Communist Party of Turkey (modern)

After the 12 September Coup & Gelenek era

After the coup of 12 September 1980, the activities of the group almost completely stopped like nearly all other parties and political groups. Following this, the group aimed to consolidate its cadres and its theoretical base. The communist cadres who gathered around the Sosyalist İktidar magazine took the form of an organization in 1982. That year, a division occurred within the group between Yalçın Küçük supporters and Metin Çulhaoğlu followers. Yalçın Küçük and his group published Toplumsal Kurtuluş ("Social Liberation") while Metin Çulhaoğlu and his group published the Gelenek ("Tradition") magazine after his release from jail in 1986, with the claim of continuing the Marxist-Leninist tradition. This structure came to be known as the Gelenek movement, and TKP stems from this organisation. Gelenek defined the left in three categories as; orthodox, Revolutionary Democratic and new. From this perspective it defended the orthodox left view and criticized Mikhail Gorbachev's ongoing Glasnost and Perestroika processes in the Soviet Union.

In this period, the Gelenek group announced that in the upcoming 1987 General Elections it would not support any intra-system political party. It had worked with other left wing groups to campaign for independent members for parliament. During this era, the Gelenek group entered into negotiations for building a left-wing party where all groups may be brought together but this process failed. After the collapse of these talks, the Gelenek group formed the Socialist Turkey Party (Sosyalist Türkiye Partisi) STP on 6 November 1992 in Ankara. The Political Bureau of the party was made up of seven people: Ali Önder Öndeş (President), Kemal Okuyan (Vice-President), Metin Çulhaoğlu, Süleyman Baba, Uğur Özdemir, Işıtan Gündüz, Aydemir Güler. However, due to some parts in the party programme Socialist Turkey Party was closed on 30 November 1993 by the order of Constitutional Court. Gelenek continued to be published as a monthly theoretical publication.

SİP era (1993–2001)

After the closure of STP, the party cadres immediately formed the Party for Socialist Power (Sosyalist İktidar Partisi) SİP. In the same year, an internal division occurred within the party, culminating in the exit of Metin Çulhaoğlu and his followers.^[6] After this incident the head of the party became Aydemir Güler.

During the December 1995 general elections, the party had no right to enter the elections. SİP entered the Labour, Peace and Freedom Bloc headed by HADEP.^[5] After the election, the party had urged the participants to proceed with the bloc; however, the components refused to further collaborate with Kurdish nationalists. SİP had led the 1996 Istanbul University occupation and sit-in acts protesting the fees. The party had also made its name heads by holding an unannounced meeting in the banned Taksim Square on May Day 1996. After the exposure of the Susurluk scandal the party encouraged the masses to take to the streets for protesting the regime that had connections with politicians-mobs-drug dealers etc. In the same year the party started a campaign that demanded the closure of the McDonald's in the Middle East Technical University Campus, Ankara.

In 1999, SİP entered the general elections for the first time under the leadership of Aydemir Güler and received 37,680 votes (0.12%). During the campaign process for the general elections party member Hüseyin Duman was shot dead by a rightist politician İhsan Bal.^[7]

In 2000, SİP emphasized on the ban on founding a party with "communist" adjective on its name. Thus party member Yalçın Cerit had applied to the authorities and found a new party called Communist Party (Komünist Parti).^[8] In spite of the law forbidding to form a party with the word "communist" in the name no legal steps were taken by the officials while SİP party members organised activities with both party names.

Founding of TKP and onwards (starting with 2001)

During the 6th Extraordinary Congress of SİP which was held on 11 November 2001, the party decided to make a new breakthrough. It was announced that Communist Party merged with the Party for Socialist Power and that the name of the party had been changed to the Communist Party of Turkey (Türkiye Komünist Partisi). Despite the fact that it was still forbidden to establish a party with the communist name, the party managed to successfully push back against legal attacks. With this congress, the TKP incorporated cadres from different organizational backgrounds, including the followers of Metin Çulhaoğlu, thus ending the disconnect in the history of the communist movement. The Central Committee was formed with the following: Aydemir Güler, Kemal Okuyan, Süleyman Baba, Uğur İşlek, Erkin Özalp, Hüseyin Karabulut, Kurtuluş Kılçer, Oğuz Kavala, Hüsnü Atlıkan, Yalçın Cerit, Mesut Odman, Gülay Dinçel, Alper Dizdar, Gamze Erbil, Mehmet Kuzulugil, Yaşar Çelik, Nihal İmeryüz, Tunç Tatoğlu, Sedat Cengiz, Haluk İmeryüz, Arif Basa, Atilla Gökçek. Aydemir Güler was selected as President and Kemal Okuyan as General Secretary.^[9] The foundation date of the party was declared as 10 September 1920 Baku Congress.

TKP broke the censorship against communists and participated in elections under its own name for the first time in 2002.

During this period some of the main campaigns and achievements of the party were:

• Rallying against the Iraq War when possible Turkish involvement was voted against on 1 March 2003. The resolution would have paved the way for relocation of US troops in Turkish soil and possible involvement of Turkish troops in Iraqi operations.^[10]
• Founding of Committees against invasion and Peace Foundation.^[11]
• Campaigning against the 2004 NATO Summit in İstanbul
• Founding of Patriotic Front (Yurtsever Cephe) against growing influence of imperialism^[5]
• Holding a mass rally against the AKP Government in 2008 in Kadıköy, İstanbul^[12]
• The Party entered 2011 General Elections and received 61,236 votes (0.14%).^[13]
• The Party played a pivotal role in the 2009-2010 Tekel workers' industrial action and 2013 Gezi Park protests

2014 local elections

In the 2014 local elections, TKP had 51,155 votes and 0.11% of the votes across Turkey. Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu was elected the mayor in Ovacık district of Tunceli province.^[14]

Dissolution and reconstruction

After a period of internal strife, two rival factions of TKP reached a consensus on 15 July 2014 to freeze the activities of the party and that neither faction shall use the name and emblem of TKP.^[15] The faction led by Erkan Baş and Metin Çulhaoğlu adopted the name People's Communist Party of Turkey and the faction led by Kemal Okuyan and Aydemir Güler founded the Communist Party.^[16]

On 22 January 2017, a congress was held by the initiation of seven well-known figures in the left-wing politics^[who?]. The congress was embraced by independent communists and also by the Communist Party^{[citation needed]}. The congress announced that the TKP name will not be left unguarded and declared that TKP is back in the political scene.^[17]

2019 local elections

In the municipal election of 31 March 2019, TKP's candidate Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu won in the mainly Zaza Kurdish Tunceli Province, with 32% of the votes cast. The Kurdish opposition party, the People's Democratic Party, came second with 28%, followed by the social democratic and Kemalist Republican People's Party at 20%.^[18]