Previous Comment
At the present time, we see how the contradictions at a global level, and specifically in the imperialist field, are becoming more acute. The dispute for hegemony and leadership of the New Imperialist Order has led to the intensification of imperialist wars against the peoples, to a new stage of plundering of the wealth of the poor peoples of the world, to new economic adjustments by the International Monetary Fund, to a new arms race, to the advance of the destruction of the environment and to the increase in human deaths as a consequence of all the above. As a consequence of this, the people are preparing to fight for their rights in defense of life as well as against fascism and for the seizure of power for the construction of a socialist society and the conquest of self-determination, sovereignty and independence. Turkey is no exception. The fascism imposed from the very moment of the birth of the republic has intensified with Erdogan. The persecution against workers and revolutionary parties, against the Kurdish movement and against alternative and popular media is increasing. To understand the current reality in Türkiye, we interviewed the Kaldirac Movement. The full interview follows below.
The Interview
First of all, thank you for your interview request. We would like to take this opportunity to send our greetings to the revolutionary socialist movement in your country, to the communist movement, and to every revolutionary who fights for the revolution, no matter how they express themselves.
Firstly, the totality of questions showed us that you have a close interest in the revolutionary movements and class struggle in our country and in the world, and we were pleased to see this. This made us happy. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the world revolutionary movement is quite disorganized. For this reason, we believe that the relations between revolutionary socialists and communists all over the world are very important.
We would like to point out some of the information gaps in some of your questions. Maybe this is not necessary for this interview. But your interest in the revolutionary movement in our country has motivated us to emphasize some of these gaps.
While answering your questions one by one, as you requested, with your permission we wanted to elaborate a little more on some issues. I hope that our sincere answers will make sense to you as well.
In 1920, the Turkish Communist Party (TKP) was founded. What was the context of the class struggle for the formation of the Turkish Communist Party (TKP)? What were the ideological elements typical of Turkish reality that converge in the Communist Party of Türkiye?
Yes, the TKP was founded in 1920 in Baku. This happened at a time when the October Revolution was shaking the world and our region. However, it would be incomplete to start the process from here.
The Ottoman Empire was one of the main territories to be divided during the First World War, when the Western imperialist powers were engaged in a war of repartitioning the world, and the issue on the table of these imperialist powers, the famous “Eastern question,” was largely the question of partitioning the Ottoman Empire. At that time, the Ottoman Empire covered a vast geography from North Africa to Egypt, from the Middle East to parts of the Balkans.
In the 1870s, when the capitalist system was evolving into the imperialist stage and the age of monopolies was beginning, Thessaloniki (today a Greek city), which was within the Ottoman borders, was one of the provinces where the workers’ movement was developing. Workers’ actions were also developing in cities such as Istanbul and Bursa. However, all these movements cannot be considered as glorious class struggles. The formation of “national liberation” struggles in the Balkans, where the working class was the most developed, and the Ottoman Empire’s loss of these territories; in fact, it would be wrong to say that the workers’ movement that developed in these regions, the communist movement in the form of a nucleus, did not affect Istanbul and other developed provinces.
In Istanbul in the 1870s, unions of workers had begun to form in Istanbul, which in reality contained communist ideas. Two young workers who were executed in Istanbul in the 1870s were actually part of such organizations. These two young workers were communists and came from the Armenian people.
At that time, the Ottoman Empire was on its way to becoming a semi-colony. The West characterized the Ottoman Empire as a “sick man.” The feudal Ottoman Empire, which had grown on the basis of constant military occupation and plunder, had begun to become a semi-colony of the imperialist powers of the West in the early 1800s through many capitulations. And in this same period, the Ottoman Empire had become a prison of peoples. At that time, hundreds of large and small peoples lived in the Ottoman Empire. And among the most progressed of these peoples, communist consciousness was developing. The relative weakness of the working class and the influence of the French Revolution were fueling struggles for “national liberation” in this vast Ottoman territory.
When the war started in 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the war on the side of Germany. And just a year later, the Ottoman territories were being occupied. Unorganized and small-scale resistances against the imperialist occupation began to emerge. As much as these resistances included elements with a communist perspective, they could also contain a religious perspective.
Every war is also a civil war. When the Ottoman Empire went to war, it resorted to massacres in order to prevent this civil war in advance. The most well-known of these massacres was the Armenian massacre. The 1915 Armenian genocide continued until 1919, followed by the Assyrian and Pontic genocides.
At the same time, communist organizations started to appear inside the country. The October Revolution had made its impact felt quite strongly and the Communist International had sent some cadres to Turkey. The Green Army, organized in 1918, was in fact the organized form of the armed anti-occupation resistance in the rest of the Ottoman territories. The fact that it was called the Green Army when it should normally have been the Red Army shows that it was not a pure communist movement. However, the Green Army was evolving into a process in which communist ideas were influential.
When the TKP was founded in Baku (Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan) in 1920, different communist organizations had already started to form inside. The TKP also meant the unification of the entire communist movement in 1920.
When the First World War started to come to an end after the October Revolution, the Western imperialist occupiers began to leave the places they had occupied. This was because the occupation attempt was preparing the ground for a more powerful communist reaction. In the same period, internally, the Ottoman state became open to sharing its sovereignty with the emerging bourgeois cadres. Feudal reactionism had begun to get along with bourgeois reactionism. The Western imperialist masters kept the ways of agreement open with these new bourgeois cadres. The Mustafa Kemal movement, which had received great support from the USSR, was in fact working with the imperialist masters in the background, mostly with the British and American imperialists. And the first act of the new Kemalist bourgeois movement was to invite the leaders of the communist party founded in Baku to the country and it massacred them as soon as they entered the country. The TKP faced the murder of 15 of its most valuable leaders only 4 months after its foundation. Mustafa Kemal and his friends banned the communist movement in their new bourgeois and Western-colonized state. Before even naming their bourgeois state a “republic,” they annihilated the entire resistance movement, including the Green Army, with unprecedented policies of massacre.
Despite the ideological clarity of the Communist International on the one hand, and the anti-occupation and armed resistance on the other, the TKP could not be an ideologically clear enough communist organization.
This process continued until the rise of German fascism, after which the pressure increased even more and the communist movement failed to reorganize itself. The ruling bourgeois state attacked every recovery move with great ideological consciousness and violence.
How does Turkish imperial history influence the formation of the Communist Party? How do you deal with it from within the working class?
The Republic of Turkey was organized as a colonial country. It existed as a kind of “joint colony.” This state of being a “joint colony” was further solidified when it joined NATO as part of the imperialist new world order established after the Second World War. At the request of the US, the Republic of Turkey (TR) state sent troops to the Korean War in 1952 to join NATO. It was organized as such a colonial and special organization.
In the lands that remained from the Ottoman Empire, the TR state was organized as a prison of peoples. Other peoples were subjected to a process of “Turkification.” The racist practices of Hitler’s fascism also emerged in our country.
Thus, the TR state was organized from the very beginning as (a) a colonial country, (b) a kind of joint outpost of the imperialist world against the USSR as an anti-communist state organization and (c) a prison of peoples. The existence of classes was denied and the existence of peoples was ignored. In this way, the liberating effect of the October Revolution on the peoples was blocked. In 1952 it joined NATO and its own army was completely reorganized accordingly. It was organized as a “joint colony,” militarily under the control of the USA and economically under the control of Europe.
Therefore, to consider the history of the TR state as a back and forth between fascism and democracy would be a lack of historical awareness. The TR state was organized in this way from the very beginning. This also affected the workers’ movement. In 1952, Türk-İş was founded under the supervision of the CIA, which even today is the largest trade union confederation in the country. Even in the trade union field, state organization was put in place from the very beginning. Therefore, it is not enough to call the trade union control in our country simply a “trade union bureaucracy.” It is an extension of a kind of Gladio organization that exists in NATO member countries, and for this reason we define today’s state-union relations as “union mafia.”
The policy of massacring the peoples, which comes from the Ottoman Empire, has always been and continues to be a very conscious policy of the TR state to use all kinds of identities to divide the class struggle.
There are many parties that define themselves as communist. How is this broad communist movement expressed? What are their differences?
There are many parties in our country that call themselves “communist.” The TKP, which continues its existence as a legal party, is actually more of a “nationalist” movement. The nationalist movement actually means that the communist movement carries the bourgeois ideology within itself. It is even a matter of debate whether these movements will take an anti-imperialist stance. Of course, their members can take such a position. But the leadership of these movements is nationalist and statist.
On the other hand, there are communist organizations that claim to be the followers of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya’s political path. We do not doubt their sincerity. But despite this, we have doubts on whether they correctly grasp the concrete situation and the state. As the Kaldıraç Movement, we are in favor of working together with these comrades in many things.
But there are many other movements in our country that do not use the name communist, but take a revolutionary stance in the practical class struggle. We also find cooperation with them important. Today, in our country, no communist movement, including ours, is the vanguard organization of the developing revolution. Therefore, instead of a debate on “vanguardism,” we consider the common struggle of the revolutionary movement important to organize the Leninist vanguard within the struggle. This approach is more functional.
