| Workers' Party İşçi Partisi |
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|---|---|
| Leader | Doğu Perinçek |
| Founded | July 10, 1992 |
| Headquarters | Toros Sokak No: 9 Sıhhiye, Ankara, Turkey |
| Ideology | Socialism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| International affiliation | CILERCO Los Partidos Y Una Nueva Sociedad |
| European affiliation | None |
| Official colours | Red, white |
| Website | |
| http://www.ip.org.tr, http://inter.ip.org.tr/ (for English pages) | |
| Politics of Turkey Political parties Elections |
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Workers' Party (Turkish: İşçi Partisi) is political party in Turkey led by Doğu Perinçek. İP has its roots in the Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey (TİİKP), Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey (TİKP) and Socialist Party (Turkey). They are known as "Aydınlıkçılar" (Enlighteners) due to their periodical "Aydınlık" (Enlightenment).
The İP traditionally combined Maoist rhetoric with a hardline Kemalism. Although they accept scientific socialism as their main ideology, they have a more nationalistic ideology than other left-wing parties in Turkey. Their revolution strategy is based on "National Democratic Revolution", which is close to Mao Zedong's "New Democratic Revolution". İP supports Stalin's "socialism in one country" thesis, rather than Mirsäyet Soltanğäliev's "national communism" thesis. Such that, Mehmet Bedri Gültekin, deputy chairman of the party, wrote a book on Soltanğäliev's counter-revolutionary role.[1] They admire the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (who is considered a "left-wing bourgois democratic revolutionary" by most of the party members) as much as they admire Marxist revolutionary leaders such as Lenin, Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro. They also defend Turkish interests in issues concerning Cyprus, Greece or Armenia. They also promote alliances with nations they believe have anti-imperialist tendencies - (such as Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba) - or oppose the existence of American expansionism - (such as India, China and Russia).
İP states that a brotherhood based solution to the Kurdish question must exclude imperialist initiative in the Middle East. They claim that the Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) has been completely under the control of the USA since the Gulf War. İP asserts that it is still possible to unite Turkish and Kurdish people in Turkey within the borders of an anti-imperialist nation-state which will be established through a democratic revolution. According to them, separatism became a tool of US imperialism in breaking national markets in the Third World in post-Cold War conditions. Although they traverse separation, they also defend democratic rights and freedoms of Kurds in Turkey. For İP, the key tool to solve the Kurdish problem is to demolish "feudal structures" in Kurdish provinces and make peasants "free citizens".
The youth student wing of İP is known as Öncü Gençlik (Vanguard Youth (Turkey)). The youth workingmen wing of İP is known as Emekçi Gençlik (Labourer Youth). The women wing of İP is known as Öncü Kadin (Vanguard Women).
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