WORLD WORLDWIDE TURKEY News Journal Update - The first round of the Turkish General Elections.

 The first round of the Turkish General Elections, which took place on 14 May,

resulted in an overwhelming majority of the right-wing parties that entered the
elections from both the Nation Alliance and the People's Alliance lists, and
Recep Tayyip Erdogan received approximately 5% more votes than Kemal
Kiliçdaroglu. This situation created despair in the broad sections of the
society, who thought that they would get rid of the 21-year AKP rule with
elections. After the election results were announced, there was a heavy mood of
depression mixed with anxiety and bewilderment. With the news of irregularities
in the election, some of the opposition voters consolidated again.
On the other hand, after it was understood that the presidential elections would
go to the second round, the candidate of the Nation Alliance, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu,
immediately pushed aside the so-called democratization rhetoric and started to
highlight his promises to continue his anti-immigrant and anti-Kurdish rhetoric
and war policies.

Despite the recent mismanagement and crimes, especially after the deepening
economic crisis and the 6 February earthquakes, the main reason why the People's
Alliance and Erdogan achieved such a success in the first round is the inability
of the ruling alternative to produce a new policy on social problems. While the
"fear of Erdogan coming back to power" is enough for some to vote, it doesn't
mean anything by itself in the eyes of large sections. This broad "front" against
the AKP has never had any program or promise to leave the current government on
fundamental issues such as exploitation, poverty, women's issue and Kurdish
issue. On the other hand, the Kurdish movement and the socialist left supported
Kiliçdaroglu for reasons such as "getting rid of the one-man regime", "turning
into a parliamentary system", "breathing". However, after May 14, Kiliçdaroglu
increased his rhetoric, emphasizing his anti-immigrant and anti-Kurdish war
policies. This doesn't mean a policy change, it's just about putting emphasis on
the foreground. Although the CHP and the Nation Alliance had sprinkled promises
of democratization and freedom before May 14, they defended and expressed these
policies back then. However, with these rhetoric put forward, he also declared
that it would not be possible to "breathe" in case of a possible change in power.

Today, the most fundamental problem of bringing these promises forward is that it
contributes to the strengthening and normalization of racist reflexes in society,
regardless of whether they will be realized or not. The increase in
anti-immigration has led to the normalization of racism and Sinan Ogan, the
candidate of the ATA Alliance, whose main body is the racist party Zafer Party,
gaining 5.6 percent of the votes and gaining an influential position in the
political arena. In the protocol signed by the fascist Victory Party led by Kemal
Kiliçdaroglu and Ümit Özdag and announced yesterday (May 24), it is stated that
war policies and trustee policies will continue and anti-refugee policies will be
implemented. This right-wing populist hate policy threatens not only the targeted
groups today, but also women, LGBTI+ individuals, Alevis and minorities. The
racist hysteria, provoked by Ümit Özdag and the Zafer Party itself, serves to
legitimize practices such as extrajudicial executions and torture, as happened
after the 6 February earthquake.

As we anarchist communists, we find it normal that millions of people, struggling
with the deepening economic crisis and wanting to get rid of the authoritarian
policies of the current government, have placed their hopes in the ballot box in
conditions like today, where there is no strong social movement and no
revolutionary alternative, and the balance of power is clearly in favor of the
ruling class. We have always emphasized the importance of not trusting the
political parties that are part of it and the so-called opposition politicians
who keep us busy with false hopes. For this reason, before the 14 May elections,
together with different anarchist circles, we stated that our problems could not
be solved at the ballot box and that we needed to organize and struggle in every
field for liberation, but we did not make a special call for not voting. Because
we know that not voting is not an active form of struggle, and it is a waste of
time to focus on elections instead of organizing ourselves and growing the struggle.

However, at this point, it has been revealed that Kemal Kiliçdaroglu promises
nothing but continuing the policies of the current government, let alone being a
beacon of hope for liberation from the current government. Whatever the election
results, we understand that we are entering a period where we have no choice but
to organize and fight more. After this point, there is no plausible reason for
supporting any of the current candidates for the revolutionary and
internationalist forces.  Of course, despite all this, there will be those who
find various excuses to vote, but no one should expect us to choose one of these
candidates who are competing to continue their nationalism and war policies. It
should be emphasized that beyond the fact that only a group of anarchists
boycotted the elections, there was a serious discomfort in many segments,
including the HDP base, regarding the attitude of the nation alliance after May
14, and that there were many people who tended not to go to the polls. At a time
when hostility to immigrants and racism is getting stronger all over the world,
as in Turkey, the legitimacy of people boycotting the elections, albeit not in an
organized way, cannot be questioned, who think that supporting Kiliçdaroglu, who
accepts the policies of the fascist Victory Party, will contribute to this bad
course. On the contrary, ignoring the reactions from the grassroots, assuming
that everything has disappeared, it tells a lot about describing the boycott
attitude as "spoiledness", slurring "no boycott moicott", and the deadlocks of
social opposition in the most general sense in Turkey. However, whatever the
organization centers say, it is a fact that; boycott moicott.

There is no salvation in this order

We, as migrant workers who vote for any of the existing parties and candidates or
do not even have the right to vote, work in the same workplaces, live in the same
neighborhoods, and share the same problems. While the bosses exploit us, they do
not look at which party we belong to, male violence does not change according to
which party they belong to, as we experienced on February 6, the destructions
that the system is responsible for do not bypass any of us, the ecological crisis
affects all of us. And when we decide to fight, we always stand together against
them, because we know that there is no other choice.

The fact that the candidates compete with each other in racism shows that the
bourgeois politicians are no different from each other in the face of the
multidimensional crises of capitalism, and this order promises us nothing but
destruction at this point. Therefore, we have no choice but to fight with the
goal of a social revolution that will destroy this order, and a revolutionary
alternative can be formed not by the order leftists, but by revolutionaries with
a principled political line, even as a small minority. However, election-oriented
politics only allows us to lose time in the wheels of this order, in an area
where the conditions are determined by the ruling class. In this respect, the
revolutionary struggle differs sharply from parliamentarism. Although the
revolutionary processes are carried out by the large masses, there is no voting
for them, the majority of the society remains neutral. In the words of Murray
Bookchin, "It has never been the case that the vast majority, let alone all, of
the people in a given place participated in the revolution. When an uprising
breaks out in a revolutionary situation, the majority of the population is
content to watch what happens, while militants (whose name is unknown) with the
help of a small number of supporters rise up and overthrow the established
order." (one)

Of course, revolution is not something that we will realize from today to
tomorrow. However, it requires a long-term struggle of revolutionaries who have
common principles and line of struggle acting with this goal. Today, our primary
goal should be to strengthen the balance of power in favor of the ruling class in
favor of the working class. It is not possible to do this through elections, on
the contrary, as we have seen in the last ten years, every election shifts this
balance in favor of more dominant classes. The way to reverse this trend is to
build independent, stable social organizations in workplaces, schools,
neighborhoods, that is, in every area we are in, and to raise the struggle.
However, in this way and with a long-term study, it may be possible to turn the
balance of power in our favor.

We will win freedom through struggle...

Our stance on elections is not based on common moral reasons or a matter of
stubbornness. What we have learned from historical experience, and what we see
again today, is that no real change is possible through elections. Because the
politics of order is always shaped by manipulation, deceit and intrigue, because
what they offer us as options usually does not differ much from each other,
because politicians always do whatever their interests require and lie. We should
not rely on elections, because they promise us nothing but disappointment. We
cannot let them poison us with choices and destroy our dreams. We must not forget
that no matter what the result is, we will not be the winner, and no matter what
the result, we will not be considered a loser. The important thing is that
despite all the pressures, lies and disappointments they have caused us, the
struggle does not give up fighting and organizing for our daily problems with the
hope of a free world. Where there is struggle, there is hope, and as long as
there is hope, there will be struggle.

(1) Murray Bookchin, The Future Revolution, footnote publications, p. 90

https://www.yeryuzupostasi.org/2023/05/25/boykot-moykot-var-zafer-onat/
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