A 15-point statement by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) on the most important problems facing working people in Turkey — and the path forward: parting ways with the Turkish bourgeois class:
"Poverty, the cost of living, unemployment; workplace murders, mobbing and injustice; gambling, drugs, harassment, abuse, violence, femicides, corruption—in short, a society in full decay, and a country shaken by earthquakes and fires. The list goes on.
Despite the propaganda of those in power, our country is drowning in crises that are neither accidental nor cultural. These cannot be dismissed as problems of “merit,” “education,” “tolerance,” or a supposedly “undeveloped culture of compromise.” Nor is there any meaning left in admiring the so-called “developed” Western countries and telling ourselves that “things are different there.” From every corner of the world—east and west, north and south—the same rot is spilling over. The filth exposed through the Epstein islands, one node of a global network of perversion tied to multinational monopolies, reveals a truth even the most liberal, market-worshipping ideologues now struggle to deny: capitalism is a repulsive social system and the source of all evils.
TKP calls on every segment of the working class—wage earners, retirees, the unemployed, education and healthcare workers, white- and blue-collar laborers, working students, and the country’s progressive intellectuals—to face this truth and take sides.
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Today in Turkey, the overwhelming majority is trapped in a single, burning question: how to make ends meet. For millions, life has become a constant struggle to get through the month—to pay the bills, settle debts, and put food on the table. And yet, the real cause of this crisis of survival is almost never discussed. What drives this “cost of living crisis” is not mismanagement or bad policy, but the very social system we live under. The reason most of the population is condemned to poverty is capitalism itself. Keeping this system beyond question is the greatest achievement of multinational monopolies, holding groups, and the speculators of real estate and financial markets.
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The government presents a reality in which a tiny minority grows ever richer while social injustice deepens as a “success.” Meanwhile, the tamed opposition insists the problem lies in incompetence, unqualified officials, uncultured businessmen, or corruption and bribery. But the government is right—because this social order is designed precisely to enrich a few on the backs of the many who live by their labor. Any government that maintains this order is, by its own standards, successful. The tamed opposition, by hiding the real source of the problem, becomes a partner in that success. Let us be clear: the working people on one side, the capitalist class on the other. Their interests can never be the same.
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The conflict between labor and capital is not one issue among many—it is the issue that shapes them all. Those who tell us not to “overemphasize” this contradiction are, in fact, trying to gloss over a massive theft, a profound immorality, and a deep injustice. As our country sinks deeper into darkness with each passing day, the path to light lies in resolving this fundamental conflict.
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The AKP is not the cause of the collapse—it is its instrument. But the true architect of this destruction is the capitalist class that steadily gained strength after 1923 and eventually sought to rid itself of the burden of the Republic. The class that once led the revolutionary transformations after 1919 later became their executioner. For nearly half a century, Turkey has been subjected to an uninterrupted process of counter-revolution. Any assessment of the AKP that ignores this class reality leads to false conclusions and paralyzes the republican legacy. One thing must be understood: if the AKP had not served the needs of Turkish capitalism, it would not have remained in power for a single day.
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A defense of the Republic that does not place the working people at its center only strengthens the counter-revolutionary lie that “the Republic is an elitist project.” It unjustly brands broad secular segments of society as “privileged,” while pushing millions of impoverished people into the arms of conservative ideologies. In this sense, TKP’s call against “fake Republicans” is a timely and necessary intervention.
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The Kurdish question is another expression of the same political deadlock. Since the 1980 coup, counter-revolutionary rule has been uninterrupted. Yet those who avoid any confrontation with capitalism and reduce all Kurdish issues to “separatism” and “terror” continue to speak of unity and brotherhood—words emptied of all substance. There can be no patriotism without the will to make this country livable. Anything else is betrayal. For a large part of the population, Turkey is no longer a country in which one can live with dignity. Poverty, unemployment, injustice, repression, lovelessness—this is the reality imposed on millions. The system that produces this reality is the same one that has turned the Kurdish question into a permanent wound.
