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Communist Party of Turkey Türkiye Komünist Partisi | |
|---|---|
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| Abbreviation | TKP[1] |
| Leader | Central committee |
| General Secretary | Kemal Okuyan |
| Founded | 16 August 1993 (1993-08-16) (founded) 11 November 2001 (2001-11-11) (renamed) 22 January 2017 (2017-01-22) (reinitiated) |
| Headquarters | Ankara |
| Newspaper | soL |
| Student wing | Leftist High Schoolers |
| Youth wing | Communist Youth of Turkey (Türkiye Komünist Gençliği) |
| Membership(2025) |  7,208[2] |
| Ideology | Communism Marxism–Leninism Socialist patriotism[3] Anti-imperialism[4] Anti-capitalism[5] Anti-fascism[5] Internationalism[5] Environmentalism[5] Laicism[4] |
| Political position | Far-left |
| National affiliation | Union of Socialist Forces (2022–2023) |
| European affiliation | INITIATIVE (until 2023) ECA (2023–)[6] |
| International affiliation | IMCWP |
| Colors | Red, yellow, white |
| Slogan | Boyun Eğme! ("Do not submit!") |
| Grand National Assembly | 0 / 600 |
| Metropolitan municipalities | 0 / 30 |
| District municipalities | 0 / 1,351 |
| Provincial councillors | 0 / 1,282 |
| Municipal Assemblies | 9 / 20,952 |
| Website | |
| www.TKP.org.tr | |
TheCommunist Party of Turkey (Turkish:Türkiye Komünist Partisi,TKP) is acommunist party inTurkey. It was founded as theSocialist Power Party (Turkish:Sosyalist İktidar Partisi,SİP) on 16 August 1993. In 2001, the party changed its name to the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP).
The TKP that was founded in 2001 has its roots in 1978. In that year, aLeninist faction called Sosyalist İktidar (Socialist Power) voiced concerns about the main political line of theWorkers' Party of Turkey (Türkiye İşçi Partisi orTİP). The group claimed that the party's activities were not consistent with the programme of a revolutionary party, which should be defending socialist revolution. They also criticized the party'sclass collaborationism with thebourgeoisie. The group, headed byYalçın Küçük and Metin Çulhaoğlu, argued that due to the oppressive terror atmosphere in the country the party gave in to unification policy within the left wing, thus losing the perspective of coming to power. The group printed theSosyalist İktidar magazine during 1978–80 but it was not very effective.[7]
After the coup of12 September 1980, the activities of the group almost completely stopped like nearly all other parties and political groups. Following this, the group aimed to consolidate its cadres and its theoretical base. The communist cadres who gathered around theSosyalist İktidar magazine took the form of an organization in 1982. That year, a division occurred within the group between Yalçın Küçük supporters and Metin Çulhaoğlu followers. Yalçın Küçük and his group publishedToplumsal Kurtuluş ("Social Liberation") while Metin Çulhaoğlu and his group published theGelenek ("Tradition") magazine after his release from jail in 1986, with the claim of continuing the Marxist-Leninist tradition. This structure came to be known as the Gelenek movement, and TKP stems from this organisation. Gelenek defined the left in three categories as; orthodox,Revolutionary Democratic andnew. From this perspective it defended the orthodox left view and criticizedMikhail Gorbachev's ongoingGlasnost andPerestroika processes in theSoviet Union.
In this period, the Gelenek group announced that in the upcoming1987 General Elections it would not support any intra-system political party. It had worked with other left wing groups to campaign forindependent members for parliament. During this era, the Gelenek group entered into negotiations for building a left-wing party where all groups may be brought together but this process failed. After the collapse of these talks, the Gelenek group formed the Socialist Turkey Party (Sosyalist Türkiye Partisi) STP on 6 November 1992 in Ankara. The Political Bureau of the party was made up of seven people: Ali Önder Öndeş (President),Kemal Okuyan (Vice-President), Metin Çulhaoğlu, Süleyman Baba, Uğur Özdemir, Işıtan Gündüz,Aydemir Güler. However, due to some parts in the party programme Socialist Turkey Party was closed on 30 November 1993 by the order ofConstitutional Court.Gelenek continued to be published as a monthly theoretical publication.
After the closure of STP, the party cadres immediately formed the Party for Socialist Power (Sosyalist İktidar Partisi) SİP. In the same year, an internal division occurred within the party, culminating in the exit of Metin Çulhaoğlu and his followers.[8] After this incident the head of the party became Aydemir Güler.
During the December 1995 general elections, the party had no right to enter the elections. SİP entered the Labour, Peace and Freedom Bloc headed by HADEP.[7] After the election, the party had urged the participants to proceed with the bloc; however, the components refused to further collaborate with Kurdish nationalists. SİP had led the 1996 Istanbul University occupation and sit-in acts protesting the fees. The party had also made its name heads by holding an unannounced meeting in the banned Taksim Square on May Day 1996. After the exposure of theSusurluk scandal the party encouraged the masses to take to the streets for protesting the regime that had connections with politicians-mobs-drug dealers etc. In the same year the party started a campaign that demanded the closure of theMcDonald's in theMiddle East Technical University Campus, Ankara.
In 1999, SİP entered the general elections for the first time under the leadership of Aydemir Güler and received 37,680 votes (0.12%). During the campaign process for the general elections party memberHüseyin Duman was shot dead by a rightist politician İhsan Bal.[9]
In 2000, SİP emphasized on the ban on founding a party with "communist" adjective on its name. Thus party memberYalçın Cerit had applied to the authorities and found a new party called Communist Party (Komünist Parti).[10] In spite of the law forbidding to form a party with the word "communist" in the name no legal steps were taken by the officials while SİP party members organised activities with both party names.
