The legal socialist parties of Turkey, 1960–80

Abstract

Marxist ideas began to penetrate Turkey towards the end of the nineteenth century, but in contrast to the west European and north American countries the conditions necessary for their propagation did not yet exist in the Ottoman Empire. The first socialist-type organization was formed in Salonica in 1909 by Bulgarian and Jewish workers. Members of minority groups then accounted for most of the workers who were few in number, as well as employees in general in Turkey; hence socialist ideology first spread among non-Turks. The Ottoman Socialist Party was formed in Istanbul in 1910, later joining the Second International. During the First World War many members of this party worked in Germany and they became close to the Spartacus League, a group of German leftist socialists who later formed the nucleus of the German Communist Party. Another group of Turkish socialists were taken prisoner by the Russians, and they became witnesses to the October Revolution; subsequently Comintern activists worked among them. In 1918 the Turkish socialists who returned from Germany set up the Marxist-oriented Workers and Peasants Socialist Party (WPSP) led by $efik Hiisnu Deymer, while in 1920 the Turkish socialists then in Soviet Russia formed the Turkish Communist Party (TCP) in Baku under the leadership of Mustafa Subhi. In the years of civil unrest in Turkey (1919-22) the communists and the socialists were weak and were denied any part in the leadership of the national-liberation movement; they were able to operate legally only owing to the military and political support tendered by Soviet Russia to Republican Turkey. Following the revolt of the Kurds in eastern Anatolia in 1925, the Kemalists declared a state of emergency and banned both the WPSP and the TCP. The ban remained in force until the end of the Second World War and members of the communist and socialist movement were subject to repression by the authorities. Following the war, the new international conditions and internal political tension caused the ruling Republican People's Party to allow some degree of liberalization in Turkish political life. In particular, this was expressed in the Association Law, which permitted new political parties and organizations to form. The result was the appearance in 1946 of several political parties, including the Democrat Party (DP), which became the main opposition force in the country. Simultaneously, a number of political organizations styling themselves as 'workers' and 'socialist' arose, but they were shortlived. The Turkish Socialist Party (TSP) and the Turkish Socialist Workers and Peasants Party (TSWPP) established in May-July 1946 proved more viable. While the former, created by a group of intellectuals led by E.A. Miistepcaplioglu, caused the government little anxiety owing to its social-democratic and pro-Western nature, the latter, founded by Deymer, operated as a Marxist organization. The rapid rise of the socialist movement in Turkey caused the RPP government concern and in December 1946 it