An interview with the Editor in Chief of New Solution magazine, about the fascism in Turkey and the current regime

Dear readers, we bring to your attention an interview with the editor in chief of our online magazine, which he gave to the French communist magazine Supernova. The interview was published in the latest 6th issue of the magazine, which came out at the beginning of this month, and is focused on the subject of fascism, its different form , and the struggle against fascism. The magazine is available for free download and reading in French language on this address. Those who are interested can visit the magazine’s website, where other issues of the publication are also available. Once again we would like to thank the comrades for publishing the interview.

Last but not least, we would like to make an important clarification. The views and perspectives expressed in this interview represent the personal opinion of the editor in chief and may not fully or partially correspond with the stances of People’s Front-Turkey regarding these topics. Our magazine has no organizational affiliation with the movement. Since its launch in March 2017, the purpose of the online magazine is solely to provide a source of information in different language about the past and present of the revolutionary movement and the struggle for independence, democracy and socialism in Turkey.

Supernova: 1) How do you define the Erdogan regime, what are the differences between the current Erdogan government and the military dictatorship in Turkey?

New Solution: In countries like Turkey, which have been turned into neo-colonial and dependent states of imperialism, fascism exists in two main forms: covert and open. Covert fascism is the usual form of existence of fascism in this kind of countries, the repressive apparatus functions in full or almost full, but does not exercise massive and widespread repression. There are also conditionally democratic institutions such as a parliament, civilian government, judiciary and formal separation of powers. There is a functioning system of bourgeois parties and even a “left” that acts as a controlled “radical opposition” to the government from nominally leftist positions. The repression is directed primarily against the communists and those elements of the left / if there are any, of course / who have not yet lost their resistive mechanisms and adhere to one degree or another to the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism. The repressions can also be directed at certain bourgeois circles which are to one degree or another in opposition to the ruling faction of the bourgeoisie in a given country.

Open fascism, on the other hand, is used by the dominant classes when they lose control of the situation in the country, i.e. in those periods when class contradictions are exacerbated to the point where the existence of these classes and the continuation of the capitalist system in the country is threatened. The repression is carried out universally, unscrupulously and with particular cruelty against all sections of society, and to some extent against the bourgeois opposition and the controlled left.

The fascist military junta that came to power after the coup of 12 September 1980 must be seen as a temporary measure to implement open fascism, just as the junta that came to power after the coup of 12 March 1971 was. The two military juntas aimed to destroy the revolutionary struggle in the country. While the one of 1971 partially succeeded in this task by physically eliminating the first generation of revolutionaries who had become the vanguard of the struggle for socialism, the junta of 1980 had much more lasting consequences in all spheres of life. This is also determined by the fact that in 1980 the American imperialists prepared a much more extensive and complete program to restructure the entire state apparatus of Turkey. This junta completed the process of institutionalization of fascism in the country that had begun in the 1950s and continued intermittently over the following decades.

Today’s Erdogan regime and the overall structure of state power in Turkey can be characterised as a kind of mixture between covert and open fascism. Although Erdogan is the sole president, those behind him are a coalition whose participants are far from being only the formal political parties that support his rule.

Since he came to power, Erdogan and his party have created their own new oligarchy and rings of companies and businesses which, over the years, have become mega-structures concentrating ever greater flows of capital, gradually acquiring enormous wealth on the back of the labour, blood and suffering of the millions of workers in Turkey.

Today there is a functioning system of different parties in Turkey, including those that claim to be left-wing and even communist. But the truth is that none of these parties is guided by the interests of the people and does not represent the popular masses. All of them have the task of deluding the popular masses into believing that it is possible to change the present capitalist system by parliamentary and peaceful means. Moreover, the bourgeois parties also have the task of carrying out the orders of the oligarchic circles behind them.

The parliament in today’s Turkey is just a rubber stamp and a place for formal debates on laws and various regulations that are passed by the government anyway. These laws are the embodiment of the desires of the imperialists and the oligarchy that serves them, and they aim to legitimise the crimes against the peoples of Turkey and the region that have been committed or are about to be committed. That is to say, it is nothing but a façade and has no real influence on the political processes in the country.

The judiciary – the court and the prosecutor’s office in the country today are literally like a notary’s desk. The judiciary has become a repressive body used to destroy – mentally, physically and morally anyone who opposes the government. The trials and decisions taken are entirely politically motivated and have no legal value.