The former communist party dissolved itself in 2014 to reorganize in 2017. Revolutionary communist parties, Maoists, have been created under the influence of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya. What is the importance of Ibrahim Kypakkaya? What is your position or opinion about Ibrahim Kaypakkaya?
The information that the former communist party dissolved itself in 2014 contains some incomplete information. The TKP, founded in 1920, dissolved itself in the 1990s after the September 12 coup d’état in our country. This is a process of liquidation, whether we like that movement or not. And September 12 was a counter-revolution. Every element of the revolutionary movement could not show the will to march to power. Therefore, almost every revolutionary and communist movement experienced a kind of erosion, a liquidation. After the dissolution of the USSR, this erosion also extended to the ideological field. The flight from the organization and the “forgetting” of revolutionary life, which is a requirement of revolutionary struggle, became a generalized phenomenon under these two factors, namely the September 12 counter-revolution and the dissolution of the USSR.
Therefore, we, as the Kaldıraç Movement, do not see ourselves in a narrow sense as the continuation of an old group, an old communist movement. Of course our ideology, of course our struggle is within this communist world. We embrace all revolutionary and communist history.
In this aspect, İbrahim Kaypakkaya is for us an exemplary revolutionary who shows how a revolutionary should resist against the rulers. As such, we also consider Mahir Çayan, Mustafa Suphi and Deniz Gezmiş important. Every revolutionary who fought for the revolution and died for the revolution has a place in our minds.
Kaypakkaya is a revolutionary who took a stance against the Kemalist bourgeois ideology that influenced the left-revolutionary movement of our country in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and for this reason he is very important to us.
Erdogan has been characterized by his fascist and repressive policies. He has allied himself with the Islamic State and “Israel” in the genocide against the Kurdish People. He has repressed the Kurdish Communist Party (PKK) and imprisoned Abdullah Ocalán also against the HDP party. He has taken journalists prisoner and closed pro-Kurdish newspapers. Is fascism new in Türkiye or does it has historical origins? Which are they?
Yes, Erdoğan has been in power for 23 years. But we look at Erdoğan as a joint project of the West. The issue is not Erdogan. For example, the sovereigns of our country, the ruling bloc, always act as a whole when it comes to the revolutionary movement and the Kurdish movement. They also differ on many issues. One sides with German imperialism, one with British imperialism, one acts on behalf of French imperialism and they act the most on behalf of the US. If the expression is appropriate, the TR state has no institution independent of the imperialist rulers and their war organization NATO. Recently, a British official could not stop himself from saying that they have established 77 Islamist sects in Turkey.
Islamist and nationalist (Turkist) ideology has been the main ideology of the TR state for many, many years. This is not unique to Erdoğan.
Erdoğan was put in place as a NATO and US project, for the BOP (Greater Middle East Project). The US wants to reshape the entire region. “Reshaping” actually means the war for the repartitioning of the world, following the dissolution of the USSR. That is why they brought “democracy” to Afghanistan. They killed or disabled 1 million children in order to bring “democracy” to Iraq. In the famous Epstein file, there are 48 thousand children kidnapped from Turkey. All the practices they carried out yesterday in Chile are taking place every day in our country.
By the way, the PKK is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. In your question, it is referred to as the “communist party.” We would like to correct this, although it is not very important.
Above, we mentioned two processes of defeat and their erosive effect on the revolutionary movement. One was the dissolution of the USSR and the other was the September 12 counter-revolutionary attack. September 12 was planned and put into effect by the United States. In 1984, the Kurdish revolutionary movement created a positive effect against these two effects and this is very valuable for us.
We describe the current Erdoğan regime as the Palace Regime. In the Palace Regime, parliament, political parties, etc. do not matter. The rulers themselves have buried the ballot boxes. The municipalities that the Kurds win in every election are directly taken over by the state through trustee practices by the Palace Regime. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about democracy etc. in our country.
But please pay attention, where in the world is there democracy? In the US, Germany, Sweden, Sweden, Britain or France with Macron? The capitalist system is a shapeless creature with an extra life extension. And every day it lives is a threat not only to the working class, not only to us communists, but to everyone who calls themselves human.
In every period of their history, the rulers in our country have practiced a raging policy of attack against revolutionaries and communists. They are doing the same today.
The Palace Regime, headed by Erdoğan, is an extraordinary organization of the state and this is an issue that goes beyond classical fascism discussions. The state in the US and Germany will soon turn into this. There are signs for this. Is it democracy to choose between Trump and Biden?
