Kemal Okuyan, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), evaluated the June Resistance (Gezi Resistance) in its 5th anniversary. Okuyan
stated that it would be absurd to think of such large-scale protests and social movements as one-time events, and added: “To glean persistent impacts that can tremble this decadent social order, we should make healthy evaluations on the June Resistance and its dynamics, without fetishizing it. We must save the working people of Turkey from the rooted idea that changing this social order is impossible.”
We are on the anniversary of the June Resistance. What can you tell us about its impacts on the politics of Turkey after 5 years?
The June Resistance left deep, lasting marks on the character and if you like, genetic material, of the Turkish society. Therefore, those who claim that the resistance, which started at Gezi Park and spread all around the country in 2013, has left no marks are incorrect. One cannot foresee when and how the imprints of such large-scale social movements resurface. Moreover, the other front of the 2013 Resistance, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s side, do not seem to forget it.
Can we say that Erdoğan still beware of such a social upheaval, an analogue of Gezi?
Those in power experience an entrapment today. Erdoğan is unsuccessful in playmaking on the eve of June 24 elections and his morale is low. Yet, a general worry is present in society, expecting him to cheat once again. When we talk with the people, we often hear the expression “this guy shall not leave the post even if he loses.” How come? The reason is that Erdoğan and his governments have been very dexterous in the game of elections and “high politics.” Rumours and hearsay are everywhere. But remember June 2013, people had the initiative back then and their confidence was at its peak. Erdoğan failed to play the game; he was paralysed. Same was the case during the resistance of TEKEL workers in Ankara.
Do you think that the determining factor is the streets?
What is determining is the rise of the social struggle and the street is one of the most critical symptoms and most crucial grounds of it. But Gezi was not limited to the street. More correctly, the June Resistance was a comprehensive response to Erdoğan by a large segment of the society. In a sense, reminding Erdoğan the “red lines” of this society.
Haven't those red lines been crossed?
No. Erdoğan has not yet been able to cross the lines declared via the June Resistance. He made moves, the scale of the damage in Turkey has expanded, but the lines made clear in 2013 with a huge explosion are still there. Do you think millions of people have given up on those lines? Today, the ruling party has the multiple number of troubles, and one of them is that half of the Turkish people refuse to fit in the borders Erdoğan imposes.
If so, why a sense of despair became prevalent in society?
Today, even those who are excited about Erdoğan’s defeat in elections for the first time feel despair and hopelessness.
Because the bourgeois parties and political establishment as a whole absorbed the self-confidence that the society had developed in 2013 by drawing a red line against Erdoğan. This absorption started during the June Resistance. Different factions of the political establishment had problems with Erdoğan but they either wanted to limit him, make him more controllable, or replace him with a similar but less-unpredictable actor; so, they tried to channelize the energy of the resistance in line with their own demands. This is quite normal in politics. But they had a hard time doing this against the secularist and patriotic character of the June Resistance. I do not know any other historical example of a spontaneous social movement of this scale without any influential political actor directing it to be so resistant to political manipulations of the establishment. This resistance has not only disturbed the capitalist class and international actors but also those who allegedly represent “the left.” I wish anti-imperialism and a pro-enlightenment stance had been as strong as it had been claimed among the left.
Right so! Is not today the worth of secularism approved by everyone in Turkey?
No doubt that Islamists’ being in power for 16 years taught something to the liberals and others but I do not think that many political sections are sincere in terms of secularism. It is all obvious! Secularism and anti-imperialism enforced themselves in 2013 by the will of the people and there still are actors from the political establishment who are unpleasant with the fact.
Do you mean the CHP?
Yes, the CHP [parliamentary main opposition party] and all those pro-establishment left-wing parties. All those who fetishized the elections in 2014 and 2015, acted as if the elections were the only way to liberation, and doing this while flirting other factions of Islamism or highlighting an ethnic-identity politics… All these mean that they willed to gloss over the imprints of June Resistance. Not even one year had passed over the resistance and the CHP nominated Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu [a well-known Islamist] for the elections and asked for the votes of Gezi protesters. Indeed, the secular sensibilities of the society are real, whereas they are mostly fake when uttered by [bourgeois] politicians. I can give countless examples but it would not work. It wouldn’t work because no one cares for the principles in politics any more. It is a vexing fact that a large section of left-wing groups in Turkey has had no ideological ties whatsoever with secularism and anti-imperialism today. It is meaningless to lose time with them. The left will rise again only by organizing the will of the people, especially of those segments that are far from the hypocritical political discourses, toward toppling down this rotten social order. Day by day, we see that this is more and more possible.
What can you say about the relations between politics and the street after the elections? Although the political debates have always been vivid, the streets have been rather silent recently. New debates have emerged on the beginnings of an economic crisis. And of course, the elections… Taken together, do you think that a new political dynamism, which includes the street demonstrations, may emerge in the upcoming period? For instance, do you expect another Gezi Resistance?
Gezi, as is, would not repeat itself. Besides, such repetition would already be ineffective. Everyone was there, they learned new lessons. But it would be absurd to think of such large-scale protests and social movements as one-time events. They surely will reemerge. To glean persistent impacts that can tremble this decadent social order, we should make healthy evaluations on the June Resistance and its dynamics, without fetishizing it. We must save the working people of Turkey from the rooted idea that changing this social order is impossible. We must convince them to get rid of the “lesser evil” bullshit. We must change this immoral perception, which reduces politics to “arithmetic of election” and sees in it what a merchant sees in trading. We must get rid of the bad habit of waiting for the saviour and postponing the actual political responsibilities. We must break the hegemony of the identity politics and other fake formulas of freedom produced by the imperialist centres. We must build a real alternative in order not to leave our people with the same repeating mistakes and regrets. This is what we are struggling for. And what we encounter is neither principles and programs, nor thoughts and ideas! What we see is pure arithmetic, arithmetic of elections. Math has not suffered this much since the beginning of its existence!
