Kaypakkaya was captured in January 1973. Despite being tortured every day for over three months, he did not reveal anything about the internal structure of TKP(ML) or the names of any of his comrades. He was executed on the night of May 18 of that year. He said, for the revolution you “give your life, but don’t give your secrets.”
The National Question in Turkey
December 1971
1. The Theses of Safak Revisionism on the National Question
“The big bourgeoisie, forming an alliance with the feudal landlords, have implemented a policy of national oppression and assimilation against the Kurdish people.”[1]
“The Kurdish population numbering six million in our country has raised the flag of struggle against the bourgeoisie and landlords’ policy of national oppression and assimilation. It has stood up to the serious torture and oppression to which the pro-American governments have resorted. The struggle embarked upon by the Kurdish people for democratic rights, the equality of nations, and for self-determination is developing rapidly. All of Turkey’s workers and peasants support this struggle. The racist policy of imperialism to pit the peoples of Turkey against each other to crush them is bankrupt, and the links uniting the people on the revolutionary path are becoming stronger.”[2]
“Our movement declares that it recognizes the right of the Kurdish people to self-determination, and, if it wishes, to establish its own State.
“Our movement… works for the determination of the destiny of the Kurdish people towards the interests of the Kurdish workers and peasants.
“Our movement will pursue a policy of aiming to unite the two fraternal peoples in Turkey possessing equal rights in a democratic peoples’ republic.
“Our movement will wage a struggle against the reactionary ruling classes (of all nations) and their divisive policies that encourage animosity towards the revolutionary and fraternal of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples.”[3]
“The Marxist-Leninist movement is the most unyielding defender of the Kurdish people’s right to self-determination and will struggle for the destiny of the Kurdish people determined to be in the interests of the Kurdish workers and peasants. In addition, the Marxist-Leninist movement will pursue a policy aiming to bring about the uniting of the two fraternal peoples in Turkey, possessing equal rights in a democratic people’s republic.”
“We will defend unyieldingly the Kurdish people’s right to self-determination.”
“Kurdish People’s right of self-determination (and subsequent liberation) cannot be separated from the struggle for a land revolution based on the poor peasants or the struggle against imperialism.”[4]
“The policy of national enmity being implemented against the Kurdish people.
“Struggle against national oppression of the Kurdish people…
“We must insistently continue to defend the right of the Kurdish people to self-determination.”[5]
These are almost all the theses on the national question put forward by the organization formerly known as the Proletarian Revolutionary “Aydinlik”[6] (PDA), now known as the Safak Revisionists, in the new period – that is, since martial law was declared on April 26, 1971. We shall not dwell on the line followed prior to martial law, as almost everyone concerned with the movement knows that an intense Turkish nationalism, a ferocious dominant nation nationalism bequeathed by the ideology of Mihri Belli[7] was influential. Now, more subtle and deceptive forms of nationalism have been developed that must be struggled against and refuted.
Let us consider these theories:
2. To Whom is National Oppression Applied?
According to Safak Revisionism, national oppression applies to the Kurdish people. This is to not understand the meaning of national oppression. National oppression is the oppression imposed by the ruling classes of ruling, oppressing and exploiting nations on the downtrodden, dependent subject nations. In Turkey national oppression is the oppression applied by the ruling classes of the dominant Turkish nation on the entire Kurdish nation, not just the Kurdish people, and also not solely on the Kurdish nation, but on all minority subject nations.
People and nation are not the same things. The concept of people today covers the working class, poor and middle peasantry semi-proletarians and the urban petit bourgeoisie. In backward countries, the revolutionary wing of the national bourgeoisie, which takes its place in the democratic popular revolution against imperialism, feudalism and comprador capitalism, is also included in the popular classes. However, the term nation includes all classes and strata, including the ruling classes. “A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.”[8] All classes and strata that speak the same language, live in the same territory, and are in the same unity of economic life and psychological formation are included within the scope of the nation. Within these are classes and strata that are enemies of the revolution and counterrevolution, just as there are classes and strata in the ranks of the revolution and whose interests are served by the revolution.