The current Palace Regime is based on war policies at home and abroad. On the one hand, international capital is looting the country, and the continuation of this looting depends on war policies at home and abroad.
However, Turkey remains a military power in the region and constitutes the geographical border with Europe. It is the entrance to Europe. It has a strategic location. Its relationship with the United States is close. How does this relationship with imperialism, its condition as a military power, influence the development of the labor and revolutionary movement?
Turkey is a “ joint colony”. I know, this term is not very familiar. But it will not be valid after a while anyway; a joint colony will become a colony of one of the imperialist masters or it will be liberated as a socialist country through revolution.
“Joint colony” means that Turkey is militarily dependent on the US and economically dependent on Europe. No military presence in Turkey is independent of the US and NATO. When the US, through Turkey, planned and committed Islamist attacks in Europe, it was in fact threatening the powers in Europe to bring them under its control as in the past. This threat is still valid. But Turkey’s military assets are not and cannot be independent of the US and NATO.
Today, there is a third world war in the world, which some say has already begun, and others say is on its way.
In this war, the proletariat must, under all circumstances, turn its weapons against the ruler in its own country. Otherwise it makes no sense to talk about peace.
We are in this war. It is not enough to say that we are surrounded by wars. The TR state is itself in this war. It is sending Islamic gangs to Ukraine, it is under the command of the US on the battlefield in Libya, it is acting as a hitman for the US in the Caucasus. It is an occupying power in Syria. It provokes all kinds of attacks against the Kurds, including the use of chemical weapons, on US orders.
The genocidal attacks of “Israel” against Palestine forced much of the world to recognize the Nazi-fascist character of Zionism, of the genocide that is being perpetrated there. One of the largest, most massive, mass demonstrations in support of Palestine took place in Turkey, Istanbul. How do you explain this demonstration under the government of Erdogan, who is also an ally of “Israel”? What content did that demonstration had? What happened next?
In front of the eyes of the whole world, Israel is openly committing genocide against the Palestinian people. And for this genocide, it uses the attacks of Hamas in October as an excuse. But Israel has been practicing this genocide for 50 years. Whoever stands up to an occupier, an aggressor, we find that valuable. Of course, we would like to take the PFLP as our addressee instead of Hamas. But this does not mean that we criticize any force that stands up to the occupier, to neo-Nazi practices, for this reason alone.
Today, Turkey is one of Israel’s largest supplier. Every day, goods are sold to Israel by tens of ships. In response to the reactions, the Palace Regime announced that it had stopped these exports. But today it has been uncovered that the ships have changed their route, first stopping at Greek ports and continuing to carry goods to Israel from there. Furthermore, Erdogan is the co-chair of the BOP (Greater Middle East Project) with Israel, a person who has been given an “insignia” by Israel. The Kürecik base in Turkey provides information to Israel. Cyprus and Kürecik bases are very important for the functioning of what Israel calls the “iron cage.” Israeli fighter jets conduct their training in the Turkish airfield. In other words, the TR state, the Palace Regime, is a partner of Israel as a US hitman, a NATO hitman. The genocide in Palestine, which is being carried out by Israel, is a common program of the entire West.
The protests and solidarity actions with the Palestinian people in our country are unfortunately not enough. As the Kaldıraç Movement, we wanted to organize a protest by walking to Kürecik. Kürecik is more than 1000 kilometers away from Istanbul. We cannot say that we had enough support for this action. The Turkey’s left, under the impact of nationalism, keeps its distance from the rising protests from the Islamic sections. Aside from the fake demonstrations organized by the government in order to cool the Islamic sections down, some Islamic sections are sincerely protesting and we think they are very valuable. But a strike in support of the Palestinian resistance has not been organized in our country.
The richest 1% in Turkey concentrate 40% of the gross domestic product and there is 24% poverty, if not more. How does the ruling class express itself in Türkiye? What are its main characteristics? In what state is the labor movement, the workers, the popular movement?
It is known that many statistics lie. The ruling class ruthlessly uses lies all over the world. Modern capitalism therefore means a darkness worse than the darkness of the Middle Ages. You can see it also in literature. Monopolies have fallen on humanity like a darkness.
As you say, 1% owning 40% can also be characterized as “at least.” In our country, the 500 largest companies hold 45 percent of the country’s total income. In the world, 500 big giant companies hold 39% of the world’s GNP.
But when it comes to our country, the situation is slightly different.
