In the following we want to introduce the website of the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML) with the following introduction:
About the TKP/ML
The Communist Movement of Turkey was organized at the level of a party for the first time on 10th of September, 1920 under the leadership of comrade Mustafa Suphi. The party that was established on the communist line lost all its leadership as a result of a dirty plot after a short while and initially deviated to an opportunist line and then after to a revisionist line. For exactly 50 years, it organized the pacifist, revisionist line on this path and the proletariat was deprived of a leadership in the class struggle. Our Party TKP/ML which was established as a result of the struggle that Ibrahim Kaypakkaya waged within the TIIKP (Turkey Revolutionary Worker Peasant Party) is the “new” party of the same communist movement under the leadership of comrade Mustafa Suphi. Comrade Ibrahim Kaypakkaya waged a struggle not only against the leadership of the TIIKP but also against all sorts of revisionism, pacifism and compromise in a tireless and continuous manner and overcame the obstacles put in front of the communist line by establishing the TKP/ML on 24th of April, 1972.
The contribution of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) that was the lighthouse to the Communist Movement of the World in the same period was determinative in the communist line under the leadership of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya to once again gain a quality of a party. The GPCR under the leadership of Mao Zedong is the most progressive revolution of MAOISM that is based on masses and has developed as the third stage of Marxism-Leninism in the history against modern revisionism represented by the CPSU under the leadership of Khrushchev that condemned the people of the world to capitalism, that especially aimed for class struggle to develop in accordance with the interests of bourgeoisie in socialist countries. When the Communist Movement of the World took the path of rapid purification from revisionism with the GPCR, comrade Ibrahim Kaypakkaya became the leader of this movement in Turkey. He has taken his part among the leaders of the Communist Movement of the World by developing MLM and the communist line in the reality of Turkey.
The social movements and the revolutionary wave that developed at the end of ‘60s had surrounded Turkey. The student youth movement emerged on a very strong and revolutionary ground. Again, one can speak of the peasant movement and especially the movement of the working class in this period. This situation created the conditions that fed the emergence of the revolutionary ground, revolutionary ideas and the communist attitude in the country. Within this context the 15-16th of June Great Workers’ Resistance caused comrade Kaypakkaya to draw conclusions that clarified his path of revolution. In 1971 the leader of the revolutionary youth carried the struggle to another ground by establishing armed organizations and parties. Comrade Kaypakkaya synthesized all the experiences of these developments, intensified the ideological struggle in this period and constructed the communist outburst that provided a rupture on the ideological-political-organizational bases.
Thus, the TKP/ML emerged as the vanguard party of the proletariat of Turkey. The TKP/ML accepts Marxism-Leninism-Maoism which is the work of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao, as the theory of the class struggle of proletariat that develops in the direction of the liberation of all humanity. MLM is both the product and the guide of this struggle. MLM is an ideology but at the same time it is the science of history. Because it is based on the examination and comprehension of all history, all the class struggles in the history and especially the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and labouring classes. MLM is the adequate, competent and the only fully revolutionary theory of society: it foresees the liberation of all peoples under the leadership of proletariat and guides the on-going class struggle for this purpose.
The TKP/ML is the representative of the International Proletariat in Turkey due to this approach.
The minimum programme of the revolution in Turkey which is in the semi-feudal and semi-colonial social order is the New Democratic Revolution (People’s Democratic Revolution). Principally, four contradictions play active roles in semi-feudal and semi-colonial societies. Above are these contradictions: 1- the contradiction between imperialism and large masses of people, 2- the contradiction between feudalism and masses of people, 3- the contradiction between bourgeoisie and proletariat, 4- the contradictions among dominant classes. Various other contradictions in semi-feudal and semi-colonial countries and together with the subjective conditions of each country these four contradictions determine the quality and the direction of People’s Democratic Revolution which applies to these countries.
The way of resolution of the contradiction between imperialism and the people of the semi-colonial countries is the national struggle for independence to dismiss imperialism. The way of resolution of the contradiction between feudalism and the people is revolutionary civil war against feudalism. The national struggle and the revolutionary civil war are strictly intertwined with one another. Of these two contradictions, one or the other might become prominent time to time. In semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries that are under the indirect administration of imperialism the principal contradiction is between feudalism and the people. In the case of a military invasion of imperialism in same countries the contradiction between imperialism and the people becomes prominent and the principal contradiction. The oppression in the most reactionary quality of feudalism and imperialism which are bases for one another over the people will be ended with the People’s Democratic Revolution. When the power of the dominant classes is ended this contradiction will be resolved as well.
