Turkey: Fascist terror on the increase and the revolutionary line

[english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl]

Translated from the Kurtulus:

FASCIST TERROR ON THE INCREASE AND THE REVOLUTIONARY LINE

Death is taking a stroll all around us. This is neither "literature"
nor exaggeration. Osman Das, Mehmet Kurnaz, Burhanettin Akdogan,
Serpil Yilmaz... The oligarchy is continuing to murder in the torture
centres and prisons... With murder and terror the oligarchy seeks to
gain strength and restore its morale, which suffered a blow following
Susurluk.Day after day, the fascist bands attack students and young
people. It is pure luck that there have not been more deaths so
far. Police terror reigns in our area. Uniformed police try to occupy
our city districts and bring them under control. However, nobody is
surrendering, nobody is turning traitor. Youth, whether organised or
not, is standing up courageously to attacks. The police have not
succeeded in making the people in the shantytowns submit, the people's
councils say no, despite all repression people are stating as
vigorously as possible that the people are uniting in the people's
councils.

We must organise against fascist terror.

We must organise against state terror. Whoever under these conditions
seeks to work only with legal methods is in fact admitting that he or
she is outside the arena of struggle. There is no alternative to
answering fascist terror in the language it understands. Today or
tomorrow, nobody will be able to flee from this. That is why "people's
violence" must be organised. The revolutionaries are in the position
of being able to assess the past year from the point of view of the
oligarchy, the people or the revolutionaries, and to establish what
were positive developments and what were weaknesses. Because today one
can see that the current aggressiveness of the oligarchy is the result
of the phase experienced over the past year. 

In this phase, which we call the "Susurluk phase", the revolutionaries
succeeded in pushing things so far forward that the oligarchy lost its
influence over the people's opposition. Admittedly, from the viewpoint
of the opposition such a development could not go on much
longer. Because it would have meant the end of the oligarchy was
approaching. At the moment the oligarchy is trying to manoeuvre to get
out of this situation. To put it more precisely, the manoeuvres it
engaged in over the past year have been stepped up with greater
intensity. For the rulers, 1997 was a year in which discussions to
solve the system's crisis continued on a broader basis than before,
but without a result. We can say that it was a year in which the
rulers had a painful sense of their approaching end. "We have our
backs to the wall", "We have been floored", "The system is in
danger". Again and again, fears such as these were expressed by the
monopoly capitalists and the bourgeois press. The crisis which existed
before Susurluk was then aggravated by it because of the people's
reaction against the rulers, certainly far more than in comparison
with previous years. All organisations and institutions found
themselves in a discussion which involved condemnation of the values
held by the rulers. The rulers' state apparatus lost respect in the
eyes of the people, the image of the "paternal state" was
shattered. The state began to lose strength in its ongoing campaign
against the revolutionary struggle and its inner contradictions
sharpened, causing it to suffer blow after blow. The phase which began
with the Gazi uprising (March 1995) showed that a period of uprisings
was beginning. With the Susurluk accident, millions saw the true face
of the state completely exposed. Along with the revelation of the
state's inner contradictions, it became clear that this was the state
of the contra-guerrillas and not the people. This state, which
received heavy blows and shocks, saw itself forced to make strenuous
efforts to stay on its feet and save itself from the truth revealed in
the slogan "Susurluk is the state". 

The policy put into the foreground by the National Security Council,
"Secularism versus the Islamic state" to a large extent served this
aim and was successful up to a point. As a result of these efforts,
the oligarchy dared to release the murderers who had been jailed as
part of investigations related to Susurluk, and to prepare the
conditions for new attacks.

All this should not be interpreted to mean that the oligarchy has
overcome its crisis or saved itself from the effects of its exposure
in the eyes of the people. This exposure of the state is an
achievement of the people and the revolutionaries which cannot be
undone. The spokesman of the ruling class [President] Demirel, at a
press conference on December 27, 1997 was unable to present a
rose-tinted assessment of 1997. Demirel tried to indicate at the
conference various ways for the state to resolve its own
difficulties. While what he said was largely repetititious, he did
emphasise one of his main concerns: the people's sense of hopelessness
had risen. According to the state's own polls, 42% of the population
have no sense of hope of receiving anything more from the state.

>From what was said at the press conference, it could be understood
that the rulers still feel very worried about the political chaos
revealed by Susurluk. Demirel's words, "Everyone will know his task
and stay at his post. If a link in the chain breaks, the whole set-up
will collapse," gave expression for the first time to the fear that
the army, which was going on the offensive, was subject to the same
strains suffered by other parts of the system. This was also a sign of
anxiety in the face of the army's offensive. The military waved its
sword to left and right in an effort to distance itself from the filth
uncovered by Susurluk. It was only natural for the other forces in
society to feel threatened. And this sense of threat continues to this
day. The main fear of the oligarchy however is that the army has
played its last trump card. 