In recent years, Turkey has become an important center of international drug and dark money trade. Every day 30 children disappear. Children are being kidnapped from Syria and Iraq for organ trafficking. With CIA and Mossad operations, child girls are being kidnapped to be used in slavery programs. Every day in our country 3 workers fall victim to murders called work accidents in factories. At least 4 women are being murdered every day.
All this is an extension of the dark money economy. This dark money economy is related to the US and Europe. In other words, it is not independent of the West. The hegemons of the US and Europe launder their dark money here. They also wash the blood from their hands here.
The living and working conditions of workers are worsening rapidly. Workers work on average 12 hours a day. Hunger and unemployment threaten life as a de facto problem. While international corporations are making enormous profits, life for the working class is unbearable. Life is expensive and death is very cheap, if the expression is appropriate. It is not possible for you to see this, but dozens of workers’ protests take place every day. Not only you, but even an ordinary leftist living in our country does not hear about this. And the unions have become mafia organizations. It is no longer possible to call them union bureaucracies. These unions, which have one hand in the state and one hand in mafia organizations, control the labor movement. An ordinary unionization activity results in the firing of workers. For this reason, not only the political movement but even the trade union movement is run in semi-secrecy.
The worsening of the crisis of capitalism worldwide has led to an increase in repression and counterinsurgency strategies. The idea of the internal enemy is strengthened. In what situation are the human rights, fundamental rights? How many political prisoners are there in Türkiye? Turkish prisons are famous for their brutality and barbarity.
You are right, the global capitalist system is even abandoning bourgeois democracy, which was never a democracy for us. The war policies and the economic crisis are lifting of the velvet veil over the repressive apparatus of the state in every capitalist country. Consider the whole of Europe, they are organizing campaigns against Russia because of the war, they are even banning Tolstoy. On the one hand it is funny, on the other it is tragic. This tragicomic situation is actually proof that the system has reached the end of its life. A wave of revolution will cover the world, and it is possible to see the signs of it. Therefore we are not pessimistic at all. It will be the revolutionary proletariat that will take the stage. And this time, the revolution in one part of the world will quickly influence other parts as well. The revolutionary communist movements in every part must be ready for this situation.
In our country, the total capacity of the prisons is 350 thousand people and they are full. Tens of thousands of sympathizers of the Kurdish movement are in prison. Our comrades were imprisoned for a legal demonstration on May 1, 2024 and were being held without trial, without knowing their crimes. Journalists are imprisoned if they are not killed. Today, the sovereign is building 70 new prisons with large capacities. These prison buildings are being built by big, giant construction companies, which we call the “gang of five.” A woman can be imprisoned for criticizing the government on camera and this is not just one example. In our country, parliament no longer functions even as a leaf covering the crotch. Social media is wanted to be taken under control. Talking about human rights is a luxury in our country. Chemical weapons are being used against the Kurds. Drugs from international pharmaceutical companies are openly tested in ordinary health institutions. Almost every workers’ protest, every student protest, every women’s protest is confronted by the police, the courts, the bourgeois press and the state.
Türkiye is the bridge in drug traffick between Europe and the Middle East. The mafia or organized crime is also strong. Many times, organized crime and drug trafficking have been a source for the creation of counterrevolutionary paramilitary bands, such as in Colombia and Nicaragua. What relationship does the Turkish mafia, organized crime, have with the state´s repressive?
Yes, Turkey is a bridge in the drug trade. This is a line that goes from Latin America to Asia. Some time ago, many Afghans became Turkish citizens in exchange for buying houses in Turkey. Almost all of them are members of the mafia.
This traffic reaches Sweden at one end and Africa at the other. And in Turkey, the long war against the Kurds was financed by drug money. The fact that they blame the PKK for this is a play by the state.
This is also true of the smuggling of migrants, the trade of white women, trafficking of children, the organ trade. And while all these mafia organizations are linked to international cartels at one pole, they are linked to the state at the other pole. The TR state is involved in this business at every stage. Even the Palace itself is involved. Turkey has become a dark money laundering paradise. Many ports and touristic areas are centers for drugs coming from Latin America. Land roads are also involved in this. Especially Afghanistan is an important source in this regard. Some drug gangs that are captured now and again are the ones that are sacrificed, so to speak.
Today, Turkey’s economy is under the control of an international consortium. The Minister of Treasury is in reality their official. This consortium consists of creditors. And these creditor monopolies are involved in these dark money operations. The economy of the country is largely standing on the basis of this dark money.
An inter-imperialist war for a New World or Imperialist Order has been going on for quite some time now. On the one hand the US, NATO and the European Union and on the other China and Russia. The war in Ukraine is in full development and, as we mentioned before, the genocide against the Palestinian People and also against the Kurdish People. In Africa, anti-European, anti-French or anti-colonial sentiment has resurfaced. How does all this influence Turkey’s in its internal politics and in its ruling class and working class?
Actually, we have said a few words about this above. Let’s clarify a further bit.
The TR state has been acting as a hitman in this war for some time now. Turkey is the triggerman of NATO and the USA. The state organization, which today we call the Palace Regime, is an extraordinary state organization and is supported by the US itself, in accordance with these war policies. And while the TR state, on the appearance, speaks out against the US and Israel in high doses, this is a policy to cover up the situation, to keep the masses indecisive inside. No matter what Erdoğan says on any issue, he never hesitates to say the exact opposite. This is like a way of messing with the minds of the people.
Sometimes some Western “experts” say that Erdoğan is against the US and Israel. This is meant to mislead. Some time ago, an Israeli official was quite realistic when he said that “Erdoğan and we have very harsh words for each other, but in the end he works for us.»
Today, there is war or tension around war at every point around Turkey. At the command of NATO, The TR state played a very active role in the dissolution of Yugoslavia. It mobilized paramilitary right-wing gangs. Today, within the frame of US and NATO policies, it operates in the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Africa and even Ukraine. It trains ISIS gangs in partnership with the CIA and sends them to different war zones around the world.
In our point of view, the war that is going on in the world today started when the USSR dissolved. When the USSR disappeared, the US wanted to extend its hegemony towards its dream of a “world empire.” For this, it invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. But this process changed with the Syrian war. The US in fact lost the Syrian war. And today it has lost the war in Ukraine. But through the Ukraine war, the US managed to seize the will of the whole of Europe. It started to unite the whole imperialist world around it against Russia and China.
The US hegemony is dissolving. There are all kinds of signs of this. The US is waging war to maintain this hegemony.
The 2008 economic crisis, China’s entry into the world market with its own brands and becoming a giant economic power beyond being merely the “factory of the world,” and Russia becoming an obstacle to US war policies are challenging the US hegemony.
However, rulers never transfer their hegemony voluntarily. That is why the US has imposed on its Western allies a plan to colonize Russia and China. Russia and China were not accepted at the table of the lords. The masters, the rulers, are not keen to share their cake with anyone.
Today, Russia and China are attempting to be colonized. And both are resisting this. The situation is evolving into a world war. In the background of this war is the desire of the US to keep its hegemony.
All this situation is deepening the crisis of the capitalist world economy.
Turkey is a US and NATO hitman in this war. However, the situation in Syria, its closeness to Russia, etc. creates difficulties for it in some aspects. Today NATO and the US want to push Turkey forward for a war against Iran. In return, they propose a plan of slaughter against the Kurdish people. And yet Turkey, for all its ambitions, is hesitant about this war. And this is also understandable. Because the war against Iran will actually put the rulers in much more difficulties inside the country.
The policies of war are also emerging inside our country as policies of war. For this reason, the state with all its power stands against every action demanding rights.
The peoples and the working class of our country can fight against these war policies by developing its own organization and with the strategy of socialist revolution. There is no other way. This means abandoning all kinds of “national left” approaches. Workers in every country must turn their weapons against their own rulers.
Finally, Türkiye has carried out bombings in Syria and Iraq with the excuse of attacking Kurdish military forces. It has invaded Syria and stolen considerable resources. How does Erdogan’s military policy fit into the design of the New Imperialist Order?
As we have said, Turkey is an occupier in Syria. Nowadays, as part of its policy of encircling Iran, the US wants to shift Turkish military power towards Iraqi Kurdistan. This is why Erdogan talks about peace with Syria. As I said, we cannot judge by looking at Erdoğan’s words. Peace with Syria does not really mean an open dialogue with Syria. Syria wants the Turkish army to leave the region. The Turkish military presence in Syrian territory is intertwined with ISIS forces. These forces are intertwined with the oil trade, drug trade, organ trade, human trafficking. This military occupation has also produced its own economy.
And as long as the TR state is allowed to massacre the Kurds, Turkey will fulfill everything the US and NATO want in that region.
Turkey is afraid of a strong attack from Russia in the Syrian zone. Therefore, it is not unacceptable for Turkey to move from Syria into Iraqi territory. But in any case, the policy of massacring the Kurds will be in place. This policy is not independent of the US and NATO policies. The fact that the US is acting together with the Kurdish forces in some territories is not in contrast with the US policy of Turkey’s massacre of the Kurds.
When was KALDIRAC founded? Why was it created? What is its proposal?
