Workers' Party (Turkey)
Encyclopedia
Workers' Party is political party
in Turkey
led by Doğu Perinçek
. İP has its roots in the Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey
(TİİKP), Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey (TİKP) and Socialist Party (Turkey). They are known as "Aydınlıkçılar" (Enlighteners) due to their periodical "Aydınlık" (Enlightenment).
The İP traditionally combined Maoist rhetoric with a hardline Kemalism. Although they accept scientific socialism
as their main ideology, they have a more nationalistic ideology than other left-wing parties in Turkey. Their revolution strategy is based on "National Democratic Revolution", which is close to Mao Zedong
's "New Democratic Revolution". İP supports Stalin's "socialism in one country" thesis, rather than Mirsäyet Soltanğäliev
's "national communism
" thesis. Such that, Mehmet Bedri Gültekin, deputy chairman of the party, wrote a book on Soltanğäliev's counter-revolutionary role. They admire the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
(who is considered a "left-wing bourgois democratic revolutionary" by most of the party members) as much as they admire Marxist revolutionary leaders such as Lenin, Mao Zedong
and Fidel Castro
. They also defend Turkish interests in issues concerning Cyprus
, Greece
or Armenia
. They also promote alliances with nations they believe have anti-imperialist tendencies - (such as Venezuela
, Brazil
and Cuba
) - or oppose the existence of American
expansionism
- (such as India
, China
and Russia
).
İP states that a brotherhood based solution to the Kurdish
question must exclude imperialist initiative in the Middle East
. They claim that the Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) has been completely under the control of the USA since the Gulf War
. İP asserts that it is still possible to unite Turkish
and Kurdish
people in Turkey
within the borders of an anti-imperialist nation-state
which will be established through a democratic revolution. According to them, separatism became a tool of US imperialism in breaking national markets in the Third World
in post-Cold War
conditions. Although they traverse separation, they also defend democratic rights and freedoms of Kurds in Turkey. For İP, the key tool to solve the Kurdish problem is to demolish "feudal structures" in Kurdish provinces and make peasants "free citizens".
The youth student wing of İP is known as Öncü Gençlik (Vanguard Youth (Turkey)
).
The youth workingmen wing of İP is known as Emekçi Gençlik (Labourer Youth).
The women wing of İP is known as Öncü Kadin (Vanguard Women).
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
led by Doğu Perinçek
Dogu Perinçek
Doğu Perinçek is a Turkish politician, leader of the Workers' Party , a scientific socialist organization, and former chairman of the Workers' Party . His first name Doğu means "East" in Turkish.-Personal life:...
. İP has its roots in the Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey
Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey
Türkiye İhtilâlci İşçi Köylü Partisi , a pro-Chinese communist party in Turkey. TİİKP was founded in 1971 by the Proleter Devrimci Aydınlık group, that had broken away from Dev-Genç . The chairman of TİİKP was Doğu Perinçek...
(TİİKP), Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey (TİKP) and Socialist Party (Turkey). They are known as "Aydınlıkçılar" (Enlighteners) due to their periodical "Aydınlık" (Enlightenment).
The İP traditionally combined Maoist rhetoric with a hardline Kemalism. Although they accept scientific socialism
Scientific Socialism
Scientific socialism is the term used by Friedrich Engels to describe the social-political-economic theory first pioneered by Karl Marx. The purported reason why this socialism is "scientific socialism" is because its theories are held to an empirical standard, observations are essential to its...
as their main ideology, they have a more nationalistic ideology than other left-wing parties in Turkey. Their revolution strategy is based on "National Democratic Revolution", which is close to Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
's "New Democratic Revolution". İP supports Stalin's "socialism in one country" thesis, rather than Mirsäyet Soltanğäliev
Mirsäyet Soltangäliev
Sultan Galiev , usually known in English as Mirza Sultan-Galiev, was a Tatar Bolshevik who rose to prominence in the Russian Communist Party in the early 1920s...
's "national communism
National communism
The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....
" thesis. Such that, Mehmet Bedri Gültekin, deputy chairman of the party, wrote a book on Soltanğäliev's counter-revolutionary role. They admire the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....
(who is considered a "left-wing bourgois democratic revolutionary" by most of the party members) as much as they admire Marxist revolutionary leaders such as Lenin, Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
. They also defend Turkish interests in issues concerning Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
or Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
. They also promote alliances with nations they believe have anti-imperialist tendencies - (such as Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
) - or oppose the existence of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
expansionism
Expansionism
In general, expansionism consists of expansionist policies of governments and states. While some have linked the term to promoting economic growth , more commonly expansionism refers to the doctrine of a state expanding its territorial base usually, though not necessarily, by means of military...
- (such as India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
).
İP states that a brotherhood based solution to the Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
question must exclude imperialist initiative in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. They claim that the Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) has been completely under the control of the USA since the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. İP asserts that it is still possible to unite Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
and Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
people in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
within the borders of an anti-imperialist nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
which will be established through a democratic revolution. According to them, separatism became a tool of US imperialism in breaking national markets in the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
in post-Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
conditions. Although they traverse separation, they also defend democratic rights and freedoms of Kurds in Turkey. For İP, the key tool to solve the Kurdish problem is to demolish "feudal structures" in Kurdish provinces and make peasants "free citizens".
The youth student wing of İP is known as Öncü Gençlik (Vanguard Youth (Turkey)
Vanguard Youth (Turkey)
Vanguard Youth , a youth mass organization launched by the Workers' Party on April 17, 1994. Vanguard Youth worked as a socialist and patriotic, legal organization in the Turkey....
).
The youth workingmen wing of İP is known as Emekçi Gençlik (Labourer Youth).
The women wing of İP is known as Öncü Kadin (Vanguard Women).
Media
- Aydınlık (Enlightenment), daily newspaper.
- Teori (Theory), monthly theory and strategy review.
- Bilim ve Ütopya (Science and Utopia), monthly science journal.
- Ulusal Kanal (National Channel), television station.
- Kaynak Yayınları (Source Publications), publisher.
Election results
- 1995 general electionTurkish general election, 1995Turkey's 13th general election was held on Sunday December 24, 1995, triggered after the newly reformed Republican People's Party withdrew from a coalition with the True Path Party...
: 61,428 votes (0.22%) - 1999 general electionTurkish general election, 1999Turkey's 14th general election was held on Sunday April 18, 1999 and was the first election in Turkish history to combine local, council and parliamentary elections on the same day. Bülent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party , soaring in popularity after the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan,...
: 57,593 votes (0.18%) - 2002 general electionTurkish general election, 2002Turkey's 15th general election was held on November 3, 2002 following the collapse of the DSP-MHP-ANAP coalition led by Bülent Ecevit. It was won by the Justice and Development Party , led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, producing a crushing majority in spite of their winning just 34.3% of the national vote...
: 160,227 votes (0.51%) - 2007 general electionTurkish general election, 2007Turkey's 16th general election was held on July 22, 2007 and resulted in a resounding victory for the incumbent Justice and Development Party...
: 69,498 votes (0.38%) - preliminary results