Statement from the People's Assembly of Turkey on the 101st anniversary of the Republic

Here is the full text of the statement issued by the People's Assembly of Turkey:

The proclamation of the Republic in Turkey is the first great torch of a comprehensive enlightenment-based founding struggle that followed the War of Independence waged against imperialism. The Republican regime did not only put an end to a dynastic regime, but also became a symbol of the struggle to create a modern capitalist industrial society from an externally dependent, backward agrarian society. This necessitated a revolutionary transformation of a radicalism and speed unseen elsewhere in the world, outside of the French and Soviet revolutionary processes. In this context,

– The implementation of radical transformations in superstructure institutions, particularly in the legal system, in the 1920s;

– The termination of capitulations and the completion of nationalization drives;

– The taking of steps to ensure the separation of state and religion, which is the first stage of secularism;

– A strong entry into the first stage of the Industrial Revolution with a planned, statist, and protectionist industrialization program in the 1930s, when a hegemony vacuum emerged in the world;

– A strong entry into the first stage of the Industrial Revolution with a planned, statist, and protectionist

industrialization program in the 1930s, when a hegemony vacuum emerged in the world;

– In the 1940s, initiatives such as the launch of the revolutionary Village Institutes model in education were undertaken, leading to significant social progress and independence gains achieved along the path opened by the Republic.

Unfortunately, due to internal class balances and the insufficiency of revolutionary accumulation, the revolutionary momentum of the Republicans was gradually halted. In order not to alienate the agrarian bourgeoisie and landowners, land reform in agriculture could not be risked until as late as 1945. After 1946, when the transition to a multi-party system occurred, the founding party of the Republic became increasingly influenced by capital, paving the way for a major rupture in the Republic's independence-oriented vein through efforts to integrate into the global capitalist-imperialist system.

During the subsequent Democrat Party (DP) era, the policy of aligning with the Western bloc via the US and NATO was further consolidated and maintained. In this context, the lines of distancing from secularism and creating space for religious sects and the 'super-NATO' mutually fed each other.

While the 1961 Constitution provided a legal basis for political and trade union movements to open up to the left for the first time, political Islamist and nationalist movements also organized to stop the society's shift to the left, and by the 1970s, they were able to become partners in power as independent parties. The CHP leadership's efforts to reckon with its own enlightenment history also emerged for the first time during this period.

The 1971 and 1980 coups, the 1982 Constitution, and the January 24, 1980 decisions constituted stages of a total class attack that served to reverse the gains of the pre-1980 period, suppress political/union organizations defending the working class and labor rights, and thus expand the exploitation areas of capital as much as possible. While the laboring classes began to accumulate strength again from the late 1980s onwards, this was blocked from 1998 onwards by IMF programs, privatizations, de-unionization, and the bringing of union administrations under control. The rise of the political Islamist movement to power in 2002 consolidated this process.

In the 2007-2018 period, the coalition of religious sects led by the AKP carried out the liquidation of Republic institutions and Republican cadres, primarily the judiciary and the constitutional system, and brought labor organizations and a large part of the media under its ideological hegemony. To this end, civil coups were resorted to one after another starting from 2010, and even the 2016 coup attempt by the cult was turned into an opportunity for the government's own civil coup.

During the AKP era, the Republic regime was essentially put through a process of transformation into both a dynastic regime and a 'crony capitalism,' and this trend was further consolidated with the 2017 Constitution and the 2018 Decrees that put its provisions into effect.

Although the 2017 Constitution was tailored like a custom-made suit for Erdoğan/AKP, a new Constitution is being imposed on society today due to the need to construct legal norms that can ensure both the overcoming of 'problems' that arise in practice—that is, provisions that prevent the dynasty from continuing 'for life'—the irreversible establishment of an autocratic-theocratic capital order, and the guarantee that the established 'systematic criminal organization regime' cannot be held accountable.

On the 101st anniversary of the Republic, the political Islamist movement, which has maintained its power for 22 years, appears ready to exert all kinds of pressure, make all kinds of concessions domestically and internationally, form any alliance, and engage in military adventures if necessary to complete the construction of its new regime. We are going through a period where the capital-backed government, having lost its legal and political legitimacy, is trying to advance its goals more rapidly by creating a vacuum in the opposition. The establishment opposition is also far from the political wisdom to put a stop to this course and from a class positioning that could distance itself from domestic and foreign capital.

While an unnamed IMF program is being implemented, with the entire burden placed on the working class, the government is transforming social and cultural coercive tools into ideological and judicial silencing mechanisms to ensure there is no dissent from society, and is resorting more frequently to agenda diversion and alliance-refreshing methods. This situation is descending like a nightmare upon the broad masses of the people in Turkey, especially the laborers. If this trend cannot be stopped, Turkey will rapidly tumble into deep darkness. It could be drawn into various war delusions in the Middle East and the Black Sea, where imperialism plays its games.

The entirety of the process summarized above—namely, the surrender of Turkey to the plunder of capital, the weakening of social struggles and organization, the intensification of religious reactionism's interference in all areas of life, and the political power's foundation on arbitrariness and lawlessness—has created a severe social decay. In the 101st year of the Republic, this decay manifests itself in our country becoming a systematic scene of harassment, violence, and killings against children and women, and in workplace accidents reaching the scale of a massacre.

To avoid falling into this darkness and to defend a lasting peace both at home and abroad, Turkey must be rapidly pulled toward an enlightenment-oriented and independent line. For this, reconstructing the Republic in its pre-AKP form will certainly not be a solution. The Republic must be reshaped on the axis of labor. This must be a "Republic of labor" based on secular and anti-imperialist foundations. These foundations cannot be established without being cleansed of capitalist exploitation relations.

There is no other way to escape the slide into darkness, no other way to be liberated from the hegemony of the religious reactionaries and their patrons, capital and imperialism. With the goal of celebrating future Republic anniversaries having established the Republic of labor... We salute all Republicans who take their place in the struggle for enlightenment, independence, and labor.

News Source: 12punto