Kaldıraç, as a magazine, was founded in the mid-1990s. These are the times of three factors, three forces. The September 12 counter-revolution of 1980 largely dissolved the revolutionary movement. This defeat was not a defeat experienced on the streets, in combat, with barricades set up, and therefore its impact was much more devastating. There are times when defeat by fighting is far preferable to defeat without fighting. This is one of the forces. The second is the dissolution of the USSR. This dissolution meant the rise of a deep distrust towards the communist thought. Against these two forces in the opposite direction, the 1990s were the years of the rise of the Kurdish revolution. And it was within these factors that Kaldıraç, as a movement, took shape. The aim, of course, was to build a revolutionary, Marxist movement and thus enter the struggle for power.
What differentiates Kaldirac from the other revolutionary parties? What is Kaldirac’s strategy? What are the main characteristics of his strategy towards taking power?
It is not possible to fully understand any political movement through its words. In order to understand the character of a political movement, or even the character of a human being as a political being, in order to understand its political line, one needs to look at its actions.
We see ourselves as the successors of the revolutionary movement in the world in a broad sense, and in a narrow sense of the revolutionary line that manifested itself in different organizations in different periods in our country. For example, Che and Fidel are for us leaders. We see ourselves as Marxist-Leninists. The Chinese Revolution is also part of our revolutionary history, the resistance against Pinochet in Chile is also part of our history, as are the Spartacuses. The rebellion of humanity since slave society, the dream of a classless world without exploitation, puts us on the same front with many comrades we do not know.
It would be the subject of a very long article to explain how we differ from other groups in our country. I don’t think this is the place for this. But we have books where anyone interested can find our basic views. Perhaps some information can be found there.
In our opinion, a period of socialist revolutions for the whole world is ahead of us. The spread of these socialist revolutions throughout the world is much more possible than in the period of the October Revolution. There are objective possibilities for this. Additionally, the process of transition from socialist construction to communism is much more technically possible today. In the days of the October Revolution, the problem of how to eliminate money was not an easy one. But today, plastic cards (T.N: magnetic card technology) present a great possibility for this.
Of course, revolution is not just a technical process. It is no exaggeration to say that the world revolutionary movement needs a fighter international organization based on combat friendship. A revolution in any country in the world, for example the revolution in Chile, has the possibility of spreading rapidly to neighboring countries. This is also the same in our region. Therefore, we see ourselves as part of the world revolutionary movement.
Perhaps this is not enough to show that we are different from other parties. More specific examples will probably be needed. But I think that explaining our differences from dozens of movements and parties is not an issue that can be dealt with here.
We think that the working class is the vanguard of the revolution in our country. We think that changes in the structure of the working class are not obstacles to this.
We believe that the revolution needs a vanguard. This is the case everywhere in the world. This means a steel-disciplined, fighting revolutionary organization.
In the development of the revolution, we consider the existence of many strata, of people with different views, as a richness. That is why we advocate for the United Labor Front. This is not just a periodic political maneuver. We see it as a strategic step.
What is the situation of the revolutionary left in Türkiye? Is there a broad revolutionary alliance, a coordination of revolutionary parties? Which? What are your approaches and strategy?
Revolutionary socialists and communists in Turkey are scattered. This disorganization is caused by long-term historical factors. Moreover, the revolutionary movement does not have an effective organization within the working class. Of course, there are some coordinations of revolutionary movements where they organize common activities. This usually becomes operative in the case of pre-determined actions such as the May Day celebrations or certain developments that come up. It is not permanent. This is why we particularly find the United Labor Front imperative. In our country, the left, including the revolutionary left, develops common attitudes on the grounds of the daily struggle. We also attach importance to this. This can make it possible to create a common fighting comradeship. In the general shift of the left to the right and nationalism, the revolutionary left does not have a more developed strategic perspective.
One of the problems of the revolutionary left, of the communist movement, is the nonexistence of a Communist International. How does Kaldirac see the situation of the international revolutionary or communist movement? Do they belong to any international organization?
We think that the world revolutionary movement needs an international organization. The revolutionary struggle of the proletariat is in essence internationalist. But today there is no such international organization. At least not in our knowledge. Instead of a more advanced movement playing big brother to the others, there is a great need for a real fighting international. Kaldıraç is not part of such an internationalist organization.
Revolutionary internationalism is based on the friendship of revolutionary struggle. In our opinion, and we are far from being able to know the situation in every country in the world, we are far from this point today. But we are also clear that there are things to be done.
Revolutionary internationalism can mean a friendship of war, comradeship, or even siblinghood if it suits you. But the “older brother” in siblinghood would not work in this regard. We also know that revolutionary internationalism cannot be calibrated according to the foreign policy of a country.
The dispersion of the international communist movement and the revolutionary left in each country is due to how these revolutionary parties face the fight against revisionism and reformism. What does Kaldirac think?
The disorganization of the world revolutionary movement is a reality. This disorganization is a serious problem when there are possibilities for the rapid development of revolution in almost every country of the world.
The reason for this is not simply the lack of struggle against revisionism and reformism. Revolutionary parties must first of all differentiate themselves. It is not a matter of being small or big parties and groups. The problem is, in fact, the insufficiencies of the revolutionary movements to wage a revolutionary struggle to take power in their own countries.
This of course includes the struggle against reformism and revisionism. But the lack of struggle against reformist and revisionist policies is not the only obstacle for revolutionary movements to develop roots in the working class in their own countries and to develop an effective and strong organization.
I think it is a priority for the world revolutionary movements to absorb at least 150 years of struggle since the Paris Commune and to build revolutionary policies against the current system.
The reformist left and revisionism around the world continue to survive with very old arguments. And in fact, they are easily welcomed by the hegemons of the world and can easily migrate to the camp of the counter-revolution. In a way, this can also be considered an advantage. In many cases, their unmasking does not require great efforts.
The escape from organization and organizing has become the new form of denying the revolution, of the policies of making the capitalist system “livable” without revolution. While the bourgeoisie is putting its own “democracy” on the shelf, the play of democracy in the name of the left has arrived at the escape from organization. This situation can only be overcome by revolutionary organization growing roots within the working class.
What happens in Turkey, in the Middle East, is also of utmost importance for the poor people of the world, for Latin America also. (Interestingly, the government of Nicolás Maduro (socialist of the 21st century) has strengthened ties with Erdogan. In fact, Erdogan was in Venezuela during the period of greatest repression and military offensive against the Kurdish people, in Rojava.) Do you think it is important to develop a with Latin American alternative media and see the possibility of Partizan having its version in Spanish, Portuguese?
(as 17 in the text, second question 17)
The policies of the left that come to power through elections, which we have seen examples of, especially in Latin America, do not actually mean a radical confrontation with the system. Nevertheless, we don’t think they are unimportant. But in our view, the revolution begins with the seizure of political power and the dismantling of the bourgeois state. Without smashing the power of the sovereign, there can be no confrontation with the system. That is why we can see counter-attacks from time to time. This is the ongoing class struggle.
There is also the following reality here: If a revolutionary movement in one country, for example a country in Latin America, is able to take power through a real revolution, what can be done in advance to spread the revolution to other countries? This is a question that the revolutionary party must consider and deal with. How can a wave of strikes be organized in many industries of the world, in many countries at the same time? This is also a practical question. The level of development of the world capitalist economy should make us think seriously about this. But this does not mean that we have to postpone the revolutionary struggle in our own country. In other words, standing in a corner and waiting for the conditions to mature in the world is not a revolutionary path, this is not what we are talking about.
The ruling class is organized worldwide. But we, as world revolutionaries, do not have such a revolutionary organization (at least according to our knowledge). It is no secret that a socialist revolution that will develop in our country will face an imperialist encirclement when it achieves victory. In order to break this siege, we need to take a serious interest in the revolutionary movement in other countries today, considering the law of uneven but combined development.
Even in the 21st century, as long as capitalism exists, revolution can only take place by overthrowing the state of the sovereigns. We see the examples in Latin America as positive for terms of struggle, but we are cautious about calling them a form of socialism. If they can lead to a revolutionary jump in another Latin American country, they can make a contribution. This is why we prefer to look at the issue in terms of the broader class struggle. We don’t think that Erdoğan and Maduro have really close ties. It is more like a theatrical scene. There can be strange alliances that shape the relations between states. Therefore, we do not find it very helpful to make an analysis based on the attitudes and relations of states. For example, Spain has expressed reactions against Israel’s genocide. This does not allow us to think that the real character of the Spanish state has changed. Similarly, in the Kurdish issue, different practices may come to the table from time to time in European states. But it would be a mistake to think that they support the revolutionary struggle of a people. Because of the various contradictions, different alliances, temporary alliances, can arise.
Today, in the world, we believe that the revolutionary movement needs to build an alternative media in many regions. Financing this is of course a problem in itself. It is not insurmountable. In Latin America, I think it is much more possible for revolutionary movements to observe each other. First of all, the language makes this possible. But we don’t have an idea regarding our contribution to this.
