Let us build the future of our country together

Öncü Durmuş

The LEFT Party is holding its Third Ordinary Conference in Ankara on 4-5 October. Following the marches and rallies held across the country, we spoke with LEFT Party spokesperson İsmail Hakkı Tombul and Party Assembly member Göksü Cengiz.

In their assessments to BirGün prior to the conference, LEFT Party officials emphasised that they would not just be holding a conference to elect authorised bodies, stating, ‘It will be a call for a new process in which we will struggle together.’

The LEFT Party conference is being held at a very critical time. Let's start by assessing the political course Turkey has been dragged into.

Göksu Cengiz: Turkey today stands at a crossroads, driven by imperialism and its collaborator ruling partners! We must recognise that we are not facing any programme or change in regime. Brought to power by the US as part of the Greater Middle East project, the AKP has built a political Islamist fascist regime over a quarter of a century.

This reactionary regime, developed under a one-man dictatorship that eliminated the progressive achievements of the Republic and reduced the constitution and parliament to mere symbols, now seeks to be perpetuated under a new construct based on ethnic and sectarian identities under the umbrella of Islamism, with the last remnants of secularism and democracy being eliminated. Therefore, stopping this attack is now a priority above all else.

To implement this project, the government is simultaneously seeking legitimacy from Trump in the White House, attempting to neutralise the CHP and all social opposition through operations and pressure, and seeking to exclude the Kurdish movement from the opposition in the new process.

The AKP and MHP, having exhausted the social and political foundations of their regime, are trying to carve out a path for themselves from here. In this sense, the regime has no other choice but to continue on its current path.

This process has presented Turkey with a clear choice. Either this regime, which has deprived the people of all their rights from education to health and is built on deep poverty and inequality, will become permanent, or we will put an end to this regime. Turkey's crossroads has become clear at this point.

The Grand National Assembly opened with an interesting scene again this year. The process that began a year ago with Bahçeli's hand continues. Could you assess the past year, particularly the situation of the opposition and the LEFT Party conference?

İsmail Hakkı Tombul: Certainly, from the perspective of both the regime and the opposition, 19 March marks an important turning point in the past year. In response to the regime's recklessness, the opposition formed an important axis of resistance on and after 19 March. Many different segments of society demonstrated the need for a united and street-based opposition to the one-man regime.

Resistance is right and necessary, but it is not enough to defeat the regime. We have seen this. Now, it needs to be taken a step further. The way to take it further is to diversify and spread the opposition movement around social demands against the one-man regime.

During this process, it has also become apparent that the broad opposition front, which includes different segments of society, cannot be sustained as a narrow regime struggle centred on removing one party or person from power and bringing in another. Moreover, it is clear that solving the country's accumulated multiple problems cannot be achieved simply by eliminating the one-man regime.

In this sense, today, the attainment of the most fundamental human rights, particularly in the areas of education and healthcare, which have been entirely privatised, the construction of a democracy where the people can have a say and make decisions, beyond a return to a parliamentary system, the removal of the country's destiny from the corridors of the White House, and the end of the rule of a handful of thieves, sects, and mafias over labour, However, this necessitates an organised and united social opposition movement. The way to end the one-man regime and thwart imperialist plans also depends on the organisation of such an opposition.

Therefore, the most important agenda of our conference will be the development of a united opposition and organisations, which will also mark a new beginning on this path.

Has the opposition's performance over the last six months led to a change in the LEFT Party's fundamental line? How did it affect the conference?

Göksu Cengiz: We have long argued that a policy aimed at stopping and overthrowing the regime must be pursued, and that this can only be achieved through united struggle. In this sense, 19 March did not lead to a change; rather, it confirmed what we had been saying and proposing.

But we certainly recognise the responsibility that 19 March and its aftermath have placed on us. In this context, our conference will take place as a conference of youth, women and social movements that emerged from 19 March, took its place at the forefront of this resistance and left its mark on it. These three dynamics will play an important role in the rise of the left and social opposition in the coming period.

Our conference will take place with a programme that seeks ways to come together and unite with these accumulations. Forums where the direct subjects of these three areas will come together will be one of the most important points of the conference.

This should also be seen as an expression of a revolutionary political understanding in the sense of overcoming the existing political climate that has been left behind by the resistance. In recent years, politics, including the left, has been organised as an elite politics centred around narrow representation and populist figures. This is a bourgeois style of politics that is as closed as possible to the initiative and dynamism of society and far from encouraging local and grassroots organisation, which in recent years has almost swallowed up the left.

The 19 March resistance was significant in that it also represented a search for a new politics based on a fundamental rejection of the podiums and parliament, of representation and populist styles, particularly among the dynamic opposition segments, especially the youth. The LEFT Party Conference rises above the streets of 19 March.

Should the LEFT Party's activities throughout the summer also be evaluated in this context?

İsmail Hakkı Tombul: Undoubtedly so. As the LEFT Party, we are organising marches, rallies and actions in many different parts of the country during the summer, centred around the demands of society. From the water problem in Uşak to the demands of hazelnut producers in Beşikdüzü; from the fight against poverty in Şavşat to tea producers in Kemalpaşa; our actions in dozens of locations, from Lüleburgaz to Zonguldak, Samsun to Aksaray, Ankara and Istanbul, have created an important foundation for building the resistance and struggle that will defeat the reactionary regime. Our conference will also serve as a stopover to bring together the picture of this resistance and solidarity that has accumulated across the country, continuing its journey as a national gathering with new goals.

Our conference will be a major meeting point, primarily to jointly safeguard Turkey's future during this period the country is going through, to reveal the power that will put an end to the reactionary regime, and to lay the foundations for a united opposition on this path.

No matter what the rulers do to regain their lost legitimacy at home and abroad, it is very clear that those who are legitimate are those who resist in the streets, the young people of this country who overcome the barricades, the women who fight for their freedom, and all the oppressed workers who fight for their labour and rights...

We invite everyone who wants to see a hopeful picture of Kurds and Turks, Alevis and Sunnis standing together against this regime and defeating it to attend the National Gathering at the end of our conference.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Ülkenin geleceğini birlikte inşa edelim, published in BirGün newspaper on October 3, 2025.