Amid a growing wave of arrests by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan against the political opposition and the press, 52 people were detained on “terror” charges Tuesday morning in house raids in 10 cities across Turkey.
While Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that 60 people were wanted and 52 of them were detained within the scope of this operation, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya made a separate statement on X/Twitter and said, “In the ‘GÜRZ-46’ operations against PKK/KCK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party/ Kurdistan Communities Union] in 51 provinces for the last 5 days; 282 suspected members of the terrorist organization were captured.”
The operation against the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), a coalition of nominally left parties led by the Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), is part of a much broader campaign of repression. “We have been informed that there is an HDK case and HDK investigation process involving around 6,000 people. 1,600 of them are our citizens living in Istanbul,” said İskender Bayhan, Labour Party (EMEP) Istanbul deputy.
Among those detained are leading members of the DEM Party, the Labor Party (EMEP), the Socialist Refoundation Party (SYKP), the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), the Revolutionary Socialist Workers’ Party (DSİP), the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the Green Left Party, as well as journalists Yıldız Tar, Elif Akgül and Ercüment Akdeniz. Musician Pınar Aydınlar, painter Taner Güven and screenwriter Ayşe Bengi were also detained.
On Monday, Mehmet Türkmen, chairman of the independent union BİRTEK-SEN, which has been leading a wave of wildcat strikes by textile workers in the southeastern city of Gaziantep, was arrested and sent to prison. Earlier, the Gaziantep governor’s office announced a 15-day ban on all protests in the province.
Türkmen was arrested on charges of “incitement to commit a crime” and “violating labor and working life” for encouraging workers to use their constitutional and democratic rights to fight for better wages and working conditions. Sitting on a social powder keg, the Erdoğan government is seeking to harshly suppress any mass movement within the working class.
The World Socialist Web Site and the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu (Socialist Equality Group) condemn the escalating police-state repression and demand the release of those detained. Everyone has constitutional and universal rights to engage in politics and journalism, and these fundamental democratic rights must be firmly defended by the working class.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s stated justification for the operation, as reported in the press, is the allegation that the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), a legal umbrella organization of numerous parties, is, in fact, a “terrorist organization” linked to the outlawed PKK and the KCK.
According to the daily Cumhuriyet, the targeted legal parties that are part of the HDK “organize the social sphere by carrying out actions and activities such as protest marches, press statements, rallies, etc. with a legal appearance in accordance with the instructions of the PKK/KCK terrorist organization”. In fact, with such groundless accusations of “terrorism,” the constitutional activities and rights of all legal parties can be suspended.
“It is clear that the possibility of a solution and peace [in the Kurdish issue] has started to disturb someone’s sleep,” DEM Party said in a statement on its X/Twitter account, adding: “Every day operations are launched against those who want a solution and peace, and every day, trustees are appointed to replace mayors elected by the people. Every day there are more attacks on the alliance of the peoples, on those who raise the common struggle. There is an all-out attack against society, the will of the people, the search for a solution, democracy and peace. But fear is futile; peace will surely come to these lands.”
This statement is contradictory. Because what is called “the possibility of a solution and peace” is a government policy developed with the permission and approval of Erdoğan himself. Since last October, negotiations have been going on for the release of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, in exchange for his call for the organization to lay down its arms. A delegation from the DEM party has met directly with Öcalan twice. The PKK/KCK, which is part of the negotiations, has influence not only in Turkey but also in Syria, Iraq and Iran.
However, what is at stake here is not “a solution and peace” but Ankara’s attempt to consolidate its position in the deepening imperialist war in Syria and the Middle East. The DEM Party’s claim that Erdoğan can bring a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue while eliminating the remaining democratic rights of the entire population shows the dilemma and bankruptcy of their nationalist perspective.
Moreover, the DEM Party and legal Kurdish nationalist movement remain the most intense targets of the Erdoğan government’s crackdown on political opposition. Since 2016, thousands of its members, including former party leaders such as Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, have been political prisoners, and elected mayors are being unconstitutionally dismissed.
Most recently, Abdullah Zeydan, the mayor of Van, a city of 1.1 million people, was sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison for “aiding a terrorist organization [PKK/KCK]” and “making terrorist propaganda through the press,” and the governor of Van was appointed as a municipal trustee. Over 100 people exercising their right to peaceful protest at the city hall were detained in a massive police operation on Saturday, and 20 were arrested.
Last week, the Public Prosecutor’s Office signalled that the HDK and its affiliated parties would be further targeted in an operation launched in Istanbul, in which 10 people were arrested in 9 district municipalities run by the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP). There, HDK was declared a “terrorist organization” and the legal local election alliance (”Urban Consensus”) between the CHP and the DEM party, which was formed last year, was declared a “crime.” Across the country, the CHP came out on top, the undeserved beneficiary of growing social opposition to the government, while Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to win an election for the first time since 2002.
The CHP, a traditional pro-European Union and pro-NATO bourgeois party, responded to its electoral victory last year by launching a process of “reconciliation” and “normalization” with Erdoğan, with whom it agreed on a program of social assault targeting the working class.
The mounting state crackdown on the CHP and the DEM party is believed to be moving towards Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu (CHP). İmamoğlu, who has twice won elections against the AKP in Istanbul, is seen as the CHP’s favourite presidential candidate and polls show him ahead of Erdoğan. İmamoğlu has been the subject of numerous investigations and lawsuits due to his statements made within the scope of freedom of expression, with the threat of a total of 25 years in prison and a political ban.
Former AKP deputy Şamil Tayyar said on a TV channel that İmamoğlu could soon be charged with terrorism, stating: “If solid information, documents and evidence are revealed that show İmamoğlu as the architect of the relationship with the KCK within the framework of the ‘urban reconciliation,’ the investigation against İmamoğlu will fall within the scope of terrorism.”
İmamoğlu made a statement on X/Twitter on Monday, holding Erdoğan directly responsible for the lawsuits against him and reiterating the CHP’s call for early elections: “The lawsuits demanding 25 years of imprisonment against me have Mr. President’s signature, not anyone else’s, you can’t fool anyone. I challenge him for an election… Stop intrigues using the judiciary. This nation loves bravery and courage.”
The possibility of losing the presidential elections in 2028 or earlier is not the only reason for Erdoğan’s growing authoritarianism. The government is escalating its long-standing anti-democratic practices amid the growing imperialist drive for redivision in the Middle East and globally led by the United States, as well as rising class tensions at home. And Erdoğan’s actions, which do not recognize the constitution and the law, are being “normalized” globally by the practices of Donald Trump’s second administration in the US, the centre of world capitalism.
In Turkey and around the world, the only progressive response to this ruling class attack, rooted in the deep crisis of the capitalist system, must come from the working class, united and mobilized on an international socialist program, not from this or that capitalist establishment party representing the interests of the same reactionary class as the parties in power.