The following is a statement issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) on June 17. It has been slightly edited for style and readability.
Tayyip Erdoğan and his fellows who believed that they could put down the weeks’-long uprising with unprecedented police terror and an unheard of campaign of lies have turned out to be completely wrong.
We are not discussing what form the resistance will take today, tomorrow or next week. What is important at this point is that the people who were disregarded by the AKP dictatorship have risen up.
The people of Turkey have responded positively to the call to “never surrender” as millions of people resisted in the streets under the risk of death, and even more took to their balconies or leaned out of windows banging pots and pans. Not just half of the population but more than that think that the AKP deserved such a reaction and wholeheartedly support the resistance.
All resources of the state are in the service of the [ruling] Justice and Development Party (AKP). The [financial] markets, which continue to count on the government despite the initial alert, are on their side. The imperialists and global capital, which direct the markets, are on their side. Ignorance and reaction are on their side. All sorts of “the opposition of the majesty,” which watch that the ongoing crisis not do any serious harm to the system, are on their side.
In other times, many more would have come out into the streets on the side of the government. But, it was seen that the government’s meetings could not cope with the resistance in terms of quantity as well.
The people stand against the AKP!
THE PEOPLE… Masses, wit, courage, determination, youth, fathers and mothers, women and men, workers and unemployed, computer engineers and grocers.
The Communist Party of Turkey believes that this is the fundamental achievement of the resistance. The people have risen up in Turkey. The brutality of the police might have an impact on the pace and form of the resistance. But it is just that. No power can push our people back to indifference and apathy or force them to bow down. The previous widespread belief that “we will not achieve anything” has been buried in the past. The price we paid was not paid to no avail.
This achievement is our country’s today and future. Our people deserve to imagine the future. Our people have to look to the future.
The precondition to win the future is obvious: to get organized!
The people who have not surrendered will be more open to the idea of organized struggle. Turkey in a short while will be a more organized society compared to the level of its organization today. Considering the extensive gains of a resistance marked by disorganization, imagine what might be the achievements of an organized society!
As seen by everyone, the TKP has done everything that could be done in all neighborhoods of resistance. The TKP is more powerful and experienced than it was before. The party has the ability to move with all sectors of the population and in different geographies. The TKP has taken a special place in the popular resistance.
If it is obvious that to win the future people have to get organized, the Communist Party of Turkey is the spring that will quench people’s thirst for organization.
We invite our people to the ranks of our party!
We are embracing our people with love, respect and fervor.
