Communist Party of Turkey marks 106th anniversary, welcomes new members into its ranks

Image via the TKP

The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) marked its 106th anniversary on September 10, calling on citizens across the country to join the organized struggle for socialism and welcoming new members into its ranks.

On its anniversary, TKP international issued the following message:

“On 10 September 1920, born in the wake of the October Revolution, the Communist Party of Turkey was founded. Today, TKP—the oldest and most deeply rooted political party in Turkey—marks its 106th anniversary.

Its long march began almost immediately with the murder of its founding leaders. Since then, it has passed through repression and persecution, defeats and setbacks, but also moments of courage, resistance and renewal. Along the way, generations of devoted revolutionaries, intellectuals and artists emerged from its ranks. Through every rise and fall, one conviction endured: TKP never ceased to seek the path to socialist revolution in Turkey.

Today, against a capitalist class that exploits working people to the bone, drags the country into dangerous adventures as part of imperialist bargains, and tramples underfoot everything progressive that Turkey has accumulated over generations, TKP carries the only programme capable of opening the way to a brighter future: socialism.

With this consciousness and responsibility, with discipline, determination and tireless work, TKP intervenes in the political life of the country. From one end of Turkey to the other, it is winning new members and new friends, taking root among working people and steadily expanding the struggle.

As a steadfast defender of working-class internationalism, TKP works to strengthen the idea of communism as humanity’s only genuine future; defends socialist Cuba in the face of attacks against it; and stands in solidarity with the resistance of all peoples who refuse to bow before imperialist barbarism.

At 106, TKP enters another year of struggle with the same historic purpose. It will continue to give its very best, to organize, to fight, and to lay, stone by stone, the road that will bring Turkey to socialism.”

Throughout the anniversary, TKP members took to the streets across Turkey, distributing leaflets calling on citizens to join the Party in the struggle to lead the country out of the darkness into which it has been plunged. Party organizations also held gatherings across the country, bringing members and supporters together and welcoming those who had recently joined TKP.

Major anniversary events were held in Ankara, İzmir and İstanbul. In İzmir, TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan addressed the gathering and, following his speech, presented Party badges to new members.

The anniversary also coincided with a significant victory for workers in Sakarya, one of Turkey’s major industrial centres. Construction workers who had been fighting for their rights with the support of TKP’s workers’ solidarity network, “Breathe Down the Bosses’ Neck,” brought their struggle to a victorious conclusion after their demands were accepted. Following their victory, the workers gathered at the local TKP office on the Party’s 106th anniversary and collectively applied to join TKP.