Turkish President Erdogan sues 'Boyun Eğme' communist weekly for...defamation

The "witch hunt" by the bourgeois AKP government of Tayip Erdogan in Turkey continues. This time, a new defamation case is filed against the weekly newspaper of the Communist Party (Komünist Parti) 'Boyun Eğme' for insulting the Turkish President.

Source: soL International.

Boyun Eğme, a weekly newspaper  of the Communist Party, Turkey (KP), was accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan through a published article titled ‘Solcu Liseliler (Leftist Students) set off’.

According to the bill of indictment prepared by the İstanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and accepted by the court, punishment is sought for Mehmet Kuzulugil, the editor-in-chief of the Boyun Eğme due to the accusation.

In the bill of indictment in which the President Erdoğan is named as ‘injured party’, it is propounded that libelous expressions are found in the article titled ‘Solcu Liseliler set off’ of the 47th issue of the Boyun Eğme.

"This is a dissolution in mass": Statement by the Communist Party, Turkey about the jailings of the pro-Kurdish MPs

The Communist Party - Turkey released a statement about the recent jailings of the pro-Kurdish MPs. The statement underscores the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has to keep attacking to sustain its dissolving power.

This is a dissolution in mass.

In today’s statement made by the Prime Ministry and directed to foreign press on the ongoing operation against several MPs of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), it was clear the Turkish government was trying to find a pretext for this operation. According to the statement, their being taken into custody like that was a normal procedure since they did not appear in court to give testimony!

Turkey: Police raid young members of the Communist Party (KP), threatened students

According to SOL International, Turkish police raided members of the Communist Youth who were working for an event of the ‘Socialism Schools’.

Young members of Communist Party, Turkey, (KP) were forcefully taken to a police station due to their works in front of Kadıköy Anadolu Lisesi (a prominent high school in Kadıköy/Istanbul), for the event of the ‘Socialism Schools’ that will be held on October 22, Saturday.

   

A member of Communist Party (KP) was attacked, and his mobile phone was seized on the grounds that he wanted to call his lawyer. Police did not permit any calls to lawyers.

Kemal Okuyan: "The real threat of Turkey is the bourgeoisie. The big monopolies are the biggest crime organizations"

In the following days of the 15th July coup attempt in Turkey, the Communist Party, Turkey released numerous statements and analysis regarding the situation in the country and the immediate agenda of the class struggle in Turkey. The following is a commentary by the First Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party, Turkey, Kemal Okuyan which composes KP's recent line of politics.

Source: International Communist Press.

Kemal Okuyan.

The Gulenists had seized the state. This is what they say. But, the picture shows that the Gulenists are in some extent the state itself. ‘Seizing’ does not, and cannot, correspond to reality. The truth is totally the opposite.

I shall not repeat how and why the Gulenist movement had increased its influence, as we have talked and written a lot about this issue.

But I shall reverse the above question and thus focus on the answer of the following one: What and who is the state?

Marxists have long debated on topics like, which mechanisms attribute class character to the state; how the state serves the interests of the ruling class; in this process to what extent the state is capable of creating an autonomous area and how the apparatus of the state, in the existing context, will fade with the annihilation of all classes. There is a whole and very valuable sum of writings to comprehend and analyse the complicated structure of the state.

Communist Party, Turkey (KP): Enough is enough! Do not mess Syria up anymore!

Statement by the Communist Party, Turkey.

The operation in Jarablus, Syria bogs down Turkey into the marsh of war. This totally illegitimate and incoherent operation should be stopped immediately.

Enough is enough!

Do not mess Syria up anymore!

The operation in Jarablus Syria bogs down Turkey into the marsh of war.This totally illegitimate and incoherent operation should be stopped immediately.

Turkey has once again, violated the sovereignty rights of Syria. Since from the beginning, the support of the outsiders, especially Turkey, to the armed gangs became the main cause for the Damascus administration loosing replacements to the international jihadist groups. Therefore, for anyone seeking peace in Syria it would be sufficient and necessary to stop intervening Syria's domestic affairs and to respect the country's sovereignty rights.

Communist Party, Turkey (KP): Letter to the Peoples of the World - Down with Imperialism!

LETTER FROM TURKEY TO THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD.

Source: http://www.kp.org.tr

The Central Committee of Communist Party, Turkey (KP) released a declaration for the peoples of the world in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey:

"We witnessed an attempted coup in Turkey on the night of July 15. Despite its oddnesses, obscurities and uncertainties about the actors behind it, this was a genuine coup attempt.

