Reminders | From the past to the present: The dead end of the ruling party's policy of aggression
Politics Collective
Last week, the attack on Özgür Özel at the funeral of Sırrı Süreyya Önder can be interpreted as a warning message from the single-man regime, which is trapped in the political arena, to the social resistance through the opposition. The message is clear in this sense: ‘Give up street politics and come to the playing field we are familiar with’. For a long time, politics has been carried out at the level of political elites who are disconnected from society, through a competition in rhetoric. The one-man rule undoubtedly knows this level of politics best. The AKP, which mobilised all the tools of the state, had a hegemonic advantage over the opposition, even though its legitimacy was being questioned.
After 19 March, the inclusion of broad sections of society, from young people to women and workers, in politics upset the balance of a regime that was losing its social legitimacy, especially in the midst of an economic and political crisis. From 19 March to the present, the agenda of politics has been determined by millions of people, primarily young people, who are resisting the regime in the streets. The attack on Özgür Özel is a reflex of the one-man regime in this context. This attack is not the first of its kind in Turkish history; it is a method resorted to by the ruling class at every critical juncture in such conjunctures.
Whenever political powers in Turkey lose their legitimacy and fear losing their power, attacks against the opposition follow. Of course, it is impossible to understand the nature of these attacks without considering their relationship with the form of government and the regime. Historically, this method implemented by the ruling elites is closely linked to the colonial-type fascist state form that emerged after 1950 within the framework of dependence on US imperialism, where imperialism became an internal phenomenon embedded in the state structure, particularly crystallising in repressive apparatuses such as the military and police, and where the repressive aspect overshadowed the fundamental democratic aspect.
Attacks stemming from this structure of the state can be said to occur on two intertwined axes. The first consists of attacks carried out by official and civilian counter-guerrilla apparatus intertwined with the CIA through fascist terror and massacres. These attacks were mobilised by the ruling class during periods when the established order was shaken by the extraordinary social resistance of revolutionaries and broad sections of the working class, and went down in history as attacks of high intensity. May 1, 1977; the March 16 Beyazıt Massacre; the Bahçelievler Massacre; the Kahramanmaraş and Çorum massacres; the Madımak Massacre in the 1990s; the assassinations of Uğur Mumcu, Bahriye Üçok, and Muammer Aksoy; the assassination of Hrant Dink in the 2000s, and dozens more... Many revolutionaries, intellectuals, and working people were killed in these attacks.
Secondly, again due to the structural character of the state form, the ruling class alliance, with its contradictory and weak internal structure and its contradictions with the popular classes, has led to the formation of a regime that is unwilling to make even the slightest compromise on the most basic rights and freedoms of the broad working class. Pseudo-democracy has been practised in a manner no different from a thin veil limited to the ballot box. In fact, when the ruling classes found their dominance under threat and lost control, they resorted to openly fascist methods (military coups). The second type of occurrence was directly related to the character of the regime, depending on the form of the state. Accordingly, attacks and assassination attempts against political elites in the opposition, especially during periods when the ruling party, which held all the levers of power, lost its legitimacy and feared losing power, are examples of this second type. Examples include the attacks on CHP leader İnönü in the 1950s during the DP period, the organised attacks on Ecevit, who was again CHP leader, in 1977 when the MC government had ceased to be an option for social groups, and most recently the attacks on Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu prior to the 2023 presidential elections. We will remind you of some examples from certain periods of Turkish history that occurred on both levels, following the attack on Özgür Özel.
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ATTACKS AGAINST İNÖNÜ DURING THE MENDERES ERA
After 1954, amid economic and political crises, the legitimacy of the Democratic Party began to be questioned. The party resorted to measures aimed at suppressing and intimidating opposition forces, primarily through the use of legislative and judicial power. The election law was amended to ban opposition parties from the radio. Civil servants' political rights were restricted. Judges and professors were forced into retirement. The press law was amended to ban news deemed to incite ‘bad thoughts,’ which included any reports critical of the government. Penalties for violating the law were increased, and 238 journalists were imprisoned. The law on demonstrations and marches was amended, criminalising all gatherings and demonstrations and authorising the use of force against crowds. In parallel, CHP General Secretary Kasım Gülek was arrested. The CHP and CMP (Cumhuriyetçi Millet Partisi) alliance was prevented from participating in elections through amendments to the election law. CMP General Chairman Osman Bölükbaşı was arrested. In 1960, the Investigation Commission was established and granted extensive powers that bypassed the judiciary. The commission aimed to close down the CHP and completely silence social opposition.
