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This is my first post in this community. I am a student from Turkey. I am a member of the mailing list for some time now and happy to see a subject about Turkey. I voted yes in the referendum but i i also want to share some insight about the political climate here which the text before did not quite reveal. First and foremost, the vast majority of leftist parties here voted against the amendments proposed by the government. Only two ongoing socialist organizations which are relatively small, affirmed the package with two vastly different approaches. This an interesting phenomenon in my point of view. Since my country has undergone an exceptional fate throughout its history, the political dynamics can be very complex to analyze at times. In my opinion, there is an ongoing crisis of regime in Turkey which can be traced back to late Ottoman Empire but since there is little knowledge created about this subject and i am not confident in my ability to analyze this whole historical process, I will leave it for now. Although I can say there are three major components of this crisis which can be summarized today as; 1. The Kurdish problem. 2. Clashing interests of the privileged minorities that were created by aforementioned militaristic and (doubtfully) secular rule and liberal bourgeoisie. 3. The common interest in continuous exploitation of proletariat. If you noticed i did not mention the concept of sharia or religious clash which are only the superficial and misleading interpretations of this ongoing crisis. The referendum is one of many struggles between the ruling minorities in Turkey and as Turkish leftist parties are now, their policies do not really affect the outcome. I also want to point out that there is practically no social-democrat tradition in Turkey too. CHP the main opposition party and a member of socialist international, has no interest in leftist policies. Its main political arguments represent militaristic nationalism and laicism. But it also does not want to lose its supposed left tendency. Many socialist organizations also share this tendencies and compromise to the privileged elites and army on a stalinist subtext. I need to mention that Turkish stalinist tradition is far from being over... Of the two other problems of Turkish left, one is a liquidationist approach to democracy and other is the tendency to follow Kurdish national movements policies out of sheer political impotence. These two are not shared by many but are worth to mention. Even in this shallow sketch, i know i have left many holes. I will finish with the policies of the leftist parties on referendum. Kurdish national movement: Boycott. Stalinists: Nearly all against, some boycott. Anarchists: All boycott as far as I know. Trotskists:Two organizations voted yes as i mentioned. Much supported boycott. Some voted no. I hope it helps. I wish i could also write about the content of the referendum. I am not very comfortable with juristical theory. But if the discussion unfolds, , will try. Best regards Şefik Sevgener ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
