Turkey is burning on referendum day due to boycott

TURKEY | 16 – 09 – 2010 | Demonstrating for a boycott of Turkey’s referendum vote

The 12^th of September is not a normal day in Turkey. It is the anniversary of the military fascist coup d’état of 1980. This coup was made with the support of US imperialism. During the coup hundreds of revolutionaries and communists were killed, tortured or disappeared. Different from the military coup on March 12^th 1970, the coup from 1980 was the beginning of a new era in the country. Just to give an idea of what this meant below there are statistics showing what the first 9 years of this coup left behind.

• 650.000 people were arrested
• 1,683,000 people were followed
• Of 230,000 people investigated, 210,000 were prosecuted
• 98, 404 people were accused of being members of illegal organizations
• 14,000 people lost their citizenship and became ‘stateless’
• 30,000 went abroad as political refugees
• 300 died in a suspicious manner
• 171 died under torture (that is the documented number)
• 937 movies were prohibited because they were “dangerous”
• 3,854 teachers, 120 university professors and 47 judges were fired
• 400 journalists were sentenced to a total of 4000 years of prison
• 300 journalists were physically attacked and 3 journalists were shot
• 144 persons died in a questionable circumstances
• 14 died during hunger strikes
• 16 were killed while they were “running away”
• 95 died during confrontations

This is only a partial picture of what happened since the coup. Until this day the constitution of the Turkish Republic still continues from that time. In the recent years there have been some changes but not fundamental changes. Many delegations that came in behalf of the EU said that ‘torture is not systematic anymore’ that there have “been democratic changes”. Why? Because, in their understanding, if you don’t torture everyday you are a “democrat,” and only if it were systematic it would be wrong. But, in fact, torture in Turkey has always been systematic. It has been and still is one of the biggest tools of the fascist state.

On this year’s anniversary there is something different, the election or referendum on a so called “new” constitution. If someone votes ‘yes’ or ‘no’ the result is the same: FASCISM! It’s a game of the ruling classes in Turkey. The ruling classes have the need to gain some credibility among the masses, so the “liberal-Islam” clique led by the AKP called for a new constitution since the old one, from the time of the 1980 coup, is widely held in disrepute and contempt. The Kemalist clique wants to say “no” to this change because they claim that this is going to bring a political Islamic constitution which will abolish the “secular state”. The Kemalists are not better than the others. Through the history of Turkey the ruling classes (both the Kemalist secular clique and the Islamic clique) for their profit and benefit, have provoked and incited conflicts between certain ethnic and religious groups such as between the Sunnites against the Alevites (an oppressed ethnic/religious people) that had lived together for hundreds of years. The state incited them to start fighting each other, as happened in 1978 with the Maras massacre.

Since Friday morning the tension in the country is very high. Police forces raided houses and association buildings in almost every city in the whole country, arresting people–especially those who have called for a ‘boycott’ on the referendum elections. These are mainly the revolutionary communists and the Kurdish national movement.

On Saturday night clashes in certain districts in Istanbul between militants and police forces occurred. In some Kurdish provinces the tension amongst those who want to vote and those that are boycotting is very high. Still in many districts militant actions are happening and until this hour 593 people have been arrested

It looks like that the majority is voting for a ‘yes’, meaning a change of the constitution. So far 58 % vote ‘yes’ and 42 % vote for ‘no’.

Today one concrete demand of the democratic and progressive forces is that the initiators and perpetrators of the 1980 coup d’état should be brought to court. This has never happened because when anyone criticizes the policies of the state or touches “sacred Turkishness, ” such person is imprisoned or even killed like progressive Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.

 Taken from the website Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle