Turkey

Half stand against Erdoğan

The elections on June 24 have unsurprisingly resulted in Erdoğan being elected as president of the new political setup which was narrowly voted for in a constitutional referendum about a year ago… All state resources were employed, 90% of the media have been turned into government bulletins, the image of Erdoğan appeared like Big Brother on every media outlet, while opposition candidates were largely kept away from public view in almost every field. The Erdoğan regime, composed of the state, party, religious orders and the media merged into an organic whole, had a free hand in resorting to all...

Kurdish leader arrested

Salih Musleem was formerly the co-president of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, the political arm of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), in Syria. He was invited to take part in a conference on the Middle East, but was arrested in a hotel in Prague by Czech security forces following a request from the Turkish Government. He has now been released. The Turkish government accused Musleem of being a terrorist. As a matter of fact, it is Turkey and Erdogan who have backed ISIS and terrorist groups… who has victimised civilians in Syria, assassinated its political opposition within Turkey...

Afrin: Erdogan cracks down on Turkish dissent

Eleven members of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA) were arrested on 30 January following the publication of a statement by the TMA condemning Turkey′s military action in Afrin, Syria. The statement called for an end to all hostilities and warned that war posed a threat to public health. The Turkish government, along with Syrian rebels, launched an assault on Kurdish-controlled Afrin in Syria on 21 January. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) are the dominant force there. Turkey insists the YPG are terrorist. Terrorist regime In fact Erdogan’s government have long been terrorising...

Stop the Turkish assault on Afrin!

Turkey’s incursion and bombing campaign in Kurdish controlled area of Afrin is a worrying escalation in a prolonged stand-off on the Syrian border. Erdogan’s hostility to the expanding territory now under the control of Kurdish forces has been held back by the support of both Russia and the US for the Kurdish forces. But as relations have thawed between Turkey and Russia, the dynamic has changed. More than 25,000 pro-Turkish fighters have been drafted into the offensive operation “Olive Branch.” There have already been several villages captured despite Kurdish forces driving some of them back...

Iraqi troops out of Kirkuk!

Iraqi government forces and Shia militias have occupied Kirkuk for the first time since 2014, the year Daesh made their away across Iraq. Although Kirkuk is not part of Iraqi Kurdistan it has been under the control of Kurdish forces. In the September referendum it voted by a sizeable majority in favour of independence. Up to half a million Kurds are now fleeing Kirkuk for northern Iraq Following the referendum Kurdish peshmerga and civilians gathered arms and prepared themselves for a threatened takeover. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the largest Kurdish party and the party of the...

Daesh driven out of Raqqa

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have scored remarkable victories over the last three years against Daesh in northern Syria. The YPG was created five years ago. Assad withdrew from Kurdish areas in north west Syria to concentrate his offensive in more central areas. The YPG became the army of the cantons formed in what Kurds call Rojava, “the West” of Kurdish territory. It made its female units (YPJ) every bit as prominent and effective as the male units. It rejected religious sectarianism and nationalism. It armed those it liberated like the Yazidis, and helped them organise in...

Turkish workers against the military

This is the second in a three part series – read part one: From dictatorship to liberal capitalism There were many large student demonstrations against the Democratic Party (DP) government in its last days of DP rule (after 1950). This was the background for the 27 May 1960 military coup in which ex-Prime Minister Menderes and two of his prominent ministers were summarily tried and hanged. Both the Turkish industrial bourgeoisie and imperialism welcomed this coup, because, whatever the intentions of the lower ranking officers who led it, it was ultimately to their benefit. These officers...

Letter: Stalinism in the Turkish workers’ movement

May I, as a non-expert on Turkish matters, add a few outsider’s comments to the excellent article by Marksist Tutum, From dictatorship to liberal capitalism , in Solidarity 443, 20 June 2017. First, although I totally accept the critique of the Kemalist regime outlined in the article, it is probably worth stressing two aspects of Kemalist policy which were surely progressive: the secularism adopted by Turkey as state policy was, as far as I aware, unique in the region; likewise the policies adopted towards women despite, I am sure, numerous caveats and criticisms, were a major step forward...

From dictatorship to liberal capitalism

A bourgeois republic, led by Mustafa Kemal, was established in Turkey in 1923, and this was an historical turning point pertaining to the development of capitalism in Turkey. However the Turkish bourgeoisie did not totally abolish the old despotic, Asiatic state traditions of the Ottoman Empire. The social and political reforms necessary for modern capitalism to develop in Turkey were carried out from above, with Bismarckian methods, and this was the pattern until the 1960s. The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) was founded in 1920 as a section of the Comintern, under the direct influence of the...

Saudi Arabia tries to push Qatar into line

A simmering conflict between the Gulf State of Qatar and its larger neighbour, Saudi Arabia, has abruptly flared into an open, serious stand-off. Beginning on 5 June, a Saudi-led grouping of states including Egypt, Bahrain and UAE broke off diplomatic relations, and implemented travel and trade bans against Qatar. Qatar has said it will not retaliate.Saudi Arabia has closed Qatar’s only land border and ordered its citizens to leave Qatar. UAE, Egyptian and Saudi ports have refused to allow Qatari ships to dock.80% of Qatar’s food comes from its Gulf neighbours and 40% comes across the land...

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