MLKP CC: Take to the streets, take action against fascist Zionism and US imperialism

Dear Comrades,

In the current issue of our International Bulletin, we condemn Israel’s aggression against Iran.

Fascist Zionism, with the support of the USA, has launched a brutal war against Iran. This war is part of the Western imperialist strategy to dominate the region and eliminate anti-US-imperialist and anti-Zionist forces.

We call on the workers and oppressed of the world to rise up against this unjust war. Workers, women, youth, and colonized peoples must organize and take action to end the war in Iran and the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Let us also reject the oppressive mullah regime in Iran, Rojhilat, and Balochistan, and build revolutionary committees to unite the struggle for political freedom, national equality, and social liberation.

Internationalist Greetings,

MLKP International Bureau

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Take to the streets, take action against fascist Zionism and US imperialism

Fascist Zionism, which continues its colonial occupation and genocidal massacres in Palestine, while keeping Lebanon and Syria under attack, has now launched a war against Iran with the military and political support of the USA. Bombs are falling on the homes and facilities of the mullah regime’s most responsible military bureaucrats and scientists, as well as on the living spaces of the peoples of Iran and Rojhilat. Netanyahu, the leader of the State of Israel, who has been turning Gaza into a children’s cemetery with his occupation and attacks for months, thus committing unforgivable crimes against humanity, declared with utter fascist brazenness that he would escalate the war against Iran, hoping the regime would collapse. This war, which was initiated under the pretext of destroying Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons owned by many imperialist states and some financial-economic colonial dependent states, reflects the US-Israeli bloc’s policy of establishing unlimited slavish domination in the region, neutralizing the anti-American and anti-Zionist states and bourgeois forces and weakening their resolve. Of course, this war is not a war of the peoples, but a war of the rulers.

However, the main culprits and responsible parties for the war is the fascist Zionist state of Israel and the USA. Blaming Iran for the war is nothing more than an attempt to shield the criminals to be held accountable and the real purpose of the war. As the ongoing colonialist Zionist occupation of Palestine, the genocidal massacres in Gaza, and the war attacks on Iran have demonstrated once again, the United Nations and other international institutions of the imperialist world are nothing but rotting corpses today. The so-called ‘international law’ serves only to safeguard the interests of the economically, financially and militarily powerful states. The USA and some other imperialists do not recognize any measure, rule or law other than their military, financial and economic supremacy when attacking any state. Terror, demagogy, arrogance, insolence, and war have become the distinctive face and defining features of the bourgeois world. Fascist leaders and parties are increasing their influence in institutions like the presidency and government. At the same time, preparations for the third imperialist world war are accelerating.

We call on the world’s working class and oppressed: Workers, women, youth, the poor, colonized peoples, and all the oppressed must put a stop to this trajectory. Let us take to the streets, especially in Turkey and Kurdistan, and everywhere across the world, and use all means and forms of struggle to organize actions that will end the unjust war Israel and the USA have launched against Iran and the ongoing genocidal massacres and colonial occupation in Palestine. Let us build barricades against fascism, unjust regional wars, and preparations for the third imperialist partition war of partition.

Our call to the peoples of Iran, Rojhilat and Balochistan: Let us organize continuous actions in Iran, Rojhilat and Balochistan against the Israeli attacks, massacres and warmongering supported and protected by the USA. Let us show our hatred for fascist Zionist Israel and the USA. Let us reject the bourgeois nationalist demagogues of the rotten mullah regime, the representative of Iranian capitalism, and the chauvinist lies of “patriotism”, which have nothing to do with the working people’s love of their homeland. Let us refuse to participate in the demonstrations and ceremonies organized by the state. Just as we stand against the enemy of the working people, the war-criminal Israeli-American bloc, which is raining bombs on Iran, we must also raise the struggle against the capitalist, colonialist, and patriarchal political-Islamist mullah regime that has turned into a machinery of state terror, torture, imprisonment, and execution.

Let us build revolutionary committees in factories, workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, and villages across Iran, Rojhilat, and Balochistan. Let us force the parties committed to the struggle for political freedom, national equality, women’s liberation, and social justice to form a united front. Let us unite, organize, and fight for a united anti-fascist, anti-colonialist, gender-liberation, and anti-imperialist revolution.

Against the Zionist, Fascist, Genocidal Israel and the Fascist Mullah Regime of Iran, the Only Path is a United Revolution!

