TKP returns back to struggle

Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) declared its return to political scene with a sublime assembly in İstanbul.

ICP, 23 January 2017

Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) has accepted a decision to proceed its political activities, at a sublime gathering on 22th January 2017 in İstanbul. According to the soL international, thousands of communists from around Turkey accompanied by guests and fraternal party representatives, gathered at the assembly.

TKP, had suspended its political activities, in order to secure the name and legacy of the Party after a crisis in 2014. soL international reported that, Sunday's assembly gathered following the appeal of the seven members of the TKP on December 27, 2016, and the declaration of the committee responsible for the continuity of the TKP, which was formed in 2014.

The historical assembly started with the speech of Yaşar Çelik, one of the seven members of the TKP who made the appeal for the assembly. After the introduction of the program of the assembly and assignment of the chair members, the representatives of the fraternal Parties made their speeches.

Giorgos Marinos, the member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), read the congratulatory statement of the KKE.

"In April 2016, while saluting you, we had stated that your party should take over the name that it deserves and it was the time to struggle as the Communist Party of Turkey, as the TKP, among its own people, and within the International Communist Movement. We salute this decision of the communists of Turkey and congratulate them," said the statement.

Marinos, underlining the strong relation between the TKP and the KKE that has been lasting for several years, also stated that ‘The relation between the TKP and the KKE is an example of an internationalist relation that is built up under very complicated conditions.  This relation is experienced by the guidance of the class interests, the union of the working classes of the two countries, the struggle for overthrowing the capitalism and building socialism-communism. The same thing is valid for our youth organizations the KG [Communist Youth] and KNE [Communist Youth of Greece].’

After the speech of Marinos, Alberto Gonzalez Casals took the floor on behalf of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). Casals mentioned the importance of the return of the TKP to the political scene.

Besides the speeches on behalf of KKE and PCC, the list of 34 Communist and Worker's Parties around the World, which have sent their support messages, is presented to the assembly.

At the gathering, the Central Committee, which will take on the task until the Congress of TKP in 2017, has been elected. Kemal Okuyan has been designated as the First Secretary of the CC of TKP.

Okuyan took floor on behalf of the Central Committee of the TKP and made the closing speech of the assembly.

Kemal Okuyan started his speech by the question of ‘What is the use of a communist party?’ and underlined the irreconcilability of the interests of the working class and the bourgeoisie, stating that the TKP has always abstained from that. Okuyan mentioned that a communist party ‘is the party that focuses on overthrowing the capitalist rules; the wise woman, the vanguard, the facilitator of this process’.

Drawing from the Soviet  and Cuban revolutions, which started with the leadership of parties and movements with limited number of people and overthrew the capitalist rule,  and contrasting them with the German Social Democratic Party at the beginning of the 20th century, which then attained high election scores but was no more a threat for the capitalist system, Kemal Okuyan underlined the importance of sticking with the ultimate target of overthrowing capitalism.

See the link for the photo gallery of the event at soL.