Following the defeat of the coup attempt on July 15, a massive wave of arrests and lock outs has been started in Turkey. According to the latest news, so far, more than 10 thousands military staff, judges, prosecutors, and public employees have been arrested. This shows the scale of the cleansing of the state from those who oppose Erdogan. However, the more important aspect of this problem is the degree of social suppression. Up to present, 60 thousands teachers, university professors, university presidents and employees from other sectors have been laid off, many of which have been arrested.
Laying off tens of thousands people of their jobs right after the defeat of the coup attempt verifies the thesis that Erdogan’s regime had formed this list before the coup and had been waiting for the right moment in order to start its attack. The present situation shows the deep and chronic political administrative crisis of bourgeoisie and the ruling class in Turkey. Erdogan points at Fetullah Gulen and his supporters, who represent another competing faction of Islamists and who have infiltrated the army and other state institutes largely and have a great influence on them, as the mastermind behind the coup, naming them “the parallel state”. However, the recent lock outs and arrests do not aim at the parallel state only but also aim at suppressing Erdogan’s opposition both in the state and in society.
Military coup and counter-coup are in fact the signs and the consequences of the deep political administrative crisis that the ruling class in Turkey faces; they are the signs and the consequences of the fragmentation, inner contradictions and aporia of the ruling class in the face of this crisis, which for a long time has appeared as the confrontation between the Kemalist nationalism and different branches of Islamism within the executive machinery of Turkey. The defeat of the coup and the following cleansing will not be able to resolve or even relieve these contradictions and confrontations; to the contrary, they will intensify the political administrative crisis and the contradictions and confrontations within the ranks of those in power.
It has been clear from the outset that the military coup attempt in Turkey, like any other military coup, is a movement against the people that aimed at resolving the political administrative crisis, pushing back social opposition, and preventing the society from turning its face toward the left and stopping the growth and progression of secularism, the working class movement, and the left. The defeat of the coup, put aside the inner cleansing of the state, is also at the service of these reactionary movements against the people.
Today Erdogan’s regime has launched a new wave of attack in order to suppress the opposition; it aims at continuing the attacks that it had started against the basic rights of the people and the workers in Turkey, the people in Kurdistan and the political opposition more intensely and more atrociously. These attacks should be resisted with full force. These attacks are made on the basis of the inner contradictions of and the confrontations within the ruling class in Turkey. These inner contradictions and the confrontations within the state will not be
resolved through these attacks and arrests. Maximum power should be exerted for making this fact plain before the people and for organizing a massive resistance and outbreak against the Erdogan’s regime and the whole ruling power in Turkey. Massive arrests, regardless of any alibi, should be condemned and should be resisted with full force.
We support the dignified people of Turkey, the left and the secular forces against the attacks of the Erdogan’s regime. Turkey is going through critical and determining moments. Erdogan’s regime should be resisted with full force. Given the fragmentation, the contradictions and the confrontations within the ranks of the ruling class, the secular, leftist and working class movements in Turkey can push back Erdogan’s regime and turn his attempts to intensify dictatorship in Turkey into its opposite and defeat it; this is definitely possible. Organizing international solidarity and an international front against the Erdogan regime, we should stand by the people in Turkey. We call upon all leftist and human rights organizations, all working class organizations and all dignified people in Iran and around the world to support the people in Turkey against Erdogan’s oppressive regime.
Worker-communist Party of İran
July 21, 2016
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