The term people has, in every historical epoch, meant those classes and strata whose interests are served by the revolution and take their place in the ranks of the revolution. The people are not a community that emerges in a particular historical epoch and then disappears, but are a community that exists in every historical age. However, the nation has only emerged along with capitalism “in the age of the rise of capitalism.”
At an advanced stage of socialism, the nation will disappear. The meaning of the term people changes at every stage of the revolution, whereas the term nation is not linked to stages of the revolution.
Today Kurdish workers, Kurdish poor and middle peasants, urban semi-proletariat and the urban petit bourgeoisie that will join the ranks of the national democratic revolution are all included in the concept of Kurdish people. Apart from these classes and strata, the other sections of the Kurdish bourgeoisie and Kurdish landlords are also included in the concept of Kurdish nation. Certain smart aleck well-read persons claim that landlords cannot be part of a nation. They even claim that, since there are landlords in the Kurdish region, the Kurds do not yet constitute a nation. This is a dreadful demagogy and sophistry.
Don’t the landlords speak the same shared language? Don’t they live in the same territory? Are they not part of the same unity of economic life and psychological formation? Nations emerge at the dawn of capitalism, not when it reaches the ultimate limit of its development. When capitalism enters a country, when it moves into a region to a certain degree and unites the markets in that region, communities that possess the other characteristics of being a nation have then become a nation. If this were not the case, we would need to consider that all the stable communities in all backward countries and regions in which capitalist development is limited are not nations. Until the 1940s, a strong feudal division existed in China. According to this rationale, it would have been necessary to have refuted the presence of nations in China during that time. Until the 1917 Revolution, feudalism was powerful in the broad rural regions of Russia. According to this understanding, it would have been necessary to refute the existence of nations in Russia. In Turkey, for instance, during the years of the Liberation War, feudalism was stronger than today. According to this logic, it would be necessary to accept that there were absolutely no nations in Turkey during those years. Today, feudalism exists in economically backward oppressed parts regions and countries of the world, in Asia, Africa and Latin America, to varying degrees. According to this rationale, it would be necessary to refute the existance of nations in these economically backward regions and countries. It is abundantly clear that the theory that claims that the Kurds do not constitute a nation is nonsense, from beginning to end, contrary to the facts, and harmful in practice. It is harmful on account of the fact that such a theory is only of benefit to the ruling classes of the oppressing, exploiting and dominant nations. They will thus find justification for the national oppression and cruelty that they inflict on oppressed, dependent and subject nations and the privileges and inequality that they provide for themselves. In this way the struggle that the proletariat should wage for the equality of nations, and the ending of national oppression, privileges, etc. will come to naught. Nations’ right to self-determination will disappear. The colonization of backward nations by the imperialists and their interference in their internal affairs and blatant disregard for their right to self-determination is legitimized by the argument that “they do not constitute a nation.” In the same way, in multinational states, all manner of oppression and tyranny of the dominant nation towards the subject nations is legitimized. Those that claim that the existence of landlords makes it not possible to talk of a nation are acting as mouthpieces for imperialism and dominant nations. Those who claim that the Kurds in Turkey do not constitute a nation are doing the same for the Turkish ruling classes. As we know, the Turkish ruling classes also claim that the Kurds do not constitute a nation. By defending the privileges of the Turkish ruling classes, they are despicably sabotaging the confidence, solidarity and unity of the toiling popular masses belonging to various nationalities.
6
Proleter Devrimci Aydınlık (PDA) or Proletarian Revolutionary Enlightenment, was the name adopted by a group led by Doğu Perinçek that split from Aydınlık (Enlightenment), a journal promoting the struggle for national democratic revolution. It served as the principal organ of the TIIKP (Revolutionary Workers’ and Peasants’ Party of Turkey), the first pro-Chinese party in Turkey, founded in 1969. Ibrahim Kaypakkaya wrote several articles for it. It was published from 1970 to 1971, after which it was replaced by the newspaper
7
Mihri Belli was the leader of a fraction of TIP (Türkiye İşçi Partisi—Workers’ Party of Turkey) that advocated for a national democratic revolution achieved through a military coup before proceeding to the socialist revolution. He was with Perinçek at the founding of the journal