

In the 1970s, the TKP managed to gain more influence on the left in Turkey. It intensified its activities at the trade union level considerably and gained considerable influence, especially within the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions of Turkey ( Türkiye Devrimci İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu ). Before the military coup in 1980, it is likely to have controlled around 70% of the unions within the umbrella organization.

The İGD ( İlerici Gençler Derneği - Progressive Youth Association) and the İKD ( İlerici Kadiınlar Derneği - Progressive Women's Association) were two important legal associations which enabled the TKP to organize young people and women on a legal platform for the TKP. After the military coup in Turkey in 1980 , hundreds of members were arrested in all parts of Turkey in early 1981 and most of them were severely tortured . On November 30, 1981, 205 of them were tried in the Ankara Military Court. By 1985 the number of accused had risen to 288. By judgment of March 29, 1985, 208 of them were sentenced to prison terms of up to 17 years. In October 1987 the Military Court of Cassation upheld 104 of the judgments. 75 of them were at risk of being arrested again to serve their remaining sentences of up to 49 months.

In 1987 the TKP merged with the TİP with the aim of building a legal communist party in Turkey. For this purpose the "United Communist" Party ( Türkiye Birleşik Komünist Partisi , TBKP) was founded on October 7, 1987 in Brussels as a merger of the TKP and the TİP.

Further development

The former general secretary of TİP, Nihat Sargın, became president and the former general secretary of the TKP, Nabi Yağcı (known in the party as Haydar Kutlu), became general secretary of the newly formed TBKP. In November 1987, Sargın and Kutlu returned to Turkey from their exile and were arrested. They were released from custody on May 4, 1990 after being on a hunger strike on May 6-25, 1990. April 1990 led the government of Turgut Özal to revise Articles 141 and 142 of the Turkish Penal Code , which formed the basis of their imprisonment. After the TBKP was banned by the Constitutional Court in 1990 , Kutlu founded the SBP ( Sosyalist Birlik Partisi - Socialist Unity Party) as a follow-up party to the TBKP. In 1993 this party was also banned.

Known members

The Turkish poet and playwright Nâzım Hikmet (1902–1963) and the Armenian-born children's author Vartan İhmalyan were members of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d The Socialist Movement in Turkey, Hamburg November 1980; Publisher: Association with the abbreviation HTIIB
  2. ↑ a b c d e f The Turkish Left and its Perspectives, Part 1 ; Accessed August 20, 2011
  3. ↑ a b c d e f TKP / Türkiye Birleşik Komünist Partisi Archives ; International Institute of Social History; Accessed August 20, 2011
  4. ↑ a b The Turkish Left and its Perspectives, Part 2 ; Accessed August 20, 2011
  5. ↑ The Turkish Left and its Perspectives, Part 3 ; Accessed August 20, 2011
  6. ↑ a b c d e The Communist Party of Turkey ; Information from Swiss Refugee Aid from 1997; Accessed August 20, 2011
  7. ↑ a b c Amnesty International : Prolonged Imprisonment for Prisoners of Conscience (PDF; 977 kB) October 19, 1988, AI Index EUR 44/79/88
  8. ↑ Türkiye Sosyal Tarih Araştırma Vakfı ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Foundation for Research into the Social History of Turkey); Accessed August 20, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tustav.org
  9. ↑ Urgent Action 140/90 from Amnesty International, AI Index: EUR 44/77/90 of April 27, 1990