That Fethullah Gülen was behind the coup and that Fethullah Gülen has deep ties with the U.S. administration are facts. Additionally, there were more than a few traces of Pentagon and CIA behind the coup attempt.

The failure of this attempted coup is to the benefit of our people. If the coup had succeeded, the working people already burdened with all the imaginable problems laid on them by the capitalist system would have had to face heavier and more destructive conditions. One needs to keep in mind that the coup plotters have a pro-NATO and Islamist orientation and they have been serving the international monopolies for decades.

Communist Party, Turkey (KP): On the coup attempt and the Gülen movement (English, Español)

Source: http://www.kp.org.tr.

Read the first part here.

The coup attempt and the continuing dispute in its aftermath was not only the concern of Turkey but of the workers’ and communist parties all over the world. Definitely, the course of the events should be considered regarding the class struggle in Turkey but at the same time that very coup attempt also referred to the class struggle around the world, indicating the relentless rivalry and weaknesses within the imperialist order.

In order to share with the international communist movement, the International Relations Bureau of the Communist Party,Turkey has prepared an analysis which consists of 10 critical questions on recent coup attempt and its aftermath in Turkey.

International Bulletin of Communist Party, Turkey No7.

Critical questions on recent coup attempt and its aftermath in Turkey:

3- Were there any chance for the attempt to be successful?

Communist Party, Turkey (KP): Critical questions on recent coup attempt and its aftermath in Turkey (English, Español)

Source: www.kp.org.tr.

The coup attempt and the continuing dispute in its aftermath was not only the concern of Turkey but of the workers’ and communist parties all over the world. Definitely, the course of the events should be considered regarding the class struggle in Turkey but at the same time that very coup attempt also referred to the class struggle around the world, indicating the relentless rivalry and weaknesses within the imperialist order.

In order to share with the international communist movement, the International Relations Bureau of the Communist Party,Turkey has prepared an analysis which consists of 10 critical questions on recent coup attempt and its aftermath in Turkey.

International Bulletin of Communist Party, Turkey No6.

Critical questions on recent coup attempt and its aftermath in Turkey:

Communist Party, Turkey (KP): "Step into action!"- Interviews with Kemal Okuyan and Özlem Şen Abay

Communist Party, Turkey: Step into action!

Turkey must exit NATO.

The EU membership process must stop;

All military agreements with the US must be abolished, all relevant military bases must be closed;

All religious associations must be dissolved. Any religious discourse must be forbidden in politics. Educational system must be refashioned on the secular basis;

The support for the terrorist groups in Syria must be called off.

These are the urgent demands that must be raised and popularized after the coup attempt of the Gulenists and their collaborators.

The Communist Party cannot let the immediate connections between the unjust system in the country and what happened thereof be passed over while struggling for such demands.

Communist Party of Greece (KKE): Statement on the developments in Turkey and the attempted military coup

Source: 902.gr / Translation in English: In Defense of Communism.

“The up-to-date data information, regarding the developments in Turkey and the coup attempt, refer to a sharpening of the internal, intra-bourgeois contradictions, of the differences between the various authority centers in the country, which interweave with the total international antagonisms in the broader region of Syria, of Middle East and Eastern Merditerranean, through the direct intervention and juxtaposition of powerful capitalist states.

In these antagonisms, Turkey has participated- and participates- having as an aim the protection of the Turkish bourgeois-class interests and its strengthening as a regional power. The active implication of Turkey in the Syria developments, the military operations it conducted in its northern part which is inhabited by populations of Kurdish origin, the relations with the Islamic State (Daesh) brought it in confrontation with its traditional allies, e.g. USA, NATO and others.

Communist Party, Turkey (KP): Statement of the Central Committee regarding the latest developments in the country

Source: kp.org.tr.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party has gathered on 17th of July and assessed the latest developments in the country deeply and also discussed the Party's situation and  missions. 

The Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Turkey on July 2016

1.  July 15th coup attempt has not brought ideologically conflicting centers subject to each other, but involved at least two and even more state cliques, which have identical class identities and ideologies. It is not possible that these cliques would be totally unaware of each other's plans and actions just like it is being impossible to dissociated them. However the attempt on 15th of July is not a bloody scenario totally planned by Erdoğan as some claimed so, but is a real coup attempt.

Kemal Okuyan (Communist Party, Turkey): "Erdoğan cannot trust anyone anymore"

Interview with Kemal Okuyan, First Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party, Turkey (KP) on the coup attempt in Turkey.

Source: International Communist Press, 17th July 2016.