In parallel with these regulations, a discourse targeting the opposition was mobilised. In every speech, Menderes compared the CHP to the Crusaders, implying that they were enemies, and said that they should be crushed like ants, thus targeting them. As a result of this targeting, the first attack took place in Uşak. İsmet İnönü decided to go to Uşak for an election tour. The events began before İnönü arrived in Uşak. CHP members coming from the villages were not allowed to enter Uşak, and the governor of Uşak ordered that İnönü's car not be allowed to enter the city. He even gave orders to open fire if he tried to enter. On that day, the house where İnönü was staying was set on fire. A brawl broke out between CHP members who had come to see İnönü off at the train station and DP members who tried to block their way. İnönü was hit on the head by a stone thrown by DP members and fell to the ground.
On 4 May, İnönü's car was stoned by DP members in Istanbul. Similar incidents followed. One of the most striking of these attacks took place on 3 April 1960 in Kayseri. While İnönü's delegation was on its way to the CHP Provincial Congress in Kayseri, the governor's office banned the congress. İnönü's train was surrounded by soldiers on the governor's orders, and he was kept waiting for hours. Upon entering Kayseri, İnönü was not allowed into Yeşilhisar and was held under military cordon for nine hours.
As a result, the DP government's policies of oppression and intimidation against the opposition failed. The opposition, which emerged from universities and inspired broad sections of society, spread beyond campuses and flooded into the streets. The action carried out by the youth, known as the 555 K, in their demand for freedom, became one of the strongest responses to the government's policies.
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MC RULE AND ATTACKS ON ECEVİT
By 1977, the policies of the Nationalist Front (MC) had reached an dead end, from the economy to politics. The government sought loans from imperialist countries and institutions such as AID and the World Bank in order to overcome the economic crisis, but received no positive response. The country had become, in Demirel's words, ‘in need of 70 cents’. The contradictions within the Nationalist Front coalition made it difficult to find solutions to the problems of the ruling classes. The economic and political crisis, fascist terror and attacks further intensified the people's hatred of the Nationalist Front government. The two major representatives of the monopolistic bourgeoisie, Halit Narin, President of the Confederation of Turkish Employers' Unions, and Sakıp Sabancı, President of the Chamber of Industry, had announced that they preferred early elections. In this context, the Justice Party (Adalet Partisi), the major partner in the coalition, called for early elections. CHP General President Bülent Ecevit also accepted the proposal for early elections. The Turkish Grand National Assembly (TMMB) announced that early elections would be held on 5 June 1977.
Parallel to the opposition to fascism developing in the streets among young people, workers and peasants, the CHP's social support was also growing. It was almost certain that the CHP would win the June elections on the day the decision for early elections was taken. Following the decision for early elections, fascist terror rapidly increased. As 5 June approached, social and political turmoil deepened. During the election period, an atmosphere of civil war prevailed. By April, fascist murders had become almost daily occurrences. Among the important events of this period were the fascist attacks on Ecevit during his election tours.
Ecevit, who was on an election tour, was attacked with guns and stones on 26 April in the district of Niksar, Tokat. The CHP's election bus was shot at, but the police did not intervene. The Niksar incidents were organised by Ali Rıza Akdemir, Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior and a member of the MHP. Before becoming Undersecretary, he was known in the region as ‘Commando Rıza’.
On 27 April, after Niksar, the election tour continued to the district of Şiran in Gümüşhane. In Şiran, the CHP delegation was attacked by AP and MHP members. Seven people were injured, three of them by gunfire. When Ecevit entered Şiran for the rally, the convoy consisting of the bus he was in and other vehicles was attacked with stones and sticks by AP and MHP members. When CHP members tried to neutralise the fascist group, the fascists started firing bullets. Some CHP parliamentarians were also injured during the attack. Senator Niyazi Ünsal and Tunceli MP were seriously injured in various places after being attacked with axes by fascists. After the incidents, Ecevit took refuge in the town hall and called the President, saying, ‘I cannot find the state anywhere. I am not thinking about my own life, but about the lives and property of my citizens in Şiran, who are in danger.’ He requested helicopter assistance for the injured.
The attacks against Ecevit continued. On 29 May, Ecevit was the target of an assassination attempt by a member of the special police force at Çiğli Airport while arriving in Izmir for an election campaign in the Aegean region. Ecevit narrowly escaped the assassination, while the brother of the Istanbul mayor was injured in the incident. On 2 June, Demirel sent a confidential letter to Ecevit. The letter stated that Demirel had received information that Ecevit would be assassinated at a rally in Taksim on 3 June and that it would be better not to hold the rally. It also stated that shots would be fired at Ecevit from one of the rooms on the upper floors of the Sheraton Hotel.
After receiving the letter, Ecevit made a speech on TRT Radio the day before the rally, saying, ‘My wife and I will be there at the appointed time. However, under these circumstances, I cannot ask anyone to come. My only request is that everyone go to the polls on 5 June and cast their votes, no matter what happens tomorrow.’
When Ecevit shared the letter with the public, it caused a shockwave. Despite the risk of an assassination attempt, thousands flocked to Taksim Square that day.
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THE ASSASSINATION ORDERED BY TÜRKEŞ: KEMAL TÜRKLER
Kemal Türkler, who made significant contributions to the establishment of DİSK and TİP, served as the General President of the Mining Workers‘Union (Maden-İş) and later as the General President of the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions (DİSK), became the target of fascist attacks in the period leading up to 12 September. Türkler, one of the most beloved leaders of the Turkish working class in the 1970s, was also one of the leaders of the 15-16 June movement.
By 1980, new fascist attacks were being organised every day to halt the progress of the revolutionary movement and class struggle in Turkey. Although Kemal Türkler stepped down as General President of DİSK at this time, he continued to serve as a DİSK executive. As part of the MHP's strategy to target DİSK executives in order to suppress the revolutionary movement, he was assassinated on the direct orders of Alparslan Türkeş.
Following the 12 September coup, Yılma Durak, Celal Adan, and other defendants on trial in the MHP Istanbul case confessed in their statements that they had planned and carried out the assassination of Kemal Türkler.
Yılma Durak, known as the Chief of the East, confessed in court that during a meeting with MHP General President Alparslan Türkeş at his home in Yakacık, Türkeş described DİSK as ‘the source of the communist movement’ and ordered the death of DİSK executives by carrying out a ‘grass cutting’ operation.
Following this order, they gathered again at Berke İnanoğlu's office, and after Aydın Esen's investigation, they determined the addresses of DİSK executives, wrote them down for Celal Adan, and Celal Adan assigned Kemal Türkler to kill Aydın Eryılmaz and İsmet Koçak, and Ünal Osmanağaoğlu and Abdülsamet Karakuş, who were MHP militants, to kill Kemal Türkler. Aydın Eryılmaz, and İsmet Koçak to kill Kemal Türkler.
Yılma Durak stated that he went to Bursa with Celal Adan by car the day before the incident, that they heard the news of Kemal Türkler's murder on the radio while going to Uludağ the next day, and that Celal Adan said, ‘Bravo to our boys, this is how it should be.’
While defendants Abdülsamet Karakuş and Aydın Eryılmaz were sentenced to 16 years in prison, İsmet Koçak, Celal Adan, Alpaslan Türkeş, and Yılma Durak were found not guilty. Ünal Osmanağaoğlu, however, was protected by the state and lived as a fugitive for years.
It emerged that Ünal Osmanağaoğlu had voluntarily participated in the murder of Kemal Türkler. Celal Adan stated the following in his testimony regarding the incident: ‘Yılma brought me Türkler's address. The next day, Ünal Osmanağaoğlu came to the party. He had previously told me and Yılma that he wanted to carry out an operation. I gave him Kemal Türkler's address. I said, ‘Yılma Bey knows about this; go ahead and do it,’ and he agreed. When he had previously mentioned wanting to carry out an operation, he had also said he had enough weapons for the task.
Ünal Osmanağaoğlu, who acted on Celal Adan's orders, was also wanted as one of the defendants in the case involving the murder of seven TİP members in Bahçelievler, Ankara. After this action, Ünal Osmanağaoğlu fled to Australia using his brother Taner Osmanağaoğlu's identity. He was arrested in 1989 for drug trafficking and deported. Osmanağaoğlu, who had been wanted for 19 years, was arrested in 1999 while running a state-owned teahouse in the Güzel Çamlı National Park, which he had rented from the ministry. Before the Susurluk accident, allegations emerged that Abdullah Çatlı and his companions had been involved in the accident while coming from Ünal Osmanağaoğlu's place.
The gangs that dragged the country into darkness and massacred intellectuals, young people, trade unionists, and the working class in the streets were rewarded for their services to US imperialism and the collaborating ruling classes, rather than being punished. Celal Adan served as a member of parliament from the DYP (True Path Party) in the 21st term and from the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) in the 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th terms. Today, he holds the position of deputy speaker of parliament while also serving on the justice committee, as if mocking the system. Ünal Osmanağaoğlu's brother and accomplice, Taner Osmanağaoğlu, has been an MHP MP for İzmir for two terms.