The competition and hegemonic struggle between two capitalist, occupying colonial states, Israel and Iran, has escalated to a new level with the attacks launched by the Zionist Israeli state a few days ago. There is no just side in this war. On one side, there is Israel, the gendarme of US imperialism in the region, and on the other side, Iran, aligned with China, Russia and Pakistan.

On one side, there is the colonial Iranian state, which has, since it came to power in 1980, been crushing and destroying all the revolutionary and progressive forces it once allied with, building a fascist mullah regime that locks women at home, executes thousands, and oppresses the people. On the other side, there is Israel, which, through the Balfour Declaration, imposed itself on Palestinian land, occupying it and expanding its imperialist policies of occupation into Syrian territory.

On one side, the Zionist state of Israel, which is waging a genocidal war against the Palestinians fighting for their national liberation, wiping our Gaza, and on the other side, there is Iran, which is continuing its colonialist occupation in West Balochistan, East Kurdistan and South Azerbaijan, massacring and executing women and men from every nation who rise up against the patriarchal mullah regime with the the slogan “Jin, Jîyan, Azadî.”

The Zionist state of Israel and the fascist mullah regime are no different in their character towards colonized nations, oppressed peoples and genders. Netanyahu says: “We will change the regime in Iran”. It is obvious what kind of regime they want from the HTS that they are trying to bring to power in Damascus. Netanyahu says: “We have no problem with the character of the HTS regime. It is enough that it does not raise its voice against Israel’s interests and occupation.”

The Kurdish, Persian, Arab, Azeri, Baluch, Turkmen, Palestinian oppressed peoples, and people of different beliefs must refuse to serve in the military of any reactionary state. This war is a war of colonialist, occupying and fascist states for imperialist interests and hegemony. The only stance that must be taken against this reactionary and unjust war is to build a third front for the oppressed peoples and genders. The peoples of Iran and Kurdistan have a great revolutionary tradition and legacy. With new revolutionary alliances, they have the power to ignite new hope for the entire region’s struggle for a free, equal, just, and dignified democratic life. The only path for oppressed peoples, beliefs, and genders is revolution. The only goal is the Democratic Federation of the Middle East and the Union of Republics of Working and Laboring People.

From Palestine to Kurdistan, from the Baloch to the Azeris, from the Persians to the Turks, from Jews to Muslims, and Christians, or all nations and faiths the greatest obstacle to the construction of a free, equal, just, and ecological society for all peoples, women, and oppressed sexual identities is the capitalist, imperialist system and the states that protect it. These states can only be overcome through the destructive force of the oppressed.

We call on all peoples from Rojava to Rojhilat, all of Kurdistan, Iran, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey to unite in an anti-imperialist, anti-fascist, anti-colonialist and gender liberation front against this reactionary war. A signal flare could begin with a neighborhood, a factory, a school, or a city. This is a time when small sparks have the power to ignite great fires.

June 22, 2025

Israel’s War of Aggression against Iran and the Need for a Revolutionary Third Front

Zionist Israel made a move in line with its strategy to become the dominant power in the Middle East after October 7. After breaking the influence of Hamas with the genocide in Gaza, massively weakening Hezbollah in Lebanon, supporting the fall of the Assad regime and stepping up attacks against the Houthis in Yemen, it was foreseeable that Iran would be next in line. Israel’s main goal was to first cut off Iran’s extended arms in the Middle East and then bring Iran to its knees.

Without the support of the imperialist USA, Israel would undoubtedly not have dared to launch such an all-out attack. In addition to the USA, imperialist states such as Germany, France and Great Britain are also on Israel’s side against Iran. Iran, on the other hand, is largely isolated. Although China and Russia have sided with Iran, this stance has so far not gone beyond the desire for a mediating role.

The USA’s goal is to completely subjugate Iran. Trump’s statements go exactly in this direction. When the US failed to achieve the desired result in indirect negotiations with Iran, it paved the way for Israel to attack Iran. As is well known, an agreement was reached during the Obama era that allowed Iran to produce nuclear energy, provided it did not reach the level of nuclear bomb production. Trump has terminated this agreement. In his new term of office, he invited Iran back to the negotiating table. This time, the US demanded that Iran stop producing nuclear energy, and not only that, but also stop producing ballistic missiles. It is clear that this is a demand for surrender. Iran has not accepted this. There was supposed to be a new meeting between the US and Iran on June 15. Before this meeting, Israel began its attack on June 13.

