Turkey: July 12 is the strength, permanence and invincibility of the

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

Kurtulus No 89, July 11, 1998

July 12 is the strength, permanence and invincibility of the Front

The oligarchy strove with all its strength to ensure our
annihilation. But the Front could not be annihilated, it could not be
extinguished.

They could not destroy it. Our struggle continues. The development of
the Front goes on. 

We experienced July 12, then April 16 and 17 and the betrayal by the
putsch. But our decisiveness and our conviction were stronger than the
enemy's massacres. 

In the midst of the enemy's war of annihilation, we became a party. As
the DHKP-C, we have continued our march towards revolution. 

After July 12, we said, "For us there is no death."

"For us there is no death", because the Front is the hope for
liberation of all the peoples of Turkey. They could not kill hope.

"For us there is no death", because the Front is the people. They
could not kill the people.

"For us there is no death", because the Front is connected to the
people and the revolution, it is firm in its aim of taking power and
persistent in seeking revolution.

We did not die. We became hope itself. We are fighting. 

July 12, 1991 is a highly important and significant story, not just
from the viewpoint of the Party-Front, but from the viewpoint of the
class struggle in Turkey, the people and the entire left. While July
12 was being experienced, the left could not see this and did not want
to understand it. Only some of them could grasp this significance much
later, at least in part.

July 12 was a turning point which clearly showed that the war against
the people would be continued in an even more unscrupulous and
effective way. The policy was continued since that time without
changes, give or take a few minor adjustments to form and a few
deviations from its course. 

Neither the strength of the oligarchy's terror at this time, nor the
moves against Devrimci Sol were the consequences of transitory
policies. It was an error of the left to assume that this terror would
not be stepped up and was merely the result of a war between Devrimci
Sol and the oligarchy. 

This "observation" is a mixture of error and truth. Whoever thought
that the attacks are merely directed against Devrimci Sol, that
executions and disappearances would simply have Devrimci Sol as a
target were in error. Sooner or later all the opposition would be
targetted by this terror from the oligarchy.  But without a doubt
Devrimci Sol was the first target. The actual target of the policy of
annihilation was those who developed the liberation struggle of the
people. 

The oligarchy continued its policy persistently and still pursues
it. But it could not achieve its desired aim. It could not wipe out
the organisation physically nor create a second Kizildere (On March
30, 1972 at Kizildere in Turkey's Black Sea Region, the leading cadres
of the THKP-C, still a new organisation at the time, were killed in an
operation by the state. Devrimci Sol continued the tradition of the
THKP-C). Nevertheless, that was precisely the aim of the operations on
July 12, 1991 and the follow-up operations on April 16-17, 1992. But
from the organisational point of view the Party-Front had transcended
the state it was in at the time of Kizildere, had put down broader and
deeper roots and created traditions. The oligarchy could not make a
new dent in our struggle and our organisation.

The attacks against Devrimci Sol and the DHKP-C were of a kind made
against no other revolutionary movement in Turkey. These attacks were
so heavy that even sympathisers were targetted by the policy of
annihilation. This policy is still continuing with undiminished
intensity. The latest four people to disappear are a clear and most
recent example of that. Nevertheless, the stability of the struggle
has been maintained. This stability is produced by the ideological
strength of the Party-Front and the courage and decisiveness of its
fighters. 

Why is the oligarchy targetting us in particular?

If we look back, the reasons for the mission undertaken on July 12
become clearer.

All over the world, the 1990s have been marked by a wave of
counterrevolution and the bourgeoisie's shouts of triumph. Everything
was turned into its opposite. The counterrevolutions experienced in
the socialist countries, above all the Soviet Union, made
imperialism's greed develop at an exponential rate. This could be
perceived in imperialism's attacks on both the material and the
ideological plane. While the demagogy of "socialism is dead" was being
propagated, imperialism dreamed of creating a rose garden of the "New
World Order" and "globalisation" in which no thorns would mar its
pleasures. 

The way was clear for imperialism to wheel and deal to its heart's
content after the socialist system collapsed. US imperialism succeeded
in whipping into line anything that opposed its "New World Order".  To
secure its own interests, it engaged in various forms of intervention,
either military or covert. All its operations embarked on in the name
of peace and human rights ended in bloodshed and massacre. 

The influence of the winds of counterrevolution also affected many
countries and revolutionary organisations. While concepts like "armed
struggle" and "revolution" were pilloried, peacemongering, compromise
and the laying down of arms grew apace. Many organisations parted with
their arms and sat down at the "negotiating table" with imperialism
and its collaborators. "Solutions" began to be sought from
imperialism. On the other hand, in Turkey the struggle continued even
at the height of imperialism's ideological and material attacks, and
this struggle made use of guns and bullets.  Anger, oppression and
injustice all exploded in the face of the enemy. Those who said "We
will shake the world once again from Turkey" continued the struggle
for power. They flung down a challenge to imperialism and its
collaborators.

While imperialism was at its most triumphalist, we did not hesitate in
declaring our own upsurge and spreading the struggle. We laid claim to
revolution and the drive to take power. Wherever the imperialist
bandits made a move, we confronted them. In the days when everything
was collapsing and nobody could tell good from bad any more, we bound
ourselves more firmly to Marxism-Leninism and socialism. We were alone
but we based ourselves on no force other than our people. On the side
of the enemy, the spokesmen of the oligarchy like Özal (a prime
minister in Turkey following the military coup) lamented that "in
Turkey, the world is starting to collapse". This was the truth, for
when the world was upside down, we called for revolution, marched
along our independent road and when everybody talked of the death of
socialism we held its banner high. 

It was not the case at this point in our upsurge that we had
innumerable possibilities and mountains of weaponry. The power of our
upsurge came far more from belief in revolution, courage and a refusal
to be daunted, decisiveness, readiness to sacrifice oneself and  the
will to take power, and loyalty to socialism. Our upsurge was not a
matter of armed struggle before everything else. What gave our upsurge
its real content was our adherence to socialism and persistent
attachment to revolution. This made our blows to imperialism and our
claim that "we will shake the world once again from Turkey" into more
than mere words. In this claim there lay, on the one hand, the
continuation of the armed struggle with the aim of taking power, and
on the other hand the courage and self-sacrifice of the people's
liberation fighters. In this claim lay our martyrs who did not
hesitate to look death in the face. 

Our growing struggle, our actions aimed at implementing people's
justice caused fear among the enemy and stirred up great sympathy
among the masses of people. The oligarchy's spokesmen said, "Forget
about the East (ie. Kurdistan), watch out for Istanbul" and spoke of
the "problems in the East and Istanbul". 

In the upsurge period, while we were fighting toe to toe with the
oligarchy and punishing those who for years had been committing
crimes, we also took a position against the banditry and brutality of
imperialism. At a point when the world was silent and inactive against
the tonnes of bombs imperialism rained on the people of Iraq to
safeguard its own interests, we gave US imperialism an answer fired
from our own gun barrels. Many organisations of national and class
struggle orientation did nothing about imperialism's attacks. While
the left in our country developed theories about "a plague on both
their houses" and failed to take a serious position, we took our place
in the struggle alongside the peoples of the Middle East. We threw
down a challenge to imperialism. Those who fell on July 12 played an
active role in this. They showed both friend and foe that one cannot
be a revolutionary and cannot implement a revolution at all if one is
not fighting against imperialism. So we were constantly exposed to
blows from imperialism. To smash us and wipe us out, plans dreamt up
by the CIA and Pentagon were set in motion. Before Bush came to Turkey
after the Gulf War to collect the harvest won from the massacre of the
peoples of the Middle East, we experienced July 12. The struggle was
experienced in every aspect. On the one side was imperialism and the
oligarchy, and on the other side us...

All the overt and covert methods of the Susurluk state came out into
the open. Those who took no position at the time against the
executions saw the real intentions of the state only after Susurluk
happened. Already back then, Mehmet Agar stood at the head of the
operations and executions. But the left and the democratic circles
were very far from being able to understand this. They continued to
see the executions as only being a problem for Devrimci Sol and did
not see the Susurluk state for what it was. There were even those who
secretly applauded the executions. Because they did not want their own
status quo to be disturbed by the armed struggle. Years later they
were to talk of Susurluk and discover Agar, but at the time they said
nothing. Because at the time they all maintained a guilty
silence. Those who did not take sides later tried to ascribe a
positive role to Özal and the ANAP (Motherland Party) of Mesut
Yilmaz. Their names also appeared in the state's show of strength on
July 12, 1991. Those who try to present Özal as an angel no longer
remember anything - it is as if they were not in Turkey at the time. 

