TKP protest in Bakırköy: The working people of this country need secularism

The TKP Istanbul Provincial Organization held a protest today at 12:00 PM in Bakırköy Square on the occasion of the centenary of the abolition of the caliphate. During the protest, held under the banner "Secularism is a necessity," slogans such as "No passage for Sharia, fascism, and darkness," "Stand up for secularism," "Down with the sultanate, long live the Republic," "We will get rid of the Zübüks," and "We will not bow to darkness" were chanted.

"SECULARISM IS A NECESSITY"

The opening speech of the protest was delivered by TKP Party Assembly Member Duygu Karadeniz. Karadeniz stated the following:

"We are here today as the current representatives of the struggle waged against reactionism a hundred years ago. Everyone in Turkey is talking about the elections. Who will win in Istanbul, which alliance is in Ankara, which party has the candidate from Antalya joined?

We must ask: Do these make any real differences in our lives?

Yet the truth is this: Different choices determine our lives.

Are you on the side of secularism, or reactionism?

Can there be independence while imperialism is on one side?

With everything around us filled with dirty deals and plunder, where will equality be placed?

We gave an answer to these questions from Anatolia 100 years ago, friends. Those who gave the wrong answer to this question found themselves on the British ships.

As for us, we waved goodbye to them from the lands we created with our labor and the values we defended.

Never to be accepted into the country again!

Now, their so-called heirs have emerged. Those who plunder mines, nature, and all public assets have stepped on the gas of reactionism with tales of 'nativism and nationalism.'

However, the true owners of these lands had already sent them off 100 years ago, friends.

Our duty, while saying 'secularism is a necessity,' is to chase the reactionaries out of the country once again!

Let the caliphate longing and enemies of the republic know that we will not abandon our country to calls for Sharia, reactionism, and darkness. This country has patriots, progressives, communists; we are here!

Our children and youth will not be left without a future. We will not leave this country to religious communities, sects, and exploiters of religion.

We do not bow to the darkness you impose!"

"WE WILL CERTAINLY ESTABLISH A SECULAR, EQUAL, SOCIALIST REPUBLIC"

Following Karadeniz, TKP Bahçelievler Mayoral Candidate Hale Mildan took the floor.

Mildan spoke as follows:

"We abolished the caliphate 100 years ago. We established the Republic with great struggles and gained a secular country. Now they are trying to take this republic from us; there is no such plunder. We will not let the supporters of the caliphate and the lovers of the sultanate feed on this country. They will not be able to darken the bright face of this country and this republic.

The caliphate longing that feeds reactionism has been trying to darken the future of our youth for 20 years. While they are ending secularism step by step, they are trying to destroy the republic. We are all following the scandals brought by the ÇEDES project. We all know that the AKP government is at war with the values of the republic. It continues these attacks in the field of education as well. ÇEDES is also a part of these attacks. They are emptying the content of education with many scandals, such as taking our children to visit cemeteries under the name of spiritual values, giving them real knives to slaughter model sheep and lambs. But no matter what they do, whatever projects they develop, whatever attacks they make, we will not leave this country to them.

We are growing the struggle against reactionary attacks. With the TKP's 'We are on the heels of the sects' initiative, we expose crimes committed against secularism every week and provide an opportunity for citizens who experience such news to contact us. We need to act together against their attacks.

While their reactionism suffocates us working people, it puts us women under even more domination. In recent days, 7 women were killed in just 1 day. They talk about the 'Century of Turkey'; this is the place where AKP's Turkey has brought our country, friends. Every discussion opened by the AKP side regarding our rights as women in this country, every step taken for the sake of religious reactionism, and every word said about women causes an increase in femicides.

We women will not stop fighting against these mentalities. With the TKP Women's Solidarity Committees, we will continue to be the voice and power of all working women, especially against reactionism. We will make the power of women felt more every day against bosses, sects, and Zübüks.

Just as we buried the caliphate in history 100 years ago, we will send those who dream of a caliphate to the dusty shelves of history today in the same way. As women, youth, and working people, we will not give up our struggle. Secularism is a necessity, friends! We will certainly establish a secular, equal, socialist republic! We will not bow down! We will get rid of the Zübüks!"

"THEY WANT ANOTHER FAKE CALIPHATE"

Following Mildan, TKP's Istanbul Metropolitan Mayoral Candidate Orhan Gökdemir took the floor.

Gökdemir stated the following:

"The reason we gathered here today is not the election. This is a country issue, a homeland issue.

What did we abolish a hundred years ago? The thing they call the caliphate is a 1500-year-old issue. After the Prophet died, they inevitably held elections during the period of the four caliphs. It was a transition period from tribe to state. After all, what kind of election? An election in the shadow of knives and swords. There is no caliph who died in his bed of natural causes. Therefore, what they call the caliphate is a worldly issue to its core. We will not allow a cloak of holiness to be thrown over it.

After strangling the last caliph, the Umayyads and Abbasids took that primitive republic and turned it into a sultanate. In the end, their lifespan was as long as the lifespan of those states. We know, neither the Umayyads nor the Abbasids believed in Sharia; they used the caliphate as an apparatus for ruling. In the end, when the Mongols wiped them off the face of the earth, the people they called caliphs were nothing more than wretches migrating from place to place.