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We call for unity—not submission. Not unity in poverty, not unity in silence, not unity in chains. We do not defend this country so that thieves can hide behind “nation, flag, and religion,” while dissent is crushed. We defend unity because the alternative is destruction: endless wars, endless blood, and a region turned into a graveyard for working people under imperialism. Unity is not a slogan. It is the only path to a free, equal, sovereign, and secular future.
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What stands in the way of real brotherhood is not culture, language, or history—it is capital. The ruling class survives by splitting workers and keeping millions in fear and insecurity. The interest of Kurdish workers is not a new state ruled by tribal leaders and Kurdish bosses, but a Turkey free from exploitation. There is no way forward except through a united working-class movement.
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Today, the counter-revolution has entered a new phase in its assault on the Republic. The so-called Neo-Ottoman strategy, born of the Turkish-Kurdish-Islamic synthesis, is promoted as a historic revival and a final break with Republican Turkey. Öcalan is elevated as one of its political architects, while neither the PKK nor the DEM offers meaningful resistance. What is most alarming is that some who claim to defend the republican legacy also mistake this project for “strength” and support it. This is a historic crossroads, and there is but one defining question before us: Can the vision of a “strong Turkey,” marked by the growing oppression of workers and the majority of its people, truly be embraced?
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TKP has said this many times: this so-called “strong Turkey” is an illusion. A Turkey that dives deeper into imperialist rivalry does not grow stronger—it grows more fragile. Let us be clear once again: a country becomes strong and secure only by guaranteeing equality and prosperity to its people. Yet while the capitalist government casts its eyes on other regions and stages “bold” moves in Africa, the Middle East, and the Caucasus, it condemns retirees to slow death, makes agriculture fully dependent on imports, and competes for the top spot in global inequality. They say, “Prestige has no price.” But behind these Neo-Ottoman power displays stands a poor, desperate, and futureless people. That is the real disgrace.
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This country will not breathe again until it breaks free from the grip of the capitalist class that plunders its riches. The first step is to build a political front strong enough to crush the fantasy that this system can be fixed. Those who spread this illusion—whether in the name of democracy or of ending the “palace regime” (referring to the AKP government) —become partners in the crime. This system is beyond repair.
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The political leap we are calling for must draw strength from the greatest revolutionary transformation these lands have known: the National Struggle and the founding of the Republic. If values such as working class patriotism, anti-imperialism, secularism, statism, and even central planning still form a meaningful line of resistance today, we owe it to that moment. But to turn this legacy into a force that can carry us forward, we must also face a hard truth: the class and social realities of today are fundamentally different. The age of bourgeois revolutions has ended. The way out of darkness lies in socialism.
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The steady decline of the working class’ influence in political life after 12 September 1980 (the date of fascist military coup) is no accident. It is the result of a systematic campaign—led by so-called “left” actors, beginning with the CHP (main opposition party-social democratic) —to portray fundamental change as a fantasy. Under this ideological assault, working people were left defenseless and pushed to seek survival within the existing order. But in today’s world, without the will to change this cursed system, the working class cannot even exist. What can save it from individualism, drugs, gambling, empty dreams of “moving up,” and quiet despair is the hope and determination to build a better life. That is what has been stolen. The TKP will not, for a single day, take part in this theft of the future.
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Workers did not forget who they are by accident. They were taught to forget. Social opposition was emptied of its class content and trapped in the language of abstract democracy, rights, and identity. Once capitalists and workers are declared to be “in the same boat,” what is left is not a class, but a defeated crowd. The only way forward is a political project that restores to working people the sense of their own strength, their own future, and their own country—including Kurdish workers, who are offered slogans instead of solutions and poverty instead of justice.
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The capitalist class has done every possible harm to this country. Now it seeks to rid itself entirely of the Republic it has trampled on and hollowed out. The moment of decision is not tomorrow—it is today. This is not a moment for hesitation. This is the time to part ways with the bourgeois class of Turkey. If others have different paths to offer, let them speak. We are ready to confront them. TKP will move forward with those who refuse to surrender.
**Long live Socialism! Long live the Republic!
Down with the system of exploitation! Down with imperialism!"**
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