During the 6th Extraordinary Congress of SİP which was held on 11 November 2001, the party decided to make a new breakthrough. It was announced that Communist Party merged with the Party for Socialist Power and that the name of the party had been changed to the Communist Party of Turkey (Türkiye Komünist Partisi). Despite the fact that it was still forbidden to establish a party with the communist name, the party managed to successfully push back against legal attacks. With this congress, the TKP incorporated cadres from different organizational backgrounds, including the followers of Metin Çulhaoğlu, thus ending the disconnect in the history of the communist movement. The Central Committee was formed with the following:Aydemir Güler,Kemal Okuyan, Süleyman Baba, Uğur İşlek, Erkin Özalp, Hüseyin Karabulut, Kurtuluş Kılçer, Oğuz Kavala, Hüsnü Atlıkan, Yalçın Cerit, Mesut Odman, Gülay Dinçel, Alper Dizdar, Gamze Erbil, Mehmet Kuzulugil, Yaşar Çelik, Nihal İmeryüz, Tunç Tatoğlu, Sedat Cengiz, Haluk İmeryüz, Arif Basa, Atilla Gökçek. Aydemir Güler was selected as President and Kemal Okuyan as General Secretary.[11] The foundation date of the party was declared as 10 September 1920 Baku Congress.
TKP broke the censorship against communists and participated in elections under its own name for the first time in2002.
During this period some of the main campaigns and achievements of the party were:
In the2014 local elections, TKP had 51,155 votes and 0.11% of the votes across Turkey.Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu was elected the mayor inOvacık district ofTunceli province.[16]
After a period of internal strife, two rival factions of TKP reached a consensus on 15 July 2014 to freeze the activities of the party and that neither faction shall use the name and emblem of TKP.[17] The faction led byErkan Baş and Metin Çulhaoğlu adopted the namePeople's Communist Party of Turkey and the faction led byKemal Okuyan andAydemir Güler founded theCommunist Party.[18]
On 22 January 2017, a congress was held by the initiation of seven well-known figures in the left-wing politics[who?]. The congress was embraced by independent communists and also by the Communist Party[citation needed]. The congress announced that the TKP name will not be left unguarded and declared that TKP is back in the political scene.[19]
In themunicipal election of 31 March 2019, TKP's candidateFatih Mehmet Maçoğlu won in the mainlyZaza KurdishTunceli Province, with 32% of the votes cast. The Kurdish opposition party, thePeople's Democratic Party, came second with 28%, followed by thesocial democratic andKemalistRepublican People's Party at 20%.[20]
In thegeneral election of 2023, TKP ran independently, within the alliance of theUnion of Socialist Forces.[21]
In thelocal election of 2024, TKP ran candidates in many precincts, most notably Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu in the precinct ofKadıköy, Istanbul, who had been the mayor of Tunceli prior.
The structure of the party is based ondemocratic centralism, as are conventionalMarxist–LeninistCommunist Parties. The basic unit is called cell, and the party has various cells in workshops, plants, neighbourhoods. These cells form the basis of district committees and eventually city committees. The deciding organ of the party isParty conference where delegates from every organisation determine theCentral Committee which has the authority between congresses. The Central Committee determines within itself a General Secretary whose responsibilities are; making sure that the Central Committee works are coordinated, the political and organisational activities of the party are guided closely and representing the party in national and international platforms.
The party seesAKP,CHP,MHP andHDP as bourgeois parties and classifies them as opposing class parties. The party has warm relations with the Federation of Socialist Assemblies (Sosyalist Meclisler Federasyonu), and the two organisations formed an electoral alliance in several provinces in the2019 Turkish local elections, which emerged victorious in the provincial centre ofTunceli.
In August 2022, it was announced in a press conference in Ankara, that the party along with theLeft Party, theCommunist Movement of Turkey andthe Movement of Revolution (tr) would form a coalition for the2023 national election, called theUnion of Socialist Forces.[22]
The party defends an orthodox view in communist movement and urges the movement to define its borders clearly. The party is quite close toCommunist Party of Greece and theCommunist Party of the Workers of Spain in international level. It has ties with many communist and worker's parties in the Middle East, Caucasus and Balkans. It has close relations with theCommunist Party of Cuba, leading a pioneer role in the solidarity for Cuba. TKP is a member of theInitiative of Communist and Workers' Parties.[23] The party joins the efforts to build an international focal point by issuing a magazine about communist theory calledInternational Communist Review.[24] TKP's youth wing, Communist Youth of Turkey and Leftist High Schoolers, are members of theWorld Federation of Democratic Youth.
TKP participates in theInternational Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties and hosted the 21st international meeting in 2019 inİzmir, Turkey alongside the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).[25]
In a report written in 2024, the TKP announced that it recognisedHamas as a resistance organisation in Palestine, and though it said it regretted the dominance of Islamists in Palestine, it nevertheless affirmed support for Hamas against Israel as well as other socialist forces in the region.[26]
| Election | Number of votes for TKP | Share of votes | Seats |
| 1999 General Election | 37,671 | 0,12% | 0 / 550 |
| 2002 General Election | 50,496 | 0,19% | 0 / 550 |
| 2007 General Election | 80,092 | 0,22% | 0 / 550 |
| 2011 General Election | 64,006 | 0,15% | 0 / 550 |
| 2023 General Election | 63,509 | 0,12% | 0 / 600 |
