Statement of the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of Ireland on the Situation in Turkey
Protests began throughout Turkey on 19 March 2025 following the detention and arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and more than 100 other opposition members and protesters by Turkish authorities. Within hours of the mayor's detention, a hundred demonstrators assembled near Istanbul's central police headquarters, where İmamoğlu had been transported. Tens of thousands of protesters gathered around the municipal offices of Istanbul. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been at protests in almost all of Turkey's cities.
Despite government-imposed protest bans, demonstrators have continued to rally, leading to clashes with security forces. Authorities have detained over 2,000 individuals, including journalists and activists, and have imposed restrictions on social media platforms. Leading members of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) Ahmet Dincel and Arda Hacıyusufoğlu, were among those arrested. Throughout the protests, the TKP has emphasised its ‘dual responsibility’—to continue its uncompromising struggle against the government while also ensuring that the role of the capitalist class is not concealed. This class “is largely responsible for the conditions that provoked public outrage in Turkey, yet have managed to shield themselves behind the [governing] AKP”.
In the statement below The Workers Party expresses its ongoing support for the TKP and the Turkish working class.
Statement of the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party of Ireland on the Situation in Turkey
At a Central Executive Committee meeting of the Workers Party of Ireland, which took place at the weekend, the current situation in Turkey was discussed.
The Workers Party of Ireland condemns the brutal repression and mass arrests of demonstrators, journalists, trade union representatives, lawyers, artists and political activists, including members of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP).
The authoritarian measures being employed by the AKP government and the repressive tactics being used in an attempt to crush protests, is being actively resisted by the Communist Party of Turkey, which along with democratic forces in the country, is resisting this wave of authoritarianism and repression.
The AKP government controls the courts, the security apparatus and most of the mainstream media. These actions by the government an attack on democratic and people’s rights by the Turkish regime to advance their own goals and interests; their war against enlightenment and secularism; their promotion of religious reaction; their attacks on the labour and social rights of the working class; their commitment to the capitalist social order and their efforts, with the second largest army in NATO, to cement Turkey’s position within the imperialist system.
It is the TKP which continually and correctly insists on the importance of the class character of the resistance and to ensuring that the primacy of the class struggle is not obscured. This period of reaction will be overcome. The Turkish people will prevail. Only the people, led by the TKP, can defend the republic, defend secularism and democratic rights and defeat authoritarianism.
The solution to the problems facing Turkey cannot be resolved within the capitalist framework. The TKP is the vanguard party in Turkey which will lead the working class struggle for socialist power and the construction of socialism in Turkey.
The Workers Party of Ireland and Workers Party Youth (Ireland) send their full solidarity to our comrades in the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) and the Communist Youth of Turkey (TKG). This period of reaction will be overcome and the people and workers will prevail.
April 2025
President: Ted Tynan
International Secretary: Gerry Grainger