The TKP/ML strictly adheres to the approach that “the way to undertake the counter-revolutionary violence is revolutionary violence”. It defends that the People’s Democratic Revolution will be achieved with the protracted and robust People’s War. Our People’s War is consisted of three stages: Strategic Defence, Strategic Stalemate and Strategic Offence. People’s War will be a peasant war in our country. The Party of the Proletariat will develop the armed struggle in rural areas based on impoverished and middle peasantry, will establish liberated zones in these areas, big cities will be besieged through the enlargement of these zones through the Protracted People’s War and ultimately the control will be established throughout the country through a mass insurrection in cities and the power will be transferred to the people. The People’s War will take place as a protracted war and the People’s Liberation Army will be constructed within this war. Again within this protracted war People’s United Front that is consisted of the working class, peasantry, urban petty-bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie will be established. The People’s United Front is based on the fundamental alliance of the workers-peasants under the leadership of the working class. The power that is to be established after our revolution will be Democratic People’s Dictatorship under the leadership of proletariat.
The proletariat of Turkey is a part of the international proletariat and its interests are consistent with the struggle of the international proletariat towards communism. Our Party serves communism as long as it takes these interests as the basis and realizes them. What determines the communist quality of our Party is this property. The communist society will be the ultimate result of the class struggle of the proletariat for socialism in each and every country. Within this context Our Party adopts the understanding of the class struggle and social development with the historical role and responsibility of revolutions that proceed from our initial goal New Democratic Revolution to Socialism and then on to Communism. Our Party in its history of 49 years starting from 1972 has acted with the adoption of the political line determined by comrade Ibrahim Kaypakkaya. On this axis, it has organized the will of the Party in the class struggle by holding 8 Conferences in the years 1978, 1981, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995, 2002 and 2007. In 2019 it held its first Congress in its history, systemized the Kaypakkaya line at a programmatic level and has established a will to maintain the line of comrade Kaypakkaya in the direction of the developments and the experiences of 49 years.
In the historical period of 49 years, the founder leader of our Party Ibrahim Kaypakkaya and our Party General Secretaries Suleyman Cihan, Kazim Celik and Mehmet Demirag and tens of cadres of our Party and hundreds of our fighters have lost their lives in the war against the fascist dictatorship. Our Party has never dropped the flag of Communism in the returns from socialism process that started with the death of comrade Stalin and was completed with the death of comrade Mao Zedong. Against the extensive ideological offensives created by the returns from socialism our Party has never abandoned the interests of proletariat, the principles of MLM and the People’s War Strategy in respect to the path of revolution. In the political defeat period of proletariat it continued marching on the path of communism representing the interests of proletariat and its worldview on the lands of the country at the highest level with an uncompromising stance and with giving martyrs. Our Party has encountered various right and left deviations, factionisms and coups in its history of 49 years. In 1988 the Left Wing Representative of the Rural Petty-Bourgeoisie, a product of the Military-Only point of view DABK (the East Anatolia Regional Committee) left the ranks of the Party in a factionist attitude that disregarded the Party understanding. Again in 1994, the Military-Only point of view which had gained a significant strength among the Party leadership carried out an organizational coup against the Party understanding and line. Following to this heavy coup period the Party re-organized itself and stood on its own feet on the MLM line. Lastly a faction that turned the vacuum caused by the blows of the enemy to a opportunity, that defended the liquidationist right line in the party understanding and in the struggle that is centred abroad emerged. This band of party and war deserters whose struggling and revolutionary sides were weak departed from the Party in 2017. Since 1972 various right and left coups and factions in different sizes have carried out offensives against the Party line and our Party has come out wrapping itself around stronger to its line in these struggles.
Our Party has never given up from the cause of Communism since 1972 to this very day. It has always adhered to the fundamental ring of the class struggle in our country and its necessity by maintaining the People’s War Strategy and consequently the guerrilla warfare. It has never compromised from the fundamental principles of the Party, two-line struggle and its illegal structure. It has intervened in every development with the representation of the proletariat by determining a series of policies and orientations in regards to the tactics of the revolution since 1972. It has maintained and continues to maintain active and clear ideological struggle with all sorts of reformist, revisionist, opportunist, Trotskyist, liqudationist and anti-MLM currents. With this accumulation and experience it maintains its will to fulfil the fundamental duties of the class struggle today.
The People’s Army TIKKO and the youth organization TMLGB continue to fulfil their responsibilities with their active and organized work under the leadership of the Party. Long Live Our Party TKP/ML That Marches on the Shining Path of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
