Kemal Okuyan, an independent communist candidate from ‘This Social Order Must Change Platform’ and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), answered the questions of journalist Barış Terkoğlu on June 13 ahead of the elections.
Okuyan responded a question on Muharrem İnce, the parliamentary main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) presidential candidate, and Abdullah Gül, the 11th President of Turkey and a founding member of the ruling AKP party, as the CHP discussed the nomination of Gül before the announcement of İnce.
"It would be difficult for me to answer the difference between the political programmes of Abdullah Gül and İnce," Okuyan said, adding that there were many people who would vote for Erdoğan if the CHP party nominated Gül.
As six candidates are competing for the presidential voting in Turkey at present, the so-called secularist CHP party discussed the nomination of ex-AKP member Gül after a call from the Islamist Felicity Party. However, since Meral Akşener, an ex-interior minister who is now leading the ultra-nationalist İyi Party, rejected a joint presidential candidate project under the lead of Gül, all the opposition parties nominated their own candidates against Erdoğan.
Referring to pro-Kurdish HDP party’s recent visit to TÜSİAD, Turkey’s top capitalist business organization, Okuyan argued that one could not address the workers while convincing the capitalist class. “No one could object to the unity of the oppressed of the society. However, the oppressors, the bosses would win in case of a political unity of the oppressed and the oppressor. One could not be a friend of labour and capital at the same time,” he said.
‘WE HAVE BEEN STRUGGLING AGAINST AKP FOR 16 YEARS’
In answer to whether the June 24 voting against Erdoğan is critical, Okuyan said that Turkey settled scores with the AKP party for 16 years, adding that the TKP struggled against Erdoğan and AKP government from the very beginning. “Turkey should get rid of Erdoğan’s shadow. Everyone would get excited about this fact,” he said. Okuyan noted that he was not sure whether it would be easier to change the social order in Turkey without Erdoğan, saying that the capitalist order is preparing a new project in the country.
Okuyan rejected those who argued that the upcoming polls would be the last elections and final chance of the society, adding that such arguments have always been an advantage for Erdoğan. Okuyan argued that Erdoğan would not be able to administrate the country properly even if he could win the presidential election with a razor thin.
Talking about the opportunist policies of pro-establishment parties, Okuyan said that Erdoğan’s rivals also resort to Islamic discourses so as to take the votes of Islamist people. He announced that they would shut Islamic imam-hatip schools considering that the AKP increased the number of these schools in order to impose a religious transformation within the society, let alone training imams for prayer centres or mosques.
‘PEOPLE SHOULD GET ORGANIZED TO PREVENT BIGGER DISASTERS’
In response to a question what would Turkey witness if the communists entered the parliament, Okuyan said, “The entrance of 17 communists into the parliament would lock up Turkey. Entrance to the parliament would not be necessary, such a large scale of votes would stand for the rise of Turkey”.
“The right-wing culture fosters hypocrisy and two-facedness while the left-wing culture is expected to set an ethical resistance in Turkey,” Okuyan said, adding that the so-called left-wing forces also adopted these unprincipled stances as they also decayed as Erdoğan led to a social decaying. “We have never changed our shirts. Our shirts are always red,” he noted.
Okuyan responded a recently debated issue regarding the “politicization” of military officers as a top general attended a ceremonial dinner organized by Erdoğan and cheeringly applauded the president’s remarks against his rivals.
“The army should be politicized. What they mean with the ban on making politics for the Turkish Armed Forces members is just following the politics of the government,” Okuyan said, adding that military officers would enter the parliament under the rule of working people. He stated that armies got alienated from the people in NATO countries, as they would serve for the working people under the rule of workers.
Talking about the foreign policy of Turkey, Okuyan said that Turkey should immediately put an end to intervening in internal affairs of Syria considering that the AKP government played a major role in devastating the Syrian people.
Okuyan said that a country would not fail or triumph only through elections, adding that the communists evaluate the elections as an instrument of organizing the people. “The right to vote is an important gaining for humanity, yet it would not be enough to change the social order,” he said, calling on the workers to vote for the independent communist candidates for a socialist future without exploitation and unemployment.
“The TKP is responsible for eliminating all the barriers before the change of this social order. We could achieve this considering that majority of the society is dissatisfied with the order,” Okuyan concluded, adding that Erdoğan may leave, however, the society should trust its own strength and get organized in order to prevent bigger disasters than Erdoğan himself.