Yes, there are different kinds of elections and referendums in Turkey today, but they serve mostly to legitimise the existing system and to neutralise the energy for change of the popular masses. It is no coincidence that last year Erdogan scheduled the presidential and parliamentary elections a month earlier than they had been scheduled. After the devastating earthquakes that affected millions of people, everyone in Turkey expected there to be a major revolt or uprising through which the popular masses would unleash their anger against the regime in the streets and squares of the country. Unfortunately, this did not happen, because almost immediately after these events, the election campaign began, which gave the popular masses the illusion that this time it was really possible to remove Erdogan from power through elections. But clearly the bourgeois opposition failed to prove to the oligarchy and the imperialists that it would be able to continue to maintain the system as Erdogan and the forces behind him had done. In the end, the energy for change of the popular masses was diluted at the ballot boxes, and the bourgeois parties fulfilled their task of being an instrument to deter the struggle for social justice and democratic rights.

To sum up this first part of the interview in a nutshell. The fascist junta is a temporary measure applied only in extreme situations, and Erdogan’s dictatorship is Turkey’s permanent form of government, which is a direct consequence of the reforms carried out by the same junta. Erdogan’s rule, although one-man and authoritarian, is in fact the rule of a broad coalition of reactionary bourgeois circles, which are in an alliance that is based entirely on their business interests and their quest for profit. Erdogan’s party is a tool in the hands of the imperialists to push through their policies in Turkey and neighbouring regions. And for the oligarchy in Turkey, and in particular for those of its representatives who have accumulated most of their capital since he came to power, this party is an instrument for the unscrupulous plundering of the labour and resources of the popular masses.

Erdogan is forced to be in alliance with various oligarchic circles and Islamist sects in order to remain in power. In the beginning, his main ally was Fethullah Gülen’s movement, but over the years, the conflicts over the distribution of the portions in power between them have grown and a rift in their relations has occurred. After the conflict escalated in the summer of 2016, Gulen’s supporters were largely neutralized, and a section of them accepted to cooperate fully with the government renouncing their ties with Gulen. It was not long before the Gülen movement’s place was taken by other sects. Some of the oligarchic circles that dared to criticise Erdogan or disobey the authorities to one degree or another were neutralised and their wealth redistributed.

New Solution: Formally the Justice and Development Party led by Erdogan is structured like all other bourgeois parties, along with the main party cadres there is a women’s and youth organisations. Its structures have spread to all corners of the country, from the big cities to the villages. The party structures, which have been built up at all levels of the state, have in the last 15 years, step by step, practically merged completely with the state apparatus. The evidence for this is abundant if one looks a little, for example, at the conduct of elections in the country or the selection and appointment of civil servants.

But in addition to its party structures, the ruling party also relies on a network of various Islamist NGOs and religious sects. Some of these NGOs claim to be involved in charity work and the delivery of humanitarian aid, including abroad: in countries such as Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Libya. Within the country, these organisations, which claim they do not have any connections with the government, play the role of recruitment centres for the party, forming reactionary-fascist groups of various sizes to operate in a given locality. The emphasis of their activity is work among the youth from poorer and conservative families, the ultimate aim of course being to keep these youth in reactionary – bourgeois and fascist circles, and to prevent their possible contact with representatives of the left movement. No matter how weakened the positions of the communists are, compared to previous historical periods, the left, although difficult, still manages to reach young people from such families and they join the struggle for socialism.

It should also be noted here that these organisations are not only active in Turkey, the Middle East and Africa. Over the last 15 years or so, they have also been working among Turkish-speaking and Muslim communities in the Balkans, Western Europe and Central Asia. Among them, Turkey uses, in addition to its institutions such as the Ministry of Religious Affairs / Diyanet /, the Cooperation and Coordination Agency / TİKA /, the Agency for Turks Abroad and the Related Communities / YTB /. Of course, not all countries look with a good eye on another country’s institutions operating on its territory, and among foreign nationals in particular. It is in such countries that these NGOs directly linked to and funded by Erdogan’s party are a very handy tool for so-called soft power. Last but not least, these organisations are also good laundries for the dirty and bloody money of the ruling party leaders, their own rings of companies and all the persons associated with them.

