Türkiye Komünist Partisi (2001)
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Türkiye Komünist Partisi |
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| Party leader | Huseyin Karabulut |
| founding | November 11, 2001 |
| Alignment | Communist |
| International connections | International meeting of communist and workers' parties |
| European party | INITIATIVE |
| Website | www.tkp.org.tr |
The Türkiye Komünist Partisi ( TKP for short ), Turkish for Communist Party of Turkey , is a small communist party in Turkey. It was known as TKP since the Party for Socialist Power ( Sosyalist İktidar Partisi , SİP) adopted this name in 2001.
The party started in 2005 as the "Patriotic Front" ( Yurtsever Cephe ), although it should be noted that the German translation of "patriotic" is inaccurate. What is meant is the conception of the party as an all-Turkish party of the working class, which includes ethnic minorities such as Kurds and Armenians and, secondly, the negative orientation towards the European Union . Nevertheless, many opponents of the party, especially on the left, use the self-designation “Patriotic Front” to accuse their members of “ national communism ” or “left nationalism ”.
history
The roots of the party lie in the group Socialist Power ( Sosyalist İktidar ), which was formed in 1978 from excluded members of the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP). After the coup, the group was disbanded. In 1986, some prominent people from the former group founded the magazine Gelenek ("Tradition"), around which a new political movement began to develop. The name tradition was a commitment to the "traditional", i. H. Left based on Soviet socialism. Gelenek was published by the TKP as its main theoretical organ for a long time. The Party for a Socialist Turkey ( Sosyalist Türkiye Partisi , STP) was founded by Gelenek cadres in 1992 , although it was banned by the Constitutional Court . The successor party was the SİP, which finally gave itself the still current name TKP.
Although Article 96 of the Turkish Political Parties Act prohibits the use of the term “communist” in a party name, the TKP was not forbidden or forced to change its name. The state pushed for a party ban, but the decision was postponed by the Constitutional Court for an indefinite period.
After their split in 2014, the Communist Party (KP) and the Communist People's Party of Turkey (HTKP) emerged.
Election results
Nationwide
In 2002 the party took part in the parliamentary elections, but could only achieve 0.19%. In the 2004 local elections , the result improved slightly to 0.26%.
The 2007 parliamentary election result was 0.22%. The best local result with 1.42% came from the Ardahan border region near Georgia , although the TKP did not have a party office there. The current election result of the 2011 parliamentary elections is only 0.15%. The CPM thus remains below the 10% hurdle.
Communal
The party's greatest success is the election as mayor of Ovacık (Tunceli province) on March 30, 2014 . Candidate Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu won the election with 655 of 1,812 votes cast, a total of 36%. This makes Maçoğlu the first mayor of a communist party in the history of the Turkish Republic. In the next local elections in 2019 , Maçoğlu was elected mayor of the city of Tunceli .
Party program and activities
TKP enjoys limited support among workers, students and left-wing intellectuals, with its activities as well as its sympathizers and members centered in Istanbul. On the other hand, the party is having difficulties establishing itself in the villages of, say, eastern Anatolia. Since the founding of the "Patriotic Front", TKP has been using this organization (for example at the May 1st demonstration in Kartal ) to go public and to reach a wider audience. Other surrounding organizations that expand the influence of the core party were the Association of University Councils, the Nazım Hikmet Cultural Center, the José Martí Association for Friendship with Cuba and the Peace Alliance .
Like most communist parties, the TKP relies heavily on the international cooperation of communist movements. The preferred partner of the TKP is the far more influential Communist Party of Greece , with which it has a close theoretical agreement and thus a friendly relationship. Examples of this would be the commitment to Marxism-Leninism, the rejection of the reform path taken by other European (e.g. in France, Italy and Russia) and non-European (e.g. in Japan) communist parties, and the consistent criticism of the EU and NATO . The TKP is thus also an opponent of Turkey's accession to the EU and regards the EU as an “imperialist organization.” Similar to the KKE or, for example, the German Communist Party , the party supports the governments of Nicolás Maduro and Raúl Castro .
Because, in deviation from Lenin's writings (which referred particularly to Russia), the TKP perceives the required class alliance of peasants and industrial proletariat to be inadequate for the Turkish situation, the appearance of the TKP flag also deviates from the traditionally usual communist symbolism: instead of hammer and Sickle showed her a hammer that is crossed with half a gear and a small yellow star on a red background.
Individual evidence
- ↑ TÜRKİYE KOMÜNİST PARTİSİ on the official website of Yargıtay Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı
- ↑ Original text (Turkish) ( Memento from December 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Limited leeway . Quantara.de. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
- ^ Ismail Küpeli: Programmatic positions of some Turkish left-wing parties on Turkey's accession to the EU . 2007