Whatever may be the case with the oligarchy, the inequality and
injustice in our land have begun to bring the rulers and the
imperialists into severe difficulties. in Istanbul, the difference
between the incomes of the poorest and richest members of society has
risen by 1473%. The Mesut Yilmaz government like all the preceding
ones will only succeed in widening the gulf. At this point, the crisis
will become more concrete and sharpen, as the rulers' lack of any way
out will become more apparent.They cannot do anything. The only way
left to them is the current increase in terror, and this is precisely
the avenue they are now pursuing.The government has declared 1998 to
be the year of reforms, the year in which the state will be
reconstructed. But even the state does not believe that. So they are
not making preparations in this area but rather are concentrating on
developing new laws to increase repression against the people and
employ more terror against the revolutionaries. Developments in the
prisons and the increasing number of massacres are the product of
these efforts. What the revolutionaries do against this, what line
they will follow, these are no longer a secret. We are not
experiencing such a phase for the first time. The people and the
revolution in Turkey are rich in experience as far as dealing with
fascist terror is concerned. It is necessary to jointly carry out the
struggle of the masses and the implementation of revolutionary
violence. One or the other alone will not suffice to drive back
fascist terror. For the same reason, none of the reformist tactics
aimed at solutions within the system will succeed. Against the attacks
and murders of the oligarchy only the application of both paths of
struggle, mass struggle and revolutionary violence, will manage to
drive back fascist terror. 

Revolutionary violence united with the organised strength of the
people cannot be defeated. This is a proven fact, the fruit of decades
of revolutionary struggle. The task today is, in all areas, among the
youth, in the gecekondular (city slums), among the workers and public
employees, to defend against and struggle against fascist terror on
the basis of mass resistance and revolutionary violence. In no area
can official and civil fascist terror go unanswered. The attacks,
arrests, executions and massacres must be confronted by the masses and
the people's violence. In all areas, there must be sensitivity towards
attacks launched elsewhere. Today it is more important than before to
act together. The "democracy game" of the oligarchy, used until the
other day to guide the country, is now played out. The oligarchy
itself can see that. The Yilmaz government came into being in the past
six months with the aim of achieving something, but it has become
clearer with every passing day that it has no room for manoeuvre. 

However much they try to create an optimistic atmosphere in 1998, in a
short time the senselessness of this enterprise will become
obvious. Even as the rulers come up with any amount of mendacious news
about "hope" via their media, their fear will grow. While the people's
hope for freedom from this system grows, the hope of the rulers that
they can save the system declines. 

This is the reality in our country. The oligarchy's terror intends to
destroy the people's hopes. It seeks to annihilate the representative
of the people's hopes, the revolutionary organisations. But the
people's movement will grow, revolutionary violence will develop, the
attacks of the oligarchy will be beaten back and revolution will
spread with the growth of the people's hopes and its representatives,
the revolutionaries. 

Footnotes:
(1) On November 3, 1996 in the Susurluk area of western Turkey, a
Mercedes limousine struck a lorry while driving very fast. A police
chief, a parliament deputy of the DYP (True Path Party, at the time
part of the ruling coalition), a beauty queen and an internationally
wanted drug dealer, mafia chief and fascist killer were in the
Mercedes. Following this scandal, new revelations came out every day
about the involvement of the state in drug dealing, prostitution,
murders, massacres, and every type of mafia and contra-guerrilla
activity. 

(2) On March 12, 1995, civilian fascists in a car fired on meeting
places in the Gazi/Istanbul neighbourhood used by leftists. Two people
were killed, but the police did nothing to catch the killers. The
people of Gazi reacted, supported by people from other parts of
Turkey, with an uprising lasting several days. During the uprising
another 18 people in Gazi and Umraniye were murdered by the police. 

(3) After the Susurluk accident the army threatened a coup to
discipline the bourgeois parties, who were discrediting each other in
their attempts to show that they themselves were "clean".

(4) In the prisons of Turkey attempts to put political prisoners in
isolation cells are again on the agenda. The building of such cells
was suspended. Up to the present the prisoners have managed to avoid
transfer to isolation cells. Past attempts by the state to do this
were one of the reasons for the hunger strikes in the summer of 1996,
in which 12 prisoners died.

---
Press Agency Ozgurluk
For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan!
Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org                          
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