Iran has suffered a severe military and political blow. The Israeli attacks were initially directed against military personnel and facilities, then against oil and nuclear energy production facilities, to which Iran responded with counter-attacks. The war continues, with many casualties.

The goals of US imperialism

US imperialism and its imperialist partners want to reorganize the Middle East in line with the interests of the world monopolies. The Middle East is one of the most important areas of imperialist rivalry due to its oil and gas reserves and its strategic location on the trade routes. After the collapse of the USSR and with the aim of taking full control of this region and integrating it into the imperialist system, measures were taken to restructure the countries in this region into financial-economic colonies. They were asked to change their political and economic systems in line with the interests of the imperialist monopolies. Some countries like Turkey bowed to this coercion, the AKP government is a product of this process.

Nevertheless, some countries resisted this coercion. They were also responded to with the whip of war of occupation. Iraq under Saddam, Libya under Gaddafi and Syria under Assad are examples of this. Now it is Iran’s turn. Israel’s attacks on Gaza, Lebanon and Syria were the precursor to the attack on Iran.

However, China is the actual long-term main target of the USA. As is well known, Iran has signed many strategic agreements with Russia and China. By destroying Iran, the US is one step closer to its goal of cutting internal relations between these countries and isolating them. Once Iran is neutralized, the oil and gas monopoly as well as the supply and trade routes in the region will be completely under the control of Western imperialism. Russia, preoccupied with the war in Ukraine, has clearly lost influence in international politics and in the Middle East. With the US military intervention, a much greater state of war and upheaval is now expected for the entire region.

Fascist Turkey in fear and panic

The fascist MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli said: “The real target is Turkey. The attack on Iran is a message to Turkey. The main goal is to undermine the goal of ‘Turkey without terrorism’.” The fascist Turkish colonial state is in fear and panic. The reason for this fear is not that Israel will launch an attack on Turkey, but that it is taking a back seat in the war for supremacy in the Middle East. What’s more, current developments reinforce the possibility that the Kurds will benefit politically from this process.

Turkey, like Israel, is an expansionist power in the region. Turkey’s neo-Ottoman dreams are no secret. The fact that Iran’s arms have been broken and it is now being shot in the legs to bring it to its knees whets the appetite of Turkey’s rulers on the one hand, but on the other they are afraid that this enthusiasm will be disappointed. Turkey wants to act as a power that takes the place vacated by Iran. However, it is being pre-empted by Israel, which is pursuing the same goals of becoming the region’s tyrant. Even though Turkey, as a NATO member, is trying to be the commander-in-chief of imperialism in the region, Israel is a much more reliable ally for the US and the European imperialists. The US and Europe support Israel, and as long as this support continues, Turkey can do nothing but protest loudly. Turkey’s trade relations with genocidal Israel also continue unabated. The fact is, however, that Israel and Turkey are competing with each other in the region. And it is possible that this rivalry could turn into open conflict under certain circumstances.

New opportunities for the Kurdish nation and the dilemma of the Turkish state

The biggest reason for the fear of Turkish colonialism is the possible gains for the Kurds. The Turkish colonial state’s attempt to reconcile with the Kurdish freedom movement is precisely an attempt to prevent possible greater gains for the Kurdish nation at the regional level.

It wants to “strengthen the internal front” by concluding an agreement with the Kurds and must succeed in this “consolidation” in order to benefit from the new process in the Middle East, and even to survive. On the other hand, it wants to realize this “consolidation” by forcing the PKK to surrender completely without giving the Kurds their national rights. But the “internal front” cannot be strengthened without giving the Kurds their national rights. Because the Kurdish question is a regional question.

The interdependence of the four parts and the geostrategic position of Kurdistan have reached a new level. As in Syria and Iraq, the Kurds have benefited from the colonial hegemony vacuum created by the weakening of the countries that held the Kurdish nation under colonial yoke. The weakening of Iran will have the same result. It is inevitable that this will shake and even dissolve the possible “stable internal front” in Bakur.

In order to eliminate this possibility, the Turkish bourgeois state has tried to destroy Rojava, cut the links between Rojhilat and Bashûr, Bakur and Bashûr, Shengal and Rojava and isolate each part. The move to “consolidate the internal front” is an expression of a new phase of this strategy. The possibility that the surrender attack against Iran in Rojhilat could have the same consequences as in Rojava frightens the Turkish state.

The only way to eliminate this horror is to renounce colonialism and give the Kurds their national rights. However, an attempt in this direction requires the destruction of its current form of existence, i.e. its colonial fascist system, the abolition of the Turkish system of rule and bourgeois-racist Turkishness. This is the dilemma of the Turkish bourgeois state. The Turkish colonial state is at a dead end.

A third revolutionary front

There is no doubt that Israel’s attack on Iran is an imperialist and Zionist attack. It is barbarism. Israel is a genocidal, occupying bandit state. While the imperialist states and Israel possess nuclear weapons, it is hypocritical that they do not want Iran to possess this weapon. On the other hand, Iran is a colonialist, expansionist dictatorship. Both are enemies of the people. They are deeply reactionary.

The Iranian regime is not on the side of the oppressed against the attacks of the imperialists and Zionists. The Iranian mullah regime keeps Kurdistan and Balochistan under colonial yoke, oppresses Azeris and other non-Persian peoples and denies them their national rights. The working people of Iran, especially the women of Iran, are exploited, humiliated and oppressed by the reactionary mullah regime. The Iranian regime’s opposition to the USA and Israel has no anti-imperialist content. Like Saddam and Assad, the Iranian mullah regime wants to maintain its reactionary dictatorship and is dragging the Iranian people into war for this purpose. The Iranian rulers are not the victims of this war.

Both sides waging war are reactionary. The Iranian working people, the oppressed, the women must unite in a third front against the Iranian regime. This is the only way to turn the reactionary war into a civil war, a war for the people, for the overthrow of the reactionary mullah regime, the liberation of the oppressed peoples and the realization of a revolutionary democratic revolution in Iran.

For the defeat of the rulers and the revolutionary victory of the peoples, the Iranian peoples must strengthen their independent political action and position themselves in the united revolutionary-democratic front of the peoples against the imperialist and Zionist attacks. The chauvinist demagogies of the rulers, which are based on Shiite-Persian nationalism and want to ensure the preservation of the fascist mullah regime, must not be believed and must not be allowed to get through. What applies to the peoples and oppressed in Iran also applies to the peoples and oppressed in Turkey.

What is the Kurdish question?

The Kurdish question is the denial of Kurdish national existence, the colonial subjugation of the homeland and the division of Kurdistan into four parts. It is the policy of denial and extermination. This policy was practiced in Syria, Iraq and Iran, i.e. in the Rojava (West), Bashûr (South) and Rojhilat (East) parts of Kurdistan and in its worst form in Turkey, in the Bakur (North) part.

In the 1924 constitution, which was promulgated immediately after the founding of the Republic of Turkey, the national existence of the Kurds was ignored. Not only that, but the Kurdish identity of individual Kurds was also denied. Speaking Kurdish, singing Kurdish songs and wearing traditional Kurdish clothing were banned. Kurdish history, culture and language were ignored and subjected to strict assimilation; the state tried to Turkify the Kurds by force.

Kurds who did not accept this revolted many times. Each time, the state pursued a policy of suppressing these just and legitimate uprisings in the most brutal form. Genocide, village burnings, torture, mass exile, confiscation of economic savings, executions, mass imprisonment and mass rape are some of the forms of this policy of extermination.

The Kurdish question is about slavery, political and economic annexation. The bourgeois states of Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran kept Kurdistan under the colonial yoke. This yoke was de facto broken in Rojava and with the federal status in Bashûr. It still exists in Rojhilat and Bakur.

The Turkish bourgeois state is an occupying power in Bakur. The Turkish military, police, secret services, courts, prosecutors, state-appointed governors, district governors, civil servants, bureaucrats, teachers, they are all institutions of political annexation. Kurds do not have the right to govern themselves as Kurds. Even mayors with limited powers are not tolerated. Instead, trustees are set up.

A second element of colonialism is economic annexation. The natural wealth of Kurdistan (oil, natural gas, water, iron, copper, forests, etc.) is expropriated by the colonial state and used for the interests of the Turkish bourgeoisie. Kurds are kept in poverty in their own country. The traditional Kurdish economy has collapsed, Kurdistan is made completely dependent on the colonial market. Kurds are degraded to a source of cheap labor.

The Kurdish question is the question of the division of the country. This division was formalized at international level by the Treaty of Lausanne. This destroyed the economic and social integrity of Kurdistan and prevented the joint independent development of the Kurds. The Kurds were subjected to the rule of the Arab, Persian and Turkish bourgeoisie.

Despite all colonialist policies, it has not been possible to separate the Kurds from each other or to dissolve them through assimilation. This inevitably leads to the fact that although the solution to the Kurdish question must proceed separately in each part, a complete solution requires the unity of Kurdistan. Even if the national question is resolved in one part, the colonial state in the other part will be hostile to the liberated part.

If the Kurdish issue is resolved, the political form of existence of the four states oppressing Kurdistan will fundamentally change or disappear. The US-backed attacks by Turkey, Iran and Iraq on Bashûr after the independence referendum and the Turkish invasion and destruction attacks on Rojava are an expression of this existential fear.

The Kurdish question therefore has a regional character at the level of the Middle East and an international character due to its key geopolitical role.

On the various approaches to solving the Kurdish question:

The bourgeois solution is the military crushing of the Kurdish resistance. Every time Kurds rose up for national rights, the colonialist states responded with violence. Zilan, Dersim, Enfal and Halabja are examples of colonial massacres.

Compromise solutions emerged, for example, through the power vacuum in Syria or the federal restructuring in Başûr after the occupation of Iraq. Even if these developments are achievements for the nation, they are only limited, as colonial rule has not been ended. The compromise solution only recognizes “limited sovereignty”, such as administrative or political autonomy or a dependent federal entity. Genuine self-government with the right of secession is not envisaged under bourgeois conditions, except in extreme circumstances (war, revolution). Voluntary separation within a bourgeois framework, such as between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, is rare.

The working-class solution, on the other hand, is based on self-determination, radical equality and the destruction of colonial rule. Only on this basis is it possible to overcome national divisions between oppressing and oppressed classes. The liberation of the Turkish working people is inseparable from the break with national chauvinism and the defense of Kurdish rights.

Non-collaborating propertied classes within the Kurdish nation also participate in the liberation struggle, but are susceptible to reconciliation tendencies. The Kurdish working people must work with them for national unity while insisting on a revolutionary line.

Social liberation for the oppressed nation is only possible through national liberation.
Fascism must be overthrown, this is the precondition for a common liberation. Even if Kurdistan can be liberated independently under certain historical conditions (war, uprisings, occupation), the Turkish working people must fully support this liberation.

Objections to the national liberation struggle in favor of the “superficial” anti-fascist struggle are an expression of social-chauvinist distortion. The common struggle of both nations is the prerequisite for the destruction of fascism and for political freedom.

The solution of the Kurdish question requires a unification of the labor movement and the national freedom movement.

This must be based on full equality and the right to secession with the aim of a union of the People’s Republics with equal rights. At the same time, the right to unification of the four parts of Kurdistan must be supported as a democratic national demand.

A democratic federation of the Middle East is a strong foundation for socialist construction under conditions of full national equality.

Even if temporary compromises with the colonial state are possible, they must not lead to the abandonment of revolutionary goals. The working people must point out the inadequacy of such compromises and exert pressure on the state to enforce concrete national rights.

The PKK’s decision to dissolve its party after the call of founding leader Abdullah Öcalan and to invoke a “democratic reconciliation process” corresponds to a bourgeois solution. The Turkish state defines this as “Turkey without terror” and pursues a policy of capitulation, not compromise. Under fascist conditions, a democratic solution is illusory.

As justified as criticism of this solution tendency is, those who limit themselves to it will be ineffective in the class struggle. Instead, the Kurdish movement must be strengthened and the pressure on the state increased. “Freedom for peace – equality for fraternity” must be raised as a basic slogan.

Therefore, the struggle for the right to education in the mother tongue, recognition of Kurdish as an official language, return of geographical names, abolition of the anti-terror law, release of political prisoners, right of return for exiles, investigation of state crimes and the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Rojava and Bashûr is a main agenda. These demands are reformist, but capable of creating mass consciousness and mobilizing working people of both nations.

Western metropolitan areas play a key role in this. Millions of Kurds live in migration, for example in Istanbul, the city with the largest Kurdish population. They are severely affected by social and national inequality.

Turkish workers are also facing a deep life crisis. Every time they try to demand their rights, they are met with state repression. The potential for struggle shared by both peoples is great. The combination of Kurdish democratic consciousness and class consciousness offers a starting point for revolutionary unity.

The uprising of March 19 was an expression of a spontaneous mass explosion. In times of bourgeois resolution processes, interest in politics is growing. The Kurdish question is being discussed more openly and the state is showing its repressive reality without embellishment.

For its part, however, the fascist colonial state uses every peace process as part of its psychological warfare. It wants to impress upon the people that resistance is futile. If this ideological attack is not repelled, resignation and political paralysis threaten. In this process, in which opportunities and dangers are interwoven, there is no other way than consistent ideological and political struggle.

Fight against the Anti-Terror Law

The Anti-Terror Law (TMK) has existed since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. No matter under which name the law protecting the interests of the capitalist order, capital and its representatives appeared or which representatives were in power, its purpose has always remained the same: the suppression of the demands, actions and revolts of workers, women, youth, Kurds, Alevis and oppressed groups who oppose the system, and the maintenance of the patriarchal capitalist and fascist system.

The Hıyanet-i Vataniye Law (Crime of High Treason), which was enacted as a special law six days after the opening of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on April 23, 1920, remained in force until April 12, 1991, when the Anti-Terror Law came into effect. The Takrir-i Sükun Law of 1925, which we can also call the first anti-terror law and which was enacted against the Kurdish uprising of the time, was applied as an emergency law that reinforced the Hıyanet-i Vataniye Law with its provisions on exile, censorship and prohibition of freedom of association. On September 18, 1920, Independence Courts were established to conduct trials against the Kurdish rebellion within the framework of the charges under the Hıyanet-i Vataniye Law. While these courts were specifically established and operated in certain periods, among the most famous articles of this period were Articles 141, 142 and 163 of the Turkish Penal Code No. 765 of March 13, 1926. Based on these articles, thousands of people were charged and sentenced to tens of thousands of years of severe imprisonment and exile. These articles were used like a sharp sword against the working class, the oppressed peoples and their vanguard in the period of March 12, 1971 and afterwards, against resistance, revolutionary development and the demand for rights by the masses.

The General Inspectorate Act No. 1164 of June 25, 1927, which was drafted as part of the Eastern Reform Plan, paved the way for the establishment of military courts. These courts were not subject to any procedural or substantive principles of judgment. On the basis of this law, the military court established by the 4th General Inspectorate, which included Elazığ in 1936, imposed a death sentence on the Kurdish-Alevi rebellion leader Seyit Rıza and his friends and executed them without the possibility of appeal.

Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan, vanguards of the revolutionary movement of 1971, were executed on October 9, 1971 by the Ankara Military Court No. 1 in accordance with the death sentence under Article 146/1 of the Turkish Penal Code, which had been in force since 1920. The decision was approved by the members of parliament, including CHP members. In the 64 years from the establishment of the parliament in 1920 until the de facto abolition of the death penalty in 1984, 712 people, most of them revolutionaries, including 15 women, were executed with the approval of parliament. In addition, the independence courts executed at least 2000 people without the consent of parliament. While the death penalty has not been used since 1984, it was abolished in 2001 for crimes other than threats of war and “terrorist offenses”, and on August 3, 2002, it was abolished completely, including “terrorist offenses”. It was replaced by an aggravated life sentence. However, this punishment was mainly applied to political prisoners and paved the way for lifelong strict isolation of political prisoners.

The once famous State Security Courts (DGM) were incorporated into the judicial system in 1973 with the amendment of the 1961 Constitution by Law No. 1699. The State Security Courts created after the constitutional amendment by Law No. 1773 were abolished on October 11, 1976, after the Constitutional Court declared the law null and void on formal grounds, but were reinstated on the basis of Article 143 of the current Constitution, which was adopted in a referendum under martial law in 1982 after the military coup of September 12, 1980. Law No. 2845 of June 16, 1983 on the establishment and procedure of the State Security Courts endowed these courts with special powers and transformed them into special courts with military judges.

While revolutionaries, patriots and vanguards of the working class were put on trial and sentenced to heavy penalties, the prosecution of state crimes was pre-empted by the State of Emergency Law of October 25, 1983, number 2935. The governor of the state of emergency was given far-reaching powers that could not be the subject of legal proceedings. With the help of the state of emergency governors, JİTEM and other counter organizations, a policy of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and massacres on the streets was carried out in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan. Thousands of Kurds, patriots and revolutionaries were murdered and disappeared. The perpetrators have still not been brought to justice.

The working class played a special role in the struggle against the state security courts. In the 1970s, as the organization of the working class and the influence of revolutionary organizations increased, workers participated in protests with not only economic but also political demands. The DGM, which had been prevented in 1970 by the resistance of June 15 and 16, was put back on the agenda in 1973 by the nationalist front government in order to smash workers’ unity and the revolutionary movement that strengthened the workers. On July 5, 1976, the DISK, which represented an important militant position of the workers at that time, issued a statement entitled “Warning of the DISK to the Working Class and Public Opinion”, which stated that the DGM were set up to prevent the workers’ struggle and abolish democratic rights and freedoms. On September 16, the DISK decided on a “General Mourning” against the DGM and held a strike on September 16, 17 and 18 with the participation of hundreds of thousands of workers. While the workers of DISK chanted the slogan “No to DGM” in the most massive political strike, this resistance was supported by international trade unions, democratic mass organizations and struggling trade unions affiliated to Türk-İş. There were clashes with the police. The worker Yakup Keser was murdered and six workers were arrested. However, this violence by the state did not cause the workers to retreat. The state was forced to back down, and on October 11 of the same year, the proposed law was dropped in parliament.

The DGM were closed on June 16, 2004 with the constitutional amendment by Law No. 5170 in 2004. In their place, the Serious Criminal Courts were established in accordance with Article 250 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which are still in force today. These courts became the competent courts for criminal offenses that fall within the scope of the Anti-Terror Law.

After the Serious Criminal Courts replaced the DGM, the General Prosecutor’s Office, which was given special powers, carried out more arrests on the instructions of fascist chief Erdogan. Furthermore, in addition to the severe punishments for revolutionaries, the Anti-Terror Law also legalized harsher punishments, special regulations for the commission of crimes by the press and radio, the punishment of propaganda against the indivisibility of the state, the restriction of lawyers, special prison terms, the protection of people who participated in the “fight against terrorism”, the prevention of conditional release or regular release after prison time and attacks in the form of isolation prisons. The anti-terror law was tightened several times during the fascist AKP-MHP rule. During the fascist palace regime, thousands of prisoners of justice, including those who had murdered women, abused children, molested and raped women, were simultaneously released with amnesty decrees.

The release of revolutionary, patriotic and dissident prisoners was delayed for years by the abolition of the end of sentences and the fascist institutionalization under the name “Administration Observation Board”. Sick prisoners were left to die. Today, thousands of people are imprisoned on the basis of the Anti-Terror Law and the Criminal Procedure Law, which functions like the Anti-Terror Law, and are still being held in solitary confinement.

After Kurdish popular leader Abdullah Öcalan’s “Call for Peace and a Democratic Society” on 27 February, there were discussions about “democratization” and the expectation that sick prisoners and political prisoners would be released. However, these expectations proved to be empty once again with the 10th justice package passed by parliament before Eid.

In these days when tens of thousands of prisoners are imprisoned and a new prison is opened every day, consisting of different letters of the alphabet, the Anti-Terror Law is one the most important issue of the struggle. Changing the laws in the spirit of political freedom, abolishing the laws against workers, laborers, women, Kurds, youth and LGBTI+ cannot be achieved through negotiations at the table alone. While the 10th Justice Package has proven this, the resistance of the working class against the DGM, where they took to the streets and flipped the switch, has shown that any gain is achieved through resistance.

In this process, in which tens of thousands of political prisoners sit in prisons, mass arrests and detentions take place daily and even the existing laws are not applied, the freedom of the Kurdish people, the working class and women are closely linked. What will make the fascist chief regime give in is the struggle for political freedom on the streets. The object of this struggle is, of course, the working left forces, human rights organizations, rights organizations, women and the working class. Diplomacy and parliament can be seen as a pillar of the process, but the struggle is decisive. Any struggle waged around our demands is the most important pillar to organize and involve the working class and oppressed peoples in the struggle. The only way to victory is to unite the demands of the Kurdish people with the struggles of the working class and the oppressed.