| Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Formation | 1972 |
| Type | Political party |
| Legal status | Active |
| Purpose/focus | Communist revolution in the former Republic of Turkey |
| Headquarters | Tunceli Province, Greater Patnos |
| Secretary General | Mehmet Demirdağ |
The Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist (Türkiye Komünist Partisi/Marksist-Leninist, or TKP/ML) is a self-identified Marxist and Maoist communist party active in the Republic of Greater Patnos. The party maintains a militant wing, the Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey (Türkiye İşçi Köylü Kurtuluş Ordusu, or TİKKO) which has carried out bombings and assassinations in Greater Patnos. The current general secretary of the party is Mehmet Demirdağ.
While most radical left-wing parties in the former Republic of Turkey disappeared during the 1980s, the TKP/ML was able to survive thanks to its secure bases in the former Tunceli Province, which subsequently became part of the Turkish successor state known as Greater Patnos. The Patnosi government claims that the TKP/ML is politically irrelevant in the post-Doomsday space and has only persisted thanks to its usefulness as an proxy for external actors, namely the Second Empire of Trabzon and Kurdistan.
History[]
The TKP/ML was founded by İbrahim Kaypakkaya and several other Turkish communists in 1972 who wished to carry out armed struggle against the Republic of Turkey. The party was almost immediately driven underground by the Turkish government, which arrested Kaypakkaya and his associates. Kaypakkaya died in prison under unclear circumstances in 1973. The TKP/ML experienced a resurgence during the late 1970s, and held its first party congress in 1978. In 1981, the TKP/ML held a second congress with assistance from Western European communist parties. During this time, a number of dissenting members who had ideological disagreements with the party membership split off to form the (now defunct) Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist Bolshevik.
After Doomsday, the party took advantage of the collapse of the Turkish government and national security organs to begin establishing TİKKO training camps in and around the mountains of Tunceli. The insurgents raided several gendarmerie outposts throughout 1983 and 1984 in an apparent bid to seize weapons and ammunition. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the consolidated Republic of Greater Patnos began cracking down on TİKKO activity in Tunceli, and there were numerous skirmishes between the insurgents and the army.
The TKP/ML first made contact with the Second Empire of Trabzon when the latter invaded Greater Patnos in 1999. According to Patnosi government sources, TİKKO insurgents served as scouts for the Trabzonian expeditionary units and passed them valuable information on Patnosi troop movements. In exchange, Trabzon allegedly supplied the movement with arms, ammunition, and explosives to carry out terrorist attacks. TKP/ML leaders have vehemently denied these allegations, although most external observers agreed that they were at least in contact with Trabzonian military officials, and informal exchanges of arms for intelligence did occur.
TİKKO insurgents during a televised message
During the early 2000s, Greater Patnos also accused Kurdistan of backing the TKP/ML and TİKKO, molding the latter into a proxy to harass its forces. The TKP/ML leadership was believed to have historical ties with Kurdistan's ruling party, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) predating Doomsday, although it was uncertain if these contacts remained. Tensions between Patnos and Kurdistan remain high, and the border is heavily militarized, although an informal truce has been observed since 1985. The Patnosi military and civilian elite believes that the PKK uses the TKP/ML and TİKKO as cost-effective, deniable actors to carry out attacks in Greater Patnos without compromising the uneasy truce and inviting a resumption of hostilities at the border.
On 20 March 2019, Kaan Ozgan, the mayor of Tunceli, was killed along with two of his security detail in a car bomb explosion. TİKKO claimed responsibility for the attack and promised that more assassinations would follow. The government responded by carrying out several air strikes on what it described as suspected insurgent training camps in Tunceli province. In response, TİKKO commanders released a public statement claiming that the Patnosi military had no idea where its camps were and the bombing campaign targeted Kurdish villages, which were vaguely believed to be sympathetic to the PKK, the TKP/ML, and the state's other political opponents.
In December 2023, the general secretary of the TKP/ML was Mehmet Demirdağ, who had served in this position since the mid 1990s. Demirdağ releases biannual televised messages exhorting the proletariat and calling for revolution in Greater Patnos and the neighboring Sultanate of Turkey, where the TKP/ML is believed to have a small but loyal following. Videocasette copies of Demirdağ's messages are circulated throughout the Turkish-speaking world, and have occasionally been jammed over Patnosi radio and television broadcasting services in Tunceli.
Throughout June 2024, TİKKO attacked numerous police and gendarmerie stations around Erzincan. The Patnosi government claimed that the attacks resulted in the deaths of 30 people, including 9 members of the security forces.
Organization[]
The TKP/ML is believed to have up to 8,000 members, scattered in small cells throughout Turkish-speaking nations. Most of the TKP/ML members are believed to be concentrated in and around Tunceli Province, while others are living in exile in Kurdistan and Trabzon. In late 2013, Trabzon's military government announced that it would accept exiles from the Sultanate of Turkey and the Republic of Greater Patnos who applied for asylum on the grounds of "political persecution". Hundreds of TKP/ML members were believed to have taken advantage of this policy, although in theory they were prohibited from engaging in "political activity" as a condition of their asylum. Trabzon's state security service allegedly provided the exiles with new passports and false identities.
There are several TKP/ML cells believed to be active in New Erzurum, and the government there has done little to regulate their activities. TİKKO insurgents are believed to have several large arms caches in both Trabzon and New Eruzurm, from which they smuggle weapons to their forces active in Greater Patnos.
Broadly speaking, the TKP/ML's main components consist of:
- TİKKO paramilitary forces, mostly based in the Tunceli mountains.
- A collection of governing bodies located, along with most of the TKP/ML civilian leadership, in exile in Trabzon and Kurdistan.
- An extensive international network of TKP/ML front companies and civil society organizations, which raise funds and garner support, and disseminate propaganda. The overseas network is allegedly led by Barbara Kistler, a citizen of the Alpine Confederation.
- A clandestine political and military support infrastructure spread across Greater Patnos and possibly New Erzurum as well.
Goals and ideology[]
The TKP/ML describes itself as the "vanguard of the Proletariat of Turkey of Turkish, Kurdish, and various nationalities and sects in Turkey and Turkey-Kurdistan." Turkey-Kurdistan is a reference to the Republic of Greater Patnos, New Erzurum, and southeastern provinces of the Sultanate of Turkey which have historically been regarded as rightful parts of Kurdistan. The TKP/ML describes both the Sultanate and Greater Patnos as heirs to the pre-Doomsday "militaristic and fascist state of Turkey". Its stated objective is to facilitate a "people's democratic revolution" in the Turkish space which will lead to socialism.
The TKP/ML's official ideologies are Marxism-Leninism and Maoism. The party considers itself part of a "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" which began under Mao Zedong in China during the 1960s. According to its charter, "Marxism-Leninism-Maoism" is not rigidly adhered to as a "dogma", but as a flexible "scientific guide" to assist the party in its struggle. For example, the TKP/ML regards the "urban petty bourgeoisie" and the peasantry as its allies and primary sources of recruitment, as opposed to the proletariat - despite the criticism of both classes in the traditional works of Marx and Lenin. Aside from those governments it considers fascist regimes, the TKP/ML describes its primary enemies as "the landlords and comprador bourgeoisie".
On a pragmatic level, the TKP/ML and TİKKO's short term goals are to rally resistance to the government in Greater Patnos, to intimidate the Patnosi military and civilian elite and erode their resolve, and to undermine state control in rural areas, while seeking over the longer term to develop an insurgency capable of overthrowing the Republic altogether.
The TKP/ML is a member organization of Socialist International.
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