What is its relationship with us? Yavuz Selim wanted to build a wall against the Safavid State. He went and caught one of those wretches in Egypt, brought him to Istanbul, and supposedly took the caliphate from him. What did he take? No Ottoman sultan other than Yavuz Selim tried to use the caliphate. There is only one parenthesis in between, Abdülhamit. His state was about to collapse, he attempted to use it, but no one took it seriously.

In the end, when those who founded the Republic in 1924 abolished it, it was already nothing more than a dead shell. The law enacted in '24 also says that the caliphate has now been resolved. In Ottoman language, this means: The caliphate has been abolished, it is dead.

So, what is the current problem? Now they have destroyed the secular republic. They are trying to build a shanty town in its place. A fake caliphate for a fake sultan. That is all there is to it. This has no holiness. Our poor people, the people they have left hungry, need the republic. Long live the republic, long live the new republic, long live the secular republic!"

"THE COMMUNISTS OF THIS COUNTRY WILL PROTECT THE REPUBLIC AND SECULARISM"

The closing speech of the protest was delivered by TKP Istanbul Provincial Chair Senem Doruk İnam.

Doruk İnam said the following:

"What should normally happen today was the celebration of this day. We are on a day when we should be filling the streets and squares to celebrate the abolition of the caliphate. But we are not holding a celebration today. What we are doing today is making a call for the struggle for secularism in the Republic of Turkey, which was destroyed after a century, in a Republic of Turkey where secularism has been destroyed. That is why we are here today, that is why we are filling these streets today. That is why we are fighting for the call to secularism today. We are declaring that we will defend secularism, that we will defend the republic, that is why we are all together today.

Today, on the day the caliphate was abolished a century ago, we are talking about this: Today, there are those in the Republic of Turkey who go out into the streets and shout 'Sharia.' There are those who shout 'Caliphate.' There are palace sycophants. We will not leave this country to palace sycophants, Sharia supporters, and those who want the caliphate. We give our word. We will not leave it, because secularism in this country, the Republic of Turkey, was not established easily a hundred years ago. This republic was established through many occupations, many struggles, and the uprising of poor working people. A hundred years ago, secularism and the abolition of the caliphate were established with poor working people, with the Republic of Turkey, with the struggling working people. That is why the Republic is not ownerless. The communists of this country will protect the Republic. They will protect secularism. They will not leave this country to Sharia supporters and caliphate supporters.

"WE ARE CANDIDATES TO RE-ESTABLISH THE REPUBLIC IN THIS COUNTRY AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS"

We are heading to the elections while our children are being abused in sect dormitories. Today, we are heading to the elections while 7 women are killed in one day. Today, we are heading to the elections while working people in Turkey are struggling with hunger, poverty, and unemployment. Who is talking about these? Who is protecting secularism in this country? Everyone is asking for votes. Tents have been set up here like a fair.

We are not just asking for votes. The working people of this country need secularism. The working people of this country need jobs. They need scientific education. They need a future for their children. Forget the election nonsense. We are all fed up with these. We are candidates to re-establish the Republic in this country after a hundred years. That is why the Communist Party of Turkey says this everywhere while asking for votes. It says, 'We are asking for votes for secularism.' It says, 'We are asking for votes for independence.' It says, 'We are asking for votes so that women do not die, so that our children have a future.'

"WE NEED SECULARISM AS MUCH AS WE NEED BREAD AND WATER"

It is not that easy. Go to the ballot box every four years, make promises, and then step aside. In this country, we need secularism as much as we need bread and water. So that our children are not abused. So that our women do not die. So that we are not exploited more. Because for the sake of religion, for the sake of sects, for the sake of caliphate longing, they go and leave our children to the clutches of those Quran courses. Women are dying because of reactionism. AKP's Turkey did this too, but no one is shouting 'secularism' against it. Opposition parties do not say 'secularism.' Is it because we will lose votes? Because we need to get votes from right-wingers? There is no such plunder! We are fed up with this nonsense.

For a secularism day we can celebrate, for republics we can celebrate, for a future we can celebrate, we need to fight all together. We need to be organized. There is a need for people who raise their heads and stand tall in this country. We have a call to those who always impose the lesser of two evils on us, who say, 'Be with the strongest against the bad.' No, this country was founded a hundred years ago with great difficulty, with great darkness. The Republic, secularism, and independence in this country are the products of great struggles. Therefore, we are not on the side of the strong right now. We are not condemned to the lesser of two evils. Whoever says secularism, whoever protects the future of children, whoever stands against the killing of women, whoever stands against the exploitation of labor, whoever wants the independence of this country, the communists of this country will be there. The Communist Party of Turkey is a candidate to carry this flag in the most powerful way. That is why it is our call in the elections. Come, you too give strength to this voice. Come, let us all together make secularism a flag in this country. Let us protect the future of children, women, and working people in this country. We will send the palace sycophants away. We will send the sect lovers away. We will put those who pour into the streets for the caliphate on those ships and send them out of this country. We give our word!"

News Source: 12punto