Following is the interview of the soL news portal with Kemal Okuyan First Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party, Turkey (KP) on the coup attempt in Turkey:

SoL: Was the coup attempt surprising for you?

KO: Nothing happening in Turkey should surprise anyone. But more importantly, the possibility of a military coup had been increasing gradually. There are international actors and some power groups in Turkey, who are frustrated by Erdoğan. We have indicated the causes of this discontent several times, we are not making those up. Those are documented, reported facts. Could there be a rule for the capitalists saying there cannot be any conflict within imperialists, no giving away of their own politicians? Recep Tayyip Erdoğan served a lot for the international monopolies, he is still serving them though… But both he himself has made mistakes and also the inner conflicts of the imperialism have been deepened creating various tendencies some of which are not happy with a Turkey with Erdoğan. In that sense, a coup was predictable. Yet obviously there are surprising things about this attempt.

SoL: Some consider everything as a scenario?

KO: It is not a comparison but: I don't understand how certain people take Talat Aydemir’s interventions* seriously but not consider this attempt as realistic? This is because, everything can be visualised today. Image ruins fetishes, yet creates new ones. There is video footage everywhere, those create perceptions of a “fake coup”. Whereas before, everything was on narrative and documents and could be idealized. The fact that this incident has strengthened Erdoğan’s position does not mean it was organised by him or his men. The attempt had some particular critical moments, and if things had been different at those moments we would be talking about quite a different picture.

Erdogan vs Coup: The two sides of the same coin

COMMENTARY.

By Nikos Mottas.

It is certainly too early in order to draw solid conclusions about the attempted military coup in Turkey. The developments and the information we receive are rapid and continuous. Numerous questions arise: Who was really behind the attempted Coup? What were the real motives of this action? How will Tayip Erdogan and his government respond in the next few days? However, what is sure is the framework within which the developments in Turkey are taking place: It is a framework of inter-bourgeois contradictions which reflect a sharp rivalry between different parts of the Turkish Capital.

The attempted military coup- as well as the almost immediate response from Erdogan and AKP supporters- reflect a situation of internal war within Turkey's bourgeoisie. Taking into account the significant geostrategic role of Turkey in the region, we can understand that this intra-bourgeois, intra-capitalist war consists part of broader inter-imperialist contradictions in the Middle East.

The situation in Turkey cannot be explained on the basis of the- nevertheless existing- political rivalry between pro-Islamists (Erdogan) and Kemalist forces; It is a deeper and much more complicated situation. The internal political turmoil in Turkey is interdependent with the imperialist activity in the region- with the ongoing war in Syria and the relations of the Turkish government with foreign powers such as the US, NATO, Russia, the EU, ISIS etc.

"There is no alternative but people"- Statement of the Communist Party, Turkey (KP) on the attempted military coup

Statement from the Communist Party, Turkey. Source: International Communist Press, 16th July 2016.

Communist Party, Turkey (KP) released a statement on the military activities ongoing since the night of 15th July. Following is the full text of the statement from KP:

"The Communist Party is calling on our people to organize in the Party's ranks against the enemies of the people and humanity.

The liberation is in our own hands.

We do not have all the details of what happened during the coup attempt that took place in Turkey in the hours between July 15 and July 16.

However, we know very well that plans that are supported by foreign forces, that do not take its power from the working class can not defeat AKP darkness and solve Turkey's problems.

"No one will save you in your stead! Rise up!"- Statement by the Communist Party, Turkey on Istanbul terrorist attack

Statement by the Communist Party, Turkey (Komünist Parti) regarding the terrorist attack in Istanbul's airport / Source: International Communist Press.

No people is by nature predisposed to take massacres for granted, to kneel before tyranny, and to keep silent against fundamentalism. Any people who do so lose their humanity.

We reject to get used to massacres, bomb attacks, and political murders.

We reject to put up with a government who always try to present massacres, bomb attacks, and political murders as usual events.

We reject to keep silent against a government who interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, who prompt terrorists to attack those lands, and who back the same terrorists in the name of “sacred values” in its own country. 

We reject to recognize the law of those who pass new bills in the parliament while tens die due to the indifference, hypocrisy, sinister plans, and ineptitude of the government.

KKE: Solidarity message to the Communist Party, Turkey (KP) for the criminal attack in Istanbul's airport

Source: 902.gr / Translation: In Defense of Communism.

The International Relations Department of the CC of KKE sent the following message of solidarity to the Communist Party, Turkey (KP):

Dear comrades,

We express our condolences for the victims of the criminal attack in the airport of Istanbul.

