Independent communist candidate Aydemir Güler from ‘This Social Order Must Change Platform' attended a public meeting on June 10 in İstanbul’s Kadıköy district, calling on the people to wage an organized struggle against the capitalist order considering that the ongoing financial and political crisis will further escalate following the elections.
Güler talked about the upcoming elections, the political position of the communists, and answered the questions of residents at a public park in Kadıköy, a large and populous district in the Asian side of İstanbul, exchanging views with the locals on how to struggle against the existing social order.
‘ELECTORAL THRESHOLD IMPOSED TO PREVENT SOCIALIST MOVEMENT’
Güler responded to a question the communists often confront in Turkey: “Why would you participate in the elections if you were to receive few votes?” Indicating to the existing electoral threshold of 10 per cent, Güler said that the threshold was imposed so as to prevent the socialist movement and the working class. Güler reminded the electoral success of the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) in 1965 when there had been no such high threshold.
Arguing that the parliament lost its prestige in Turkey, Güler said that one should struggle against the imams, who govern all the institutions of the country, for a true secularism as the rule of Justice and Development Party (AKP) grossly increased the number of Islamic imam-hatip schools to impose an Islamic transformation in the society.
"Turkey has a NATO problem. There are nuclear weapon stocks at the İncirlik base," adding that those who seek for moderate and stabile relations with foreign powers do not regard NATO as a problem.
As a member of NATO since 1952, Turkey hosts 14 U.S.-NATO bases around the country. İncirlik Air Base in the southern city of Adana is a central hub for US air power in the region and the place of a few dozens B-61 nuclear gravity bombs with adjustable yields. B-61 tactical nuclear bombs at İncirlik have a destructive power ten times higher than the atom bomb dropped in Hiroshima
'TÜSİAD WAS THE FIRST TO OFFER A PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM'
“We participate the elections independently but we are well-linked to communism. We are the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), Güler said, saying that no other parties struggle against unemployment, poverty and privatizations.
He underlined that the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD), the top capitalist entity, was the first to offer a presidential system in the country in order to transfer the authorities of people to one man. Güler also called on the people to get organized considering that Turkey’s ongoing financial crisis will highly escalate after the June 24 elections.
Güler blamed the pro-establishment parties for legitimating the AKP rule when they called on the government to establish a dialogue while more than 10 million people took to the streets against the AKP party in June 2013.
“We want the votes of those who say that Turkey’s problems cannot be solved in this social order, this order must change”, Güler said, adding that they do not “divide” the votes since they do not ask the votes of those people who do not believe in the communists.
Based on additional conditions that are not written in the law, the electoral board concluded that the TKP, which has already satisfied all conditions that political parties are required to fulfill in order to participate in elections, will not be allowed to take part in the general elections to be held on June 24, 2018.
Following the board's unlawful decision, the TKP has decided to represent the working people with independent communist candidates at the upcoming parliamentary election. This Social Order Must Change Platform was established following the call of the TKP.
