Independent candidates from ‘This Social Order Must Change’ Platform held meetings in various cities following the call of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP).
The Platform nominated three candidates in three electoral districts of İstanbul, the most populated city of Turkey. Aydemir Güler, the platform’s candidate in İstanbul’s 1st electoral district, addressed citizens on May 13 at Nâzım Hikmet Cultural Centre.
“We want back the stolen votes of those who did not surrender [to this social order]. We defend the rights of Turkey’s workers, those who were murdered, persecuted. We are calling for taking the side of Turkey’s bright future”, communist candidate Güler said.
Güler refers to electoral irregularities and frauds under the lead of the country’s electoral council, YSK. As President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ‘yes’ campaign "won" a presidential referendum in April 2017 with a razor-thin margin, millions of Turkish citizens still regard the referendum results as fraudulent and illegitimate because of the electoral council’s last-minute change as it controversially decided to regard unsealed ballots valid just as the votes were counted.
Ahead of the elections on June 24, however, Erdoğan’s AKP party and its fascist ally MHP party passed a new law on electoral regulations earlier in March, entitling the electoral council to accept unsealed ballot boxes as valid, opening the way for “official” frauds.
Aydemir Güler also talked about the 301 miners who were killed in May 2014 following a fire at the Soma mine in western Turkey, adding that 177 workers lost their lives as part of occupational murders only in April. Güler underlined that citizens have to get organized against such attacks.
Referring to Deniz Gezmiş, Hüseyin İnan and Yusuf Aslan, the three symbolic figures from the patriotic revolutionary youth, who had been executed in May 1972, Güler told the citizens that they also cannot forget those murdered revolutionary people.
“The history of Turkish capitalism and the history of this bloody order lie behind all these attacks and murders,” Güler noted, calling on the people to get organized for changing this capitalist order.
COMMUNISTS CALL ON PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES
The communists decided to participate in the parliamentary election on June 24 with independent candidates after the Supreme Election Council’s (YSK) unlawful prevention of the TKP in the elections with its name and emblem.
The platform’s candidates and their supporters held meetings in Ankara, Antalya, Mersin, Çanakkale, İzmir and three electoral districts in İstanbul. The electoral declaration of the platform was read at the meetings and teams were organized for running electoral works for communist candidates at neighbourhoods around the country.
‘THIS SOCIAL ORDER MUST CHANGE’
‘This Social Order Must Change’ Platform’s electoral declaration was also announced at meetings for distributing the call of communist candidates around the country. The declaration projects to ban unemployment while providing free access to such basic needs as housing, heating, water and public transportation.
“All the local and foreign monopolies’ enterprises and banks will be nationalized. Industrial and agricultural production will be planned in favour of social interests,” the declaration notes, adding that education and health services will be provided for free at a scientific basis.
The declaration announces to terminate the membership process to the imperialist European Union and to shut down foreign military bases with the withdrawal from NATO.
‘This Social Order Must Change’ Platform’s electoral declaration calls on the people to vote for communist candidates and to get organized for changing the capitalist order in Turkey.
The platform’s independent candidates will participate in the parliamentary voting in 17 electoral districts, the country’s most populated and industrial provinces such as İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Bursa, Adana, Antalya, Konya, Kocaeli and Diyarbakır.
