Statement of the PB on referendum results
The status quo of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) gained approval from the right
The Right Has Been Unified in the AKP
Besides the crimes committed during the propaganda period and the electoral frauds, the results of the referendum indicate two points: firstly, the AKP has unified the right and the latter has become one in the AKP. Secondly, a significant resistance is in rise against the rightist tendency that has marked the last 30 years of Turkey. The future of Turkey depends on organization of this resistance to socialism.
The first thing one shall point to regarding the referendum held on September 12 is the fact that injustice, deception and electoral fraud have reached to an unprecedented level that has never been seen in the history of Turkey before. The Communist Party of Turkey is in the process of filing its criminal complaints on tens of cases it observed on the voting day. According to our party, presentation of the amendments to the constitution, which have been accepted with the referendum, as a “democratization” package is a preposterous lie due to this reason as well.
Yet, the unofficial results of the referendum provide a basis for further assessments. The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Turkey issued this statement in order to share its views about the political future of and the social situation in our country.
The rightist bloc has been formed in the AKP
The first thing to note about the referendum results is that the right has been unified in the AKP. If one shall speak about the success of the AKP in the referendum, that would be its ability to settle into the locus of the right and gain the prerogative to represent and rule this section. We have been saying for a long time that “the status quo is the AKP”. The demagogy of labelling those who say “no” as supporters of the status quo has remained as a black propaganda, and social and political agents that represent the real forces of status quo delegated the power to the AKP. Thus the legitimacy problem of the AKP within the status quo is coming to an end.
This is not only an “electoral” outcome. It is one of the decisive facts that will determine the upcoming period in the political life of our country.
One should know that the right, which has gathered its forces around a single center, hence unified its power, will constitute an even more reactionary, more anti-labor political entity.
The AKP has not been able to force the country into submission
However, the results of the referendum also marked the existence of epicenters of social resistance, which rightism and reactionism failed to force into submission. The social support of the right is still decisive in our country which has spent the last 30 years, though in ebbs and flows, under the dominance of the right. Yet, this has not been enough to force the society, especially the dynamic sections of the urban population, into submission.
One fact we will address in more detail below is that, despite all the lies, fraud and oppression and despite the campaigns organized through the power of money and huge media opportunities, the “left-wing” sphere of influence cannot be squeezed below 40 per cent.
The U.S. and the AKP refreshed their marriage
An essential point to underline about the referendum is the attitude of imperialist forces. During the referendum process, the stance of the U.S. was to support the AKP but at the same time expect it to prove itself. This stance of the U.S., which put the AKP in strain occasionally, was due to the need to crosscheck the reactionary government rather than the need to review the preferences. The outcome of the referendum enabled the AKP to “pass the test”.
It is not difficult to foresee that this outcome will render the AKP more pro-American while rendering the U.S. more pro-AKP.
The message of Prime Minister Erdoğan sent to the other side of the Atlantic in his speech after the referendum is sent not only to Fethullah Gülen in Pennsylvania but also to the White House.
The inauspicious mission of the AKP will continue
Within this picture, the inauspicious mission of the AKP to transform our country in political and social terms has come to the fore once again. Any call to the AKP with the expectation that it will meet this result with “political maturity” and foster a “culture of reconciliation” is ridiculous and misleading.
Taking courage from this result, the AKP will gain pace and become more aggressive vis-à-vis the risks it perceives in the outcome of the referendum.
The picture that came out of the success of the boycott should be interpreted differently
The level at which the boycott summoned by the Kurdish national movement reached in Kurdish provinces is significant. On the other hand, we have to carry out a multi-dimensional assessment of this outcome. One shall note that the right-wing and reactionism consolidated its forces in these provinces. While the non-participation rate in 13 provinces where the boycott has been effective was 51% in total, the rate of those who said “yes” within the entire voters was 45%. This is an indicator of the fact that the right and reactionism is “the other force” in this region. An important factor is that, the sphere of the left-wing is left empty as the struggle for national identity imposes itself unconditionally. The need for a pro-labor, popular and progressive stance in order to downgrade the right in the social sphere could not be satisfied in this territory.
It would also be wrong to evaluate the results in Kurdish provinces as “a development, which would facilitate the solution to the Kurdish problem”. With these results it has become certain that, in the upcoming period, the Kurdish problem will be utilized further as a tool to give Turkey a more pro-American and reactionary form.
While gaining recognition and taking credit of the state and the nationalist base, the AKP also established itself as the representative of an effective rightist base in the region where calls for “democratic autonomy” are being made today.
The only thing that would come out from this picture is a U.S. initiative within which the Kurdish people are threatened with the AKP and the AKP is threatened with the Kurdish problem. There is no way that freedom and equality come out from this picture.
Those who would like to stop the AKP should see that this cannot be achieved with the Republican People’s Party (CHP)
Another issue that we shall dwell on in relation with the referendum and its results is the state of the CHP and the assessments of CHP executives on the referendum.
There is a consistency between the performance of the CHP administration during the referendum process and the assessments of the CHP executives. This party persists to see a broad social section, which has been consolidated with the anti-people policies of the AKP, “in its pocket” and define its “success” upon this perception. It is true that the 42% “no” vote is an outcome of the social resistance against the AKP; an outcome created by the left in general. It is also true that the CHP benefits from this social base. However, the CHP is not in a position to expand or unify this social resistance. On the contrary, this resistance should be rescued from the CHP.
The picture that has not changed for years must change. We shall not let the executives of the CHP to relax themselves by claiming that “the votes of the CHP has increased” while the country is moving towards a disaster step by step.
The fact that the Chairman of the CHP, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, could not exercise his right to vote is a two-sided scandal.
The deletion of voter registration of the main opposition party leader from the lists as a result of an extraordinary practice is an indication of the degree of corruption of the AKP bureaucracy. This was the final move of the referendum process in which the provincial and district governors and the police department functioned as the election offices of the AKP.
On the other hand, the attitude of the CHP and its chairman is also thought-provoking. Instead of protecting the right to vote and struggling to use this right, they tried to hide the scandal, which is an indicator of the problems inherent to the opposition line of the CHP.
The AKP will become more aggressive and the resistance will grow
In conclusion, the referendum results will reassure the AKP, encourage this party to implement its anti-labor, anti-people policies further, and create a basis for a more oppressive, rightist, reactionary and aggressive political structuring, which are sometimes expressed as “the AKP dictatorship” or “the AKP fascism”.
On the other hand, the referendum results once again pointed to the vivacity of resistance against the AKP. Moreover, this vivacity is due almost entirely to the resistance that should be recorded on the part of the left in general. The labels of “conservatism” and “nationalism” attached to the “no” votes by certain democrats affiliated with the AKP are falsified completely.
Socialism will win
Our party does not recognize the referendum process as a lost cause on the part of the socialists, the working class and the toiling masses. TKP attaches importance to the circles of resistance that have been formed against the AKP and the values represented by this party during the referendum process. The future of our country depends on strengthening these circles and organizing them as a real social and political movement. The “No!” campaign waged by the TKP was a step towards this direction and, despite its deficiencies and inadequacies, provides the cornerstones of the struggle to be waged by the socialists in the near future.
Our task is to create the reinforced fronts of the left especially on two social forces that cannot be surrendered by the right.
The left should reinforce its forces and expand its scope especially in regard to the youth and the urban working class.
Our party must fortify and win the ideological struggle in the three metropolitan cities (Istanbul, Ankara and Smyrnia) as well as in large cities in which the working class is concentrated and a dynamic urban fabric prevails. The socialist movement, which does not give in to the right the large cities, the minds of the youth and the toiling masses, will be able to march towards the bright future of our country.
A broad basis and energy exists in our country; a broad basis and energy that has not surrendered to the AKP and its anti-labor and anti-people policies, to the reactionary, pro-market and pro-American stance represented by this party.
The Communist Party of Turkey envisages its task as organizing this basis and illuminating the future of the country with this organization.
It is clear to us that only through a way that aims to reach socialism can Turkey escape from the dangers awaiting her and the dark ride into which she is pushed. The Communist Party of Turkey recognizes socialism as the answer to all questions and the solution to all problems of the country.
Finally, the Political Bureau of the TKP thanks all its members and friends who worked for the “No!” campaign all over the country. All of our comrades and friends who raised the voice of the Communist Party of Turkey shall know that our voice will be even louder in the coming period.
Our struggle will enlighten our future. We have full confidence in that.
The Communist Party of Turkey
Political Bureau