Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Communist Party of Turkey declares its electoral position: "1 Vote Against Erdoğan, 1 Vote For TKP"

The Communist Party of Turkey has declared that all revolutionary, socialist and communist forces representing Turkey’s anti-imperialist, secular accumulation, who have a clear stand against domestic and foreign capital should enter the 14th of May parliamentary elections under a common electoral alliance. 
 
Our party has intensified its work in this regard and made various contacts.
 
Had our call, which received great support in the public opinion, been reciprocated, Turkey’s left could have mobilized an unprecedented energy and would have the opportunity to hit the electoral threshold. It was obvious that such a move would have been very valuable for the working people in the difficult times of the post-electoral period.

Unfortunately, the attempts to bring together all the left parties qualified to participate in the elections under an electoral alliance, did not yield the desired result.

Although the two parties within the Labour and Freedom Alliance, which have the right to participate in the elections, welcomed our call for the socialist movement to join forces under an independent electoral alliance with its own principles, they preferred to remain in the Labour and Freedom Alliance, which has very different founding principles, and they invited TKP to that alliance.

TKP of course respects this preference but does not accept it. Our party is of the opinion that the left has to express the character of the working people against capital, anti-imperialism against pro-US positions, secularism against religious sects and keep these principles above all kinds of calculations.

We wish success to these two parties and to the other left forces who withdraw their names and participate in the elections within the Labour and Freedom Alliance.

The Communist Party of Turkey will enter the parliamentary elections with its own name and candidates together with the Collaboration of Socialist Forces, which has a meaning beyond an electoral alliance. Our party will nominate candidates in 81 provinces and in all electoral districts, and will mobilize all its possibilities for the communist movement to make a historical leap, both with its propaganda and organizatory work during the electoral process and with the votes to be received.

As for the presidential election to be held on the same date, the Communist Party of Turkey calls for voting for Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

Our party has long argued that socialists should not leave our people without an alternative by presenting with their own joint candidates. There has not been a unity of understanding within the Collaboration of Socialist Forces on a candidate and electoral work that has a form and flexibility and will prevent Erdoğan from being elected once again.

The views of the Communist Party of Turkey on the Nation Alliance are explicit. This alliance, which our party calls the bourgeois opposition, is in congruence with the AKP mentality in terms of both world view and composition. The Nation Alliance is a formation that is backed by the domestic and foreign capital that brought the AKP to power years ago, that does not defend secularism and Republican values even superficially, and that views the world from a pro-NATO perspective.

It is not possible for TKP to bail for such a formation. Our party cannot have a goal such as pulling the Nation Alliance to the left, associating with it, entering into a bargain with it, etc., for one reason or another.

On the contrary, just as our party has tried to warn the people from the first day of the AKP rule and to expose the realities behind the AKP’s false democracy and freedom, we will continue to tell the truth about the Nation Alliance and to take a position against the capitalist order as a whole.

However, TKP is well aware of the dimensions of the historical destruction and darkness created by the 20-year rule of AKP and Erdoğan. This destruction and darkness has created a frustration in large sectors of the people that has not subsided for years and reached its peak in the Gezi Resistance, but this anger has not gained a character that questions the foundations of both the AKP rule and the existing social order. Over time, the response of the people against the AKP were exploited by the capitalist class and the imperialist countries, it lost its character of an organized popular movement and people were pacified and diverted into the ballot box. Unorganized popular strata were driven to pessimism as long as the AKP rule lasted, and our people began to lose hope about the country.

As of today, “to bring the Erdoğan era into an end” has become the only issue for a significant part of the society. The warning of TKP and other revolutionary forces that the problem does not stem from the AKP government alone, has only had a limited effect.

In order for communism, which is the only way out for Turkey, to become a stronger option and for a republican, enlightened and patriotic revival to be staged in our country, the Erdoğan era must end as soon as possible.

The end of the Erdoğan era has also become imperative for our people to realize that the Nation Alliance, which is seen as a solution today, will lead to a deepening of the problems rather than their solution.

During the electoral process, our party will explain to the people the extent and source of the destruction and darkness caused by the AKP rule and why it must come to an end, and will do its best to ensure that the AKP is defeated in the elections.


The end of the AKP era will be of great significance not only because it will pave the way for a real political partisanship, but also because it will be the outcome of the will of workers, women and youth who struggle against the AKP. Although this will could not put its signature on Erdoğan’s fall, it was decisive in preventing the AKP-era from being swallowed.

TKP is a strong, consistent and indispensable part of this will.

Even if the electoral defeat of the AKP will be taken as the success of the Nation Alliance, a combination of liberal-islamist-fascist-conservative forces established under the patronage and guidance of capital, what weakened the AKP has been the secular, libertarian and patriotic resistance in Turkish society and the time-to-time felt resistance of labor.

We will get rid of Erdoğan and AKP, and continue our struggle.

Our call of vote for Kılıçdaroğlu can neither be taken as a support nor an expectation for the National Alliance. This vote is cast against Erdoğan and carries the message “we resonate with your feelings” to large popular strata who are focused on the immediate termination of Erdoğan’s mandate.

In this sense, voting for TKP in the parliamentary elections will constitute a strong objection to the continuation of the same mentality with different names in the post-Erdoğan Turkey. It will also allow hundreds of thousands of people who put their trust in TKP to join forces for a livable country where equality, prosperity, wealth, enlightenment, freedom and justice prevail. For a Socialist Turkey!

Votes for TKP, not to suffocate under the rubble again!

TKP Comes Everything Changes!

#1VoteAgainstErdoğan1VoteForTKP

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