Kemal Okuyan, Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) Secretary-General and independent candidate of 'This Social Order Must Change Platform' from İzmir province for the parliamentary elections on June 24, was the guest of a TV program on June 10.
As an answer to the question why the communist party did not run in the elections, Okuyan said since the ruling AKP government prevented TKP to run in the general elections, the party announced its independent candidates.
Okuyan noted that there are millions of people who believe that this social order must change, and that TKP tries to meet these people and have met some of them during the election propaganda in various neighbourhoods.
"You are right but we will not vote for you in this elections, the people say to us. We invite them to undo such an action in this elections. We invite them to vote for what they truly believe in, not for what they, in fact, do not credit.", Okuyan said.
He added "The high school students were attacked by the police while they were defending their rights. So do the workers. These are the areas related to seeking one's rights, not simply related to struggling against Erdoğan himself. The whole problem is reduced to Erdoğan himself when we disregard what people were struggling against when they were attacked. This social order is the reason behind these attacks."
Okuyan also commented on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent comments that Turkey's 8th President Turgut Özal prevented the privatisation of İstanbul bridges despite the communists propagated their sales. Okuyan said "I don't believe that Erdoğan speaks sanely recently. He is a politician boasting of being a trader. They believe that the state needs to be run as a corporation. Can this ever be possible?"
Noting that the parliamentary system has not been operating since the rule of the AKP party, Okuyan said "Turkey will be in an uncertain condition after June 24. Erdoğan cannot be able to govern even if he gets elected. The presidential system as Erdoğan wants cannot be established in Turkey. This will be the case even if he wins. 'The parliamentary system is getting to an end, we will be passing on to a new system' they say. No, it won't be established. June 24 will mark the beginning of a new struggle period."
Commenting on Erdoğan's recently announced populist project 'coffee houses,' regeneration of historical reading clubs of the Ottoman period called 'kıraathane', Okuyan said "People do gather and discuss at these coffee houses. It seems that the AKP will have to close down those places after a while. What Erdoğan says nowadays do not matter. He says things so that he can win."