The people of the region must be alerted, because the contradictions and the clashes of imperialists in the region consist the soil upon which people shed their blood and such actions are imbedded in escalation plans of interventions and wars for the profits of the monopolies, imposing of repressive measures against the working people.

The AKP goverment bears serious responsibilities as long as with its policy has directly implicated Turkey in imperialist plans and antagonisms.

The people of the region, who pay a heavy toll of blood for the movements and upheavals between NATO, EU, US and Russia, Israel and the Gulf's monarchies, have every interest to unite in a common struggle, contrasting their interests against the interests of the monopolies, of the bourgeoisies, of the imperialists. 

Communist Party, Turkey: German Parliament's resolution on the Armenian genocide and AKP government's reaction

Source: International Communist Press (ICP).

Communist Party, Turkey (KP) released a statement on the AKP government's reaction to the German parliament's resolution on the Armenian genocide

The German parliament approved a resolution declaring that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One was a "genocide", at the beginning of this month. The vote was responded by harsh statement by the AKP government and Erdoğan himself. Turkey recalled its ambassador and Erdoğan threatened Germany with further action and indicated the Europen countries had mcuh more dark archives in the sense of "genocide". Additionally Turkey's newly assigned Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed a "racist Armenian lobby" for the resolution.

Interview with KKE's Makis Papadopoulos: "The communists need to struggle decisively and methodologically against imperialism"

Special interview with Makis Papadopoulos, member of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Greece (KKE), responsible for the Ideology Department.

Source: International Communist Press, 01 June 2016.

ICP: As a result of the protocol that exists between CP of Greece and CP, Turkey you came to give a seminar on imperialism to the cadres of CP, Turkey. Do you think that the seminar was productive?

Makis Papadopoulos (MP): The seminar itself proves the substantial and fraternal cooperation in the relationship of the two parties. CP of Greece (KKE) and CP, Turkey (KP) in order to develop a revolutionary strategy they realize the need of a new theoretical analysis in the Marxist-Leninist approach. This seminar was productive because it gave us the chance to clarify the Leninist approach of our party and to debate certain critical points of the topic. At a period which the antagonism among the inter-imperialist centers is intensifying and with NATO getting more aggressive, thus there is a risk of a more general war, the communist parties need to be alert to act in time.

Interview with Kemal Okuyan, First Secretary of Communist Party of Turkey (Rizospastis, 15 May 2016)

COMMUNIST PARTY OF TURKEY

Discussion with Kemal Okuyan, First Secretary of the Central Committee.

Source: Rizospastis / Translation: In Defense of Communism.

For the developments in Turkey, the activity of the communists, the difficulties but also the existing potential, we had the opportunity to discuss with comrade Kemal Okuyan, First Secretary of the CC of Communist Party, Turkey, and representative of 'Gelenek' magazine in the International Communist Review. 

- What is the political, socio-economic reality in Turkey? We know about the persecutions of party's members and yours personally. How does the Party react?

Turkey passes through a long and deep political crisis which, for the time being, doesn't include the financial crisis, despite the fact that Turkish economy is very fragile, with dissolution of state property and a continuous attack on the working class' rights, while there is a huge leak of wealth and high level of foreigh investors. The government evolves a generalized social attack, which includes the Kurds, the secular forces against religious fundamentalism. And, of course, we the communists are permanently the target. Attacks on our offices occur, (attacks) against our members with the accusation of insulting President Erdogan. I personally face prosecution in three different cases (one began on May 5th, but was re-scheduled for the coming September). The Party has agreed to intensify the offensive political struggle.

- What are the priorities of the Party this period?

Shameful distortion of Nazim Hikmet's lyrics from car manufacturer company - Response from Turkey's Komünist Parti (KP)

Communist Party, Turkey (KP) came out strongly against an OPEL company ad using and distorting Nazım Hikmet's lyrics.

Source: International Communist Press, 3rd May 2016.

The CC of the Communist Party, Turkey (KP) released a statement protesting the OPEL company and the YKY publications for their abusement of communist poet Nazım Hikmet's legacy.

"...Our communist poet's legacy cannot be accounted in banks or kept in safe boxes. That legacy can only be saved forever with the reason and the labour of the communists..." wrote the statement.

An advertisement of OPEL distorting Nazım's lyrics was published on one of the best selling newspaper Hürriyet of Turkey today. Immediately after that, KP  claimed the legacy of the internationally recognised communist poet. Similarly, in the 2002 after the YKY publication company had declared material rights over Nazım Hikmet's works, the communists had objected strongly and had published Nazım's works as the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP).