The people are uniting against one-man rule for their own sovereignty
The Parliament, founded on 23 April 1920, has today been rendered meaningless under the one-man regime. The sovereignty of the people has been imprisoned behind the Palace gates. Yet, just as it was 105 years ago, sovereignty is once again in the hands of those who resist. The people have responded to the attacks of the one-man regime and the interventions against their right to vote and be elected by breaking through the barricades. Citizens, especially university and high school students, are expanding the struggle against the one-man rule for the sake of their future.
Politics Service
23 April National Sovereignty and Children’s Day also marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the National Assembly, one of the turning points of the liberation struggle initiated from Anatolia.
Over the past 105 years, instead of the institutionalisation and deepening of popular sovereignty, and the emergence of spaces beyond elections and ballot boxes in which it could assert itself, the opposite has happened especially after the 12 September coup and under the AKP government.
The country’s history of coups, military interventions, and right-wing governments backed by imperialist powers have all step by step paved the way for today’s Palace regime. In the process, popular sovereignty has been eroded.
A NEW PALACE STANDS AGAINST THE PEOPLE
In the last 20 years, even the most basic citizenship rights have been gradually stripped away. With the Presidential Government System imposed by the AKP in alliance with the MHP — despite the will of the people — the one-man regime took form. On the anniversary of the Assembly, which was founded 105 years ago against the Palace, the people today face yet another Palace now standing against them.
THE ASSEMBLY HAS BEEN EFFECTIVELY ABOLISHED
Sovereignty, once seized from monarchists and returned to the people, is now in the hands of a small minority residing in palaces. The Parliament has been stripped of its function and reduced to a rubber-stamp for the one-man rule. While the ruling bloc uses the Assembly as a shield for itself, all proposals from the opposition are rejected. One of the most recent examples of Parliament’s impotence was the censorship of the Constitutional Court ruling concerning the imprisoned Hatay MP Can Atalay, which had been read out in Parliament. What few rights and freedoms remained have especially been eradicated under the new regime.
AN ASSAULT ON CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS
As a result, the country has arrived at a place where, with the 19 March Palace Coup Attempt, even the right of the people to vote and be elected has been taken away. Conditions have been created in which the results of elections are no longer accepted. The appointment of trustees to municipalities elected by the people, the ongoing intimidation and repression of the opposition, and the arrest of İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on trumped-up charges mark the latest blow to popular sovereignty.
The Palace regime, aiming to reduce elections to mere ceremony, continues to implement its plans to establish a sultanate, with the AKP’s President Tayyip Erdoğan seeking to remain in power until death — but things have not gone as planned.
There have, of course, been popular acts of resistance throughout this process. But they were suppressed by various manoeuvres and external support. All instruments of state repression were mobilised to subdue the people. These efforts did not transform into organised and lasting gains. Yet every act of resistance contributed to an accumulating force that has brought us to today.
Against the mindset that seeks to confine sovereignty within Palace walls, workers shouting from strike tents, citizens defending their living spaces, retirees rebelling against poverty, youth resisting hopelessness and reactionism, women fighting for their right to live, they have all kept the people’s struggle alive.
JUST AS IT WAS 105 YEARS AGO
Now, after the 19 March Palace Coup that tipped the balance, all of these accumulated forces have begun to rise in unison against the one-man rule.
Following the arrest of İmamoğlu, tens of thousands of young people who gathered in Beyazıt Square at İstanbul University showed that the people could once again seize the reins.
As the youth broke through barricades, citizens took to the streets the same day, revealing that, just like 105 years ago, millions today stand against the Palace and the one-man regime in defence of popular sovereignty.
University students organising “academic boycotts” on campuses, millions in the streets and neighbourhoods chanting “All of us together or none of us,” and high schoolers launching actions in their schools all have now joined once again to raise the fight against those in the Palace. Through these newly revealed grounds of united struggle, the people are now voicing their demand for a democratic, equal, and free country in the face of one-man rule.
Source: Halk kendi egemenliği için tek adama karşı birleşiyor