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'77, BLOODY 1 MAY
At a time when the revolutionary movement in Turkey organised millions of people and a struggle for a different Turkey swept across the country in factories, universities, villages and streets, the counter-guerrilla forces established by the United States organised one of the bloodiest attacks in the history of the republic.
On the morning of 1 May, hundreds of thousands of people gathered early in Beşiktaş and set off for Taksim Square, which had been renamed 1 May Square. The square was filled with crowds of young people, workers and labourers. As Kemal Türkler, the president of the Turkish Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DİSK), was about to finish his speech and the final marchers were about to enter the square, three gunshots were heard from the Tarlabaşı side, igniting the massacre. Following the gunfire, individuals lying in wait in buildings surrounding the rally site, including the Water Authority and the Intercontinental Hotel, opened fire with automatic weapons on the hundreds of thousands of people in the square. Armoured vehicles charged forward in parallel with the gunfire. Sound bombs and automatic gunfire created widespread panic. Many people trying to escape were crushed under tanks and in the stampede. Thousands of people panicking and fleeing to Kazancı Hill were fired upon with automatic weapons from a white car. At the same time, a truck parked on the hill blocked the road, causing a massive stampede that claimed the lives of dozens of people. The massacre was successfully completed; 41 people were killed.
Although the Sino-Soviet debate within the left was the most important factor in left-wing violence during this period, the attack on 1 May was directly orchestrated by the MIT (National Intelligence Organisation) and the counter-guerrilla forces. The mainstream media claimed that the events were the result of internal left-wing conflict in an attempt to conceal the role of the counter-guerrilla forces. However, investigations and analyses conducted after the massacre revealed that the attack did not begin at the rally site.
Sadi Koçaş, the deputy chairman responsible for the MIT at the time, claimed in an interview in 1987 that ‘the events of May 1st did not emerge on that day, but were the result of at least seven to eight years of events dating back to 1968-1969 and 1970.’ Indeed, 1 May 1977 became a turning point for Turkey at the time. The intensity of fascist attacks and provocations increased, and massacres were organised from Maraş to Çorum in an attempt to halt the rise of the revolutionary movement in Turkey. When these attacks failed to suppress the revolutionary movement, the 12 September coup was carried out.
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THE TRUTH HIDDEN BY THE ASSASSINATION OF UĞUR MUMCU
One of the most symbolic of the massacres of intellectuals carried out by counter-guerrilla forces in the 1990s was the assassination of Uğur Mumcu on 24 January 1993. Uğur Mumcu, one of the bravest journalists of his profession, who dedicated his life to exposing corruption in politics, Islamist organisations and their international networks in Turkey, as well as counter-guerrilla and mafia activities, lost his life in a car bomb attack.
Uğur Mumcu's work revealed the foundations of the darkness that Turkey is still unable to escape today. Starting in the second half of the 1980s, he began investigating Islamist organisations that had been secretly nurtured and enabled by the 12 September regime. As detailed in his book Rabıta, he exposed the organisation of Islamism allied with imperialism in Turkey, which was established with the support of the Saudi state. He revealed that the salaries of imams sent to Europe were paid by the Saudi state. The relationship between September 12 and political Islam was clearly expressed in Rabıta with the following statement.
In the early 1990s, Mumcu increased his writings on the Kurdish issue, as well as on the radical Islamist groups and actions that were multiplying in the country. In his article ‘Hizbulkontra,’ written just a year before his death, he referred to the murder of Musa Anter, another intellectual who was also killed, and pointed to the links between the Turkish Hezbollah, the counter-guerrilla, Iran and the Kurdish issue. Shortly before his death, he was working on a book investigating the links between the PKK and the MIT. The reason for his murder, which has never been solved or clarified, was obvious. He lost his life in his quest to expose the collaboration between those who had kept this country in darkness since 12 September.
Following his death, the names of many different organisations were mentioned, from Iranian Hezbollah to Turkish Hezbollah and counter-guerrilla forces. However, the organisation responsible for the murder and its motive were never fully revealed. The prosecutor at the time told Uğur Mumcu's wife, Güldal Mumcu, ‘Mrs. Mumcu, don't pursue this. They said it was a matter of honour, but to this day, no member of the government has asked me what the case file says. The state did this. If the political authorities wish, they can solve it,' he said.