Religious sects in turn are a tool in the hands of the government to keep significant sections of the population, especially in rural areas of the country and small towns, trapped in religious delusions and other similar reactionary ideas. They have been used by almost all governments in Turkey since the 1950s, including the military juntas that have claimed to defend the secular character of the state. In recent years especially after 2017-2018, their influence has again started to grow tremendously. People who in one form or another have fallen under the influence of these religious sects are literally doomed to live in the darkness of the Middle Ages. The treatment of all the rank and file members of these sects by the higher clergy was extremely similar to the feudal relations of the dawn of the Ottoman Empire. These sects are also corporations of a sort, and have considerable capital, both such as is bestowed upon them by the state and that acquired with the money collected from the rank and file members of the sect.

We should also mention the more important formal coalition partners of Erdogan’s party.

In first place is the MHP – the Nationalist Movement Party. This is the oldest openly fascist party in Turkey. In the 1960s and 1970s its main task was to fight against the communist movement and commit other crimes such as ethnic cleansing, carrying out various nationalist and anti-communist provocations. After the fascist military coup of 1980, the MHP had 3 main tasks: its cadres began to set up mafia organizations engaged in drug trafficking in the country and abroad, as well as all kinds of other dirty activities including solicitation of prostitution. From the late 1980s, of course, it began again to engage in terror against the communists and the popular masses. Last but not least, of course, the MHP continues to this day to play the role of a major source of fascist cadres, both for the repressive apparatus and for all other structures of the state.

HÜDAPAR – Free Cause Party. Also known as Hizbul – Kontra, is a party that was formally founded in 2012, but has its origins in the so-called Hizbullah – Turkey or Kurdish Hizbullah / Party of God /. This Islamist organisation has gained notoriety in Turkey for its brutal murders targeting people it considers ‘infidels’ and ‘carriers of depravity’. Its activities are concentrated mainly in the predominantly Kurdish regions of eastern Turkey. Hizbul-Contra has carried out numerous assassinations of figures of the Kurdish national movement and civilians associated with it in these regions. Opposition publications in Turkey in the 1990s published articles claiming that members of the organisation were trained by Turkish police, intelligence agents and other repressive structures of the state. Although HÜDAPAR officially denies that it has links with Hezbollah or is its legal political wing, it is no secret to anyone in Turkey that this is simply demagogy and that HÜDAPAR is a propagator of reactionary Islamist ideas among the Kurdish people and an instrument of the state to counter the struggle for the national and social liberation of the Kurdish people.

Renewed Welfare Party – Yeniden Refah Partisi. This is the party from which Erdogan’s active political career began and with which he rose to the top of politics in Turkey after being elected mayor of Istanbul in 1994. This party was founded and led for many years by Necmettin Erbakan, who for decades was the face of political Islamism in Turkey. Today the party is headed by his son, Fatih Erbakan. He is a good continuator of his father’s work and, like him, he has been able to skillfully spread the reactionary, obscurantist and misanthropic ideas of political Islamism that carry the darkness of the Middle Ages.

There are some other smaller parties that are formally part of the coalition or support Erdogan’s party without being part of it, but generally have no influence on the political processes.

Last but not least, at the risk of repeating myself, I would like to stress that Erdogan’s party is a political conglomerate, an alliance between different oligarchic circles that are united by their economic interests and the desire to make profits at the expense of the blood and tears of the millions of workers in Turkey and its neighbouring geographical regions. However, this alliance is inherently unstable and woven by many contradictions. This is why there are almost constant struggles for power and domination going on behind the scenes. A direct expression of this is all the events that are presented in the media as ‘the fight against corruption’, ‘the fight against organised crime’ and similar demagogic headlines. It was these contradictions that led to the attempted military coup in the summer of 2016. They continue to this day, although Gulen’s supporters have been largely neutralized, their place was taken by other reactionary bourgeois groups and circles, which I tried to describe above.

The social base that Erdogan’s party represents is in fact the big monopolistic bourgeoisie in Turkey. Yes, he also has the support of a large section of the poor, but this support is conditioned by degeneration and decades of spreading reactionary bourgeois ideas in society. As I have already noted, political Islam has a long history in the country, it has always had the support of mostly the poor, part of the petty bourgeoisie, rural population, parts of the middle bourgeoisie, over time evolving and having access to sources of capital, and especially the support of the state part of the middle bourgeoisie supporting the Islamists has accumulated quite serious wealth and increased its influence. And the power of economic influence is directly proportional to the links with political parties. After coming to power, of course Erdogan did not forget this support as he still rewards most of these “Islamic capitalists” to this day. Alongside them, he has created his own new bourgeoisie, which is completely loyal to him, oligarchic groups such as Cengiz Holding, Kolin Holding, Limak Holding, