'Tecahül' article: 'Lion-hearted social democrats' and Oskar Lafontaine

We want to draw attention to an effort. But first, let us start with the word “tecahül”: As is known, it is of Arabic origin and carries a meaning like “feigned ignorance.” Pretending not to know something even though one does is exactly that.

Our question is ruthless: Do Turkey’s “lion-hearted social democrats” not know their relatives in Germany and in German politics, to whom they are very close, or do they know them all too well?

The answer is also ruthless: They know, but they seem to be pretending they don’t. In other words, they are practicing “tecahül.”

Why?

Because, for one thing, Turkey’s right-wing has such a character. They react with an allergic response to things that appear progressive. Turning inward against progressive climates abroad and ignoring or feigning ignorance of what is happening in that climate, especially the actors involved, is such a reaction.

What do we mean?

This: Has anyone seen or heard of Oskar Lafontaine—a “left-wing social democrat” who emerged from within and from the very top of German social democracy—being brought to the table in the context of political debates in Turkey?

Why hasn't it happened?

Let us state one thing clearly: No such figure has emerged from within social democracy in Turkey. We have not known any politician who, from the top of the world’s largest, oldest, and most famous social democratic party (SPD), and after having brought this party to power, walked away and tried to build a project further to the left. Because, as we said, Turkey’s right-wingers do not bring such bold and self-sacrificing moves—especially those “linked” to progressivism—to the agenda. They know, but they do not bring them to the agenda.

They practice “tecahül.”

We cannot call this “tecahül-ü arif” (a literary term for feigned ignorance for rhetorical effect). That is, they do not just pretend not to know while they do; they know, and they work to ensure it remains unknown.

Was that too harsh?

If not, why can we not see the efforts of this man, and partly those of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France, within or around a social democratic movement in Turkey that is playing for power?

ECEVİT AND BAYKAL: THEY WERE EVEN TO THE RIGHT OF HELMUT SCHMIDT

Let us be clear: The fact that a political personality similar to Oskar Lafontaine has not emerged from within the CHP, the largest party of the social democratic movement in Turkey, is a message in itself to historical researchers and the current political climate. Looking at the past, names like Bülent Ecevit and Deniz Baykal might be put forward. If one must compare them, we would have to show them as followers of Helmut Schmidt—the “Christian democratic right-winger” at the head of the SPD—or even as right-wingers compared to him.

Have we witnessed anyone who was a top-level executive in the CHP and possessed the intellectual level, stubbornness, and will of Lafontaine? Is this reality a “quirk or vitality of practical politics”? Perhaps. It could be said that way. But it is still difficult to make sense of why some Turkish social democrats, who could be said to take political theory seriously, remain so distant from the Lafontaine-Mélenchon lines. Goodness, there isn't even a decent translation of these men’s work. I believe a book by Lafontaine was translated about 25 years ago or so.

In summary, “Turkey’s social democrats” are extremely foreign to such debates; they are very far away. They want to remain distant.

A POPULIST OPPOSITION? IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!

Oskar Lafontaine had prepared the SPD for its 1998 election success. In 1999, perhaps thinking that it was no longer possible to realize the social democratic politics he had in mind with the SPD and the Green Party, which had settled into Gerhard Schröder’s right-wing line, he one day hung up his jacket along with his position as Europe’s most powerful finance minister and went home. He rested for a while. Then, within a few years, he returned to the field to support the rise of what is now The Left Party. From the beginning, The Left Party (Die Linke) was organized under the “left-wing social democrat” label, led by those who easily turned their backs on the German Democratic Republic, such as Gregor Gysi.

It was Oskar Lafontaine who ensured that the SPD was organized as a “social opposition” on the side of the workers, bringing it to power with over 40 percent of the vote, and that The Left Party was organized with a significant leap in votes, enough to challenge the 12 percent band in federal elections. He had an interventionist, combative side, not just in practice but also in theory through his books. His books are known. But he saw that this new “left party” was also distancing itself from the labor base with liberal theses and identity politics; or rather, he determined, along with his wife Sahra Wagenknecht, that the party was rejecting them, and he left. He turned to a new party-building adventure (BSW) with Wagenknecht. In last year’s general elections, this party lost the right to enter parliament by a margin of about 9 thousand votes. It had not passed the threshold. They objected. They wanted a recount of the votes, but the relevant committee, which had a president of Turkish descent in parliament, rejected it. The BSW took the case to the Federal Constitutional Court. They are now waiting for the decision.

These are all struggles.

So, are the details, projections, or (even) shadows of this struggle present in Turkish? Of course not... Yet, aside from the radical demands in his regular articles, Lafontaine also published a small book in 2023 titled “Ami, it’s time to go” (Amerikalı, Artık Evine Dönme Zamanıdır). In recent years, he has been writing regular columns for a weekly Swiss magazine, Die Weltwoche, and publishing his left-social democratic-leaning analyses on some websites with truly high follower counts. Let us give credit where it is due: these articles contain demands so far to the left that they would make our Turkish and Kurdish social democrats’ jaws drop. An immediate withdrawal from NATO is just one of them.

Lafontaine continues to stir up the political scene.

And none of this is reflected in the slightest in social democratic politics in Turkey. That is our question: Why?

It is as if Turkey has a social democracy that has gone through a hellish test within an anti-Nazi policy in the 1930s, but is unaware of the line of actors like Willy Brandt—who broke away from the left—and Herbert Wehner, and is closely related to a Helmut Schmidt right-wingism that is distant from that line, yet knows none of these.

Therefore, this distance toward the Oskar Lafontaine line is normal. In the end, neither of Turkey’s two social democratic parties, the CHP and the DEM, could produce an Oskar Lafontaine.

It wouldn't happen, of course. And indeed, it didn't.