Workers' Party of Turkey (''Türkiye İşçi Partisi'') was a Turkish political party, founded the 13 February 1961. It became the first socialist party in Turkey to win representation in the national parliament. It was banned twice (after the military coups of 1971 and 1980) and eventually merged with the Communist Party of Turkey in 1987.

History

TİP was founded by a group of labour union members. The founders invited lawyer

Mehmet Ali Aybar Mehmet Ali Aybar (; 5 October 1908 – 10 July 1995) was a lawyer, member of the Turkish parliament, the second president of the Workers Party of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye İşçi Partisi or briefly ''TİP''), the founder and President of the Soc ...

to assume the leadership of the party. Following Aybar, several intellectuals like

Çetin Altan Çetin Altan (22 June 1927 – 22 October 2015) was a Turkish writer, journalist, and a member of parliament. He was considered one of the finest writers in the modern Turkish language of the late 20th century. Early years Çetin Altan was ...

Aziz Nesin Aziz Nesin (; born Mehmet Nusret, 20 December 1915 – 6 July 1995) was a Turkish writer, humorist and the author of more than 100 books. Born in a time when Turks did not have official surnames, he had to adopt one after the Surname Law of ...

and

Yaşar Kemal Yaşar Kemal (born Kemal Sadık Gökçeli; 6 October 1923 – 28 February 2015) was a Turkish writer and human rights activist and one of Turkey's leading writers. He received 38 awards during his lifetime and had been a candidate for the Nobel ...

also joined the ranks and the party soon adopted a

left-wing nationalist Left-wing nationalism or leftist nationalism, also known as social nationalism, is a form of nationalism based upon national self-determination, popular sovereignty, national self-interest, and left-wing political positions such as social equali ...

and

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

program. The party's breakthrough came in the 1965 general election when it got 3% of the votes in the national elections and won 15 seats in the parliament. TİP deputies' highly publicized active participation in parliamentary sessions contributed to a radicalisation of the political scene in the country. By 1967-68, militant left-wing student organizations and labour unions were formed. In 1968, after the

Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

, Aybar adopted a rhetoric hostile to Soviet Communism. However, when TİP failed to increase its votes in the 1969 general election, Aybar resigned from the party leadership in November 1969 and

Behice Boran Behice Boran (1 May 1910 – 10 October 1987) was a Turkish Marxist politician, author and sociologist. As a dissenting political voice from the left, Boran was repeatedly imprisoned for her work and died in exile after the Turkish military ...

, who had opposed Aybar's anti-Soviet stand, was elected as the first female Turkish party leader. The party was a supporter of the pro-Kurdish

Revolutionary Cultural Eastern Hearths The Revolutionary Cultural Eastern Hearths (Devrimci Doğu Kültür Ocakları, DDKO) were an association of mainly Kurdish students in Turkey. It was formed in 1969 and forbidden after the military coup in 1971. History In the late 1960s, K ...

(DDKO). During its Party Congress in October 1970, it recognized existence of the Kurdish community in eastern part of the country which had to affront policies of forced assimilation. After the military coup of 1971 the party criticized the government and supported strikes against the military coup. The government subsequently accused the TİP supporting the separation of the unity of Turkey, and for viewing the Kurds as a different ethnicity. A lawsuit was started on the 26 July 1971, the party banned in 1972. Boran and other senior TİP leaders, were arrested and sentenced between 12 to 15 years, imprisonment, the TİP delegates to 8 years. They were released following an amnesty in 1974 and re-established TİP the next year. But the party could not regain its popularity. In 1978 the Bahçelievler massacre saw seven student members of the TİP killed in Ankara by ultranationalists. TİP was once again banned after the military coup in 1980. This time, Boran went to exile in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the party continued to operate clandestinely. In 1987, it merged with the Communist Party of Turkey to form the

United Communist Party of Turkey United Communist Party of Turkey ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Birleşik Komünist Partisi'') was a political party in Turkey. The leadership of two banned parties Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) and Workers Party of Turkey (TİP) announced in 1987 that ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Notable politicians

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Workers Party of Turkey 1961 establishments in Turkey 1987 disestablishments in Turkey Banned communist parties Banned political parties in Turkey Defunct communist parties in Turkey Political parties established in 1961 Political parties disestablished in 1987

History

Notable politicians

See also

References