Güldal Mumcu also said to Mehmet Ağar, the interior minister at the time, ’We are constantly being faced with obstacles. It's as if a wall is being built. Then pull out a brick and the wall will collapse,' to which Ağar replied, “I can't, I won't.” When Güldal Mumcu said, “Then others will pull the bricks out and you will be trapped underneath,” he replied, “No one has the power to do that.” Today, the wall that was built has grown into a palace.
Ağar resigned three years after the murder in connection with the Susurluk incident. In 1998, Ağar's trial before the Supreme Court was prevented by a majority vote in a parliamentary committee.
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HRANT DİNK: MURDER COMMITTED BY ALLIES
Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of Agos newspaper, writer for BirGün, and Armenian writer who dedicated his life to the struggle for peace, was shot and killed in front of the Agos building on 19 January 2007. The police officers who arrested his killer, Ogün Samast, posed for photos with him holding a Turkish flag. In an article he wrote just a few days before his murder, Dink had stated that he was being targeted and that he was expecting an attack. The AKP-Fethullahçı-Ülkücü alliance of the time murdered an intellectual who had spent his entire life fighting for peace between the Turkish and Armenian peoples in this country, through a counter-guerrilla organisation.
Hrant Dink had started publishing the Agos newspaper in both Turkish and Armenian in 1996 with the slogan, ‘The Armenian community lives in isolation; if we explain ourselves well, prejudices will be broken.’ For 24 April 1915, a date that nationalists in both countries never let slip from their agenda as a means of stoking social hostility, he had declared:
‘I will go to Paris and stand on a stone in the Place de la Concorde and shout, ‘No genocide was committed against Armenians in Anatolia in 1915.’ The French state will grab me by the arm and drag me away. Then I will return to Ankara, climb onto a stone in Güven Park and shout, ‘In 1915, genocide was committed against Armenians in Anatolia.’ The Turkish state will grab me by the other arm and drag me away. They may tear me to pieces. But I will not refrain from saying what I believe to be true,’ he said.
He was an intellectual who paid the price for being both Armenian and leftist, and for loving this country, yet never abandoned his beliefs.
‘For example, in 1986, when I went to the 12th Infantry Regiment in Denizli for short-term military service (eight months), after the oath-taking ceremony, all my peers were given the rank of corporal, but they singled me out and left me as a private. I was a married man with two children; perhaps I shouldn't have cared. Besides, it even provided a kind of comfort. I wouldn't be assigned guard duty or more challenging tasks. But this discrimination really hurt. I can't forget how I cried alone for two hours behind the tin shack while everyone else was celebrating with their families after the ceremony.’
Before his murder, the lawsuits against him for ‘insulting Turkishness’ and the subsequent threatening letters and phone calls had increased. In 2004, he was prosecuted for insulting Turkishness due to a series of articles he wrote in the Agos newspaper, but an experts' report found no evidence of a crime. However, the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the acquittal, and the threats against Dink intensified rapidly.
Dink's murder was also a summary of the transformation in the counter-guerrilla organisation at the time. In the following months of the same year, the Ergenekon-Balyoz operations were carried out by the AKP and Fethullah-affiliated judiciary, and these trials accelerated the change of personnel in the judiciary, the army, the security forces and the deep state.
Yasin Hayal, who gave instructions to Ogün Samast, the man who killed Dink, had been convicted of a 2004 armed attack in Trabzon. Erhan Tuncel, who planned the murder with Yasin Hayal, had previously worked as an intelligence informant for the Trabzon Police Department. Tuncel claimed that he had informed the Trabzon Police Department of Hayal's murder plan in advance. After the murder, the AKP claimed that the events were part of the Ergenekon process, reflecting the ‘spirit of the times.’ However, during this period, many high-ranking officials in the Trabzon and Istanbul police departments became ‘sacrifices’ in the power struggle between the AKP and the Fethullahists in the years that followed, and the cases against them for not sharing information about the murder were merged with FETÖ cases.
Indeed, the AKP sought to make the Dink murder part of its own political agenda, first by linking it to Ergenekon and then to FETÖ. However, as the past 18 years have shown, the murder was a joint operation carried out by the Fethullahists, who were directly involved in the AKP's cadre formation at the time, along with senior figures in the security forces from the so-called ‘ultranationalist counter-guerrilla’ that was supposedly purged, as well as all the old and new deep state actors and the ruling power of the era.
Note: This text has been translated from the original Turkish version titled Hatırlatmalar | Geçmişten bugüne: İktidarın çıkmazı saldırı siyaseti, published in BirGün newspaper on May 11, 2025.
