 |
SHP leader: Turkey will welcome new year with a contemporary left
While stating that they have invited representatives from the Alevi community, including prominent Alevi community leader Ali Balkız, to join the movement, Ergün told Today’s Zaman: “We are slowly developing a leftist party step by step. Before the new year, we will make decisions and then will publicly announce our program.”
Ergün was elected SHP leader after Murat Karayalçın was nominated as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) mayoral candidate for Ankara.
Explaining that began to develop their new leftist movement during their party congress on June 7, Ergün said two other candidates for SHP leadership, Fehmi Işıklar and Recai Ersoy, also support the contemporary left project.
Pointing out that there are no true leftist parties in Turkey, he explained that parties like the CHP call themselves leftist even though they do not truly represent the left. Ergün continued: “As the Dec. 10 movement was launched and led by the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions [DİSK] and the SHP, the new left set off on a project to bring together leftists. Balkız and others joined. As the project proceeds, participation will be higher. Large interest in the meetings in Urfa and Bursa reveal the need for a contemporary left. The leader of the movement will be selected when the party is formed. What matters is forming the movement inspired by the mainstream left in the world. The Socialist International (SI), the European Left, Lula’s [Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva] party in Brazil and Salvador Allende’s party in Chile are among our inspirations.”
Ergün further highlighted that the only difference between the CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is one letter in their names and said parties claiming to be leftist cannot get rid of their nationalism and pro-junta mentality, which led those leftist parties to fall behind the progressive Justice and Development Party (AK Party). “What we need is social development and the improvement of living conditions. Can imposing your values on others, instead of increasing incomes and providing adequate education, health services and transportation, be leftism? What they wear is not your business. Whether they go to mosqueS early in the morning is not your business,” he added.
While noting that the public is not interested in leftist parties, Ergün argued that everybody must bravely face their past in order to be cleansed of their mistakes and stated that he wanted soldiers, the public and intellectuals to get rid of this pro-junta mentality. He also said the democratic initiative must continue despite recent provocations. Pointing out that the opposing parties also need to be democratic in order to solve the Kurdish question, Ergün said: “Since they are not [democratic] and since they encourage fear and anxiety, democratization gets harder to achieve. Unfortunately, there are no options like changing their mentality. Then the only option left is to not vote for them. Thus, voters must be presented a contemporary option.”
Leftist parties do not aim to come to power
Claiming that parties that say they represent the left do not come to power because they do not intend to do so, Ergün said they need to think of how to address other segments of society if they want to come to power. Stating that the CHP uses leftist discourse as a tool to spread its propaganda, Ergün continued: “Unfortunately, the presumably leftist CHP, which partially describes itself as a leftist party, has nothing to do with the left. It used the left as a means for its propaganda for a temporary time, but it has never become a leftist party. It only wears a mask, and it can distract some circles with that mask.”
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ARZU KAYA URANLI |  |
||
| On Memorial Day a few words to make your day memorable | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| CUMALİ ÖNAL |  |
||
| Critical months for Egypt | |||
| DOĞU ERGİL |  |
||
| Qualities of power | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| JOOST LAGENDIJK |  |
||
| Europe can’t have it all. Or can it? | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| MELİH ARAT |  |
||
| Handmade | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
