TKP-SMF crisis: Is Maçoğlu's candidacy coming to an end?

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) nominated Tunceli Mayor Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu as its candidate in Kadıköy. Maçoğlu, a member of the Federation of Socialist Assemblies (SMF), had been nominated by the TKP for two elections as part of the SMF-TKP alliance, leading to his election as mayor first in Ovacık and then in Tunceli.

Following Maçoğlu's candidacy in Kadıköy, an article containing harsh accusations against the TKP, published in the SMF's outlet Gazete Patika, created a crisis between the TKP and the SMF. Claims emerged that the alliance would be dissolved. TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan spoke to Cumhuriyet regarding these claims.

"WE WOULD NOT HESITATE FOR A MINUTE"

While stating that Maçoğlu is still their candidate, Kemal Okuyan made the following remarks:

"We do not easily let go of a hand we have extended. We are conducting an effective campaign. If Mr. Maçoğlu or a few people we have been in contact with for years say, 'Yes, we agree with that article,' we would wish them success and would not hesitate for a minute. As I said, they could run in the Kadıköy elections from the DEM Party or another party, just as they did in Dersim. However, on the other hand, Maçoğlu has become an important asset for the struggle for socialism in Turkey with his populist character, honesty, diligence, and the political influence of the TKP; he still has things to do. We are doing our best against attempts to trip him up, whether openly or indirectly."

TKP CRITICISM IN SMF'S NEWSPAPER

In the article published in the SMF's outlet Gazete Patika, the TKP was accused of being "bourgeois nationalist" and "reactionary." The article, which criticized the TKP's statements regarding the PKK's terrorist attacks, included the following expressions:

"Taking a stance against the relevant attitudes and statements of the TKP within the scope of ideological struggle and criticism is a concrete issue; exposing its bourgeois-reactionary aspects is necessary and is also a duty. However, the question of what the stance should be and how it should be taken is an entirely separate matter. While a stance based on persuasion and winning over on the ground of criticism and ideological struggle is correct, cutting off relations entirely, isolating them absolutely, and pushing them toward the enemy is wrong.

To be more explicit, while it is correct to expose the bourgeois and reactionary aspects of the TKP on the basis of ideological struggle, it is wrong to exclude it entirely and isolate it completely. Although the TKP has a bourgeois nationalist, reactionary, social-chauvinist, and statist fabric, it is not counter-revolutionary."