We know the Susurluk state since that time. We were at war with
it. Because we knew the enemy we were confronting, we neither
practiced a wrong policy nor caved in to the terror practiced by the
enemy. In a phase in which revolutionary values were starting to
degenerate, July 12 showed the conviction and willingness to die in
the name of the revolution and the organisation's ties to the
people. At a time when the cry was ringing out that "no ideology is
worth dying for", in Balmucu, Dikiltas, Nisantasi and Yeni Levent in
the heart of Istanbul the calls "Long live an independent Turkey",
"Long live socialism" and "Long live Devrimci Sol" were heard. On this
honourable page in the history of revolution was written the struggle
against imperialism, the refusal to surrender and the allegiance to
socialism and people's liberation. And July 12 was a battle cry
summoning all peoples to fight imperialism and its collaborators. The
events of July 12 were not only felt in our own land but influenced
the whole world. 

"We don't doubt that our struggle is one in which the struggles of the
oppressed peoples of the world against imperialism and its
collaborators have become a hearth for revolution, that each of our
comrades who waved the banner of Marxism-Leninism in this fight will
always be honoured in the memory of the oppressed peoples and the
proletariat... It is our mission, consciously or unconsciously, with
every bullet, slogan or thought to strengthen the hope for liberation
in the hearts of people living in misery in Africa, Asia, Latin
America and the Middle East. The fighters on July 12 acted with this
awareness, for this reason when they were surrounded, they did not
hesitate to challenge death and its bullets and bombs with
revolutionary slogans and marches, and they became immortal. While in
the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe the statues of Lenin and Stalin
were destroyed and the flags of socialism torn down, its institutions
destroyed and the gains it made erased one after the other, the
Marxist-Leninist conduct of the fighters on July 12 had the
significance of a revolutionary barricade erected against this wave of
treason..."

The high price we paid on July 12 neither lessened nor dulled our
desire and determination to fight. Our urge to fight for power has
only grown. With a tradition of dying but not surrendering, furthering
the development of our struggle, the rulers' fear has
continued. Despite all losses the struggle went forward without
interruption. The places of our martyrs on July 12 were not left
empty. Because we were successful in that, we were able to turn July
12 into a political victory because they did not surrender, held their
heads high and resisted, remaining loyal to the cause. 

Seven years have passed since then. Imperialism's triumph has
passed. The balloons of the "New World Order", "neoliberalism" and
"globalisation" burst rather quickly. The cries of victory have given
way to fear of "crisis" and "rebellions". On the other hand, in all
corners of the world growing liberation struggles of the peoples
cannot be extinguished despite rightist pressures, the founding of
"new left" parties and the laying down of weapons. Today, from the
Middle East to Latin America, from the Far East to Africa, wars of
liberation are going on. Imperialism sees itself confronted by what it
itself has called the "age of uprisings" in the 21st century. 

What has been shown to be true is the line of the Front. It is the
legends of the resistance wagd by fighters of the Front who wrote
dignified pages in the book of history.

>From then until today we go along our path with the traditions we have
created, embracing our strategy for struggle and also the weapon of
the Party. Imperialism and its collaborators who thought they could
annihilate us with massacres, can no longer conceal their fear. From
the beginning, the DHKP-C has been on the list of "dangerous
organisations" published every year by the USA. Before every July 12,
the USA issues a warning to its citizens in Turkey. Security measures
are stepped up, circulars sent round. Our particular revolutionary
claim to July 12 forces the USA and the oligarchy to take special
precautions. 

The inheritance passed on from July 12 shows us the way. Our claim to
"shake the world once again from Turkey" is continued with the
strength we derive from our ideology, our people and July 12. There
are many winds blowing over the world and our country, but not one has
diverted us from our path of seizing power. 

Once, after July 12, we promised that "the banner of socialism they
carried will be held even higher by those who take their places and
our struggle against imperialism and the oligarchy will be continued."
Today, as promised, we are continuing the struggle, with our feet on
the soil of our country, our eyes directed to the goal of power. Again
we are challenging imperialism and the oligarchy. Shaking the world
with our revolution, we are carrying the tradition of invincibility of
July 12 to victory. The struggle by the Front's fighters will shake
the peoples of the entire world, strengthen the hope for liberation of
the peoples and be a source of the coming dawn for them.

All the policies of annihilation and extermination of imperialism and
its collaborators are doomed to failure. No force, no obstacle will
stop the stream carrying our people's liberation fighters towards
revolution.           
             
-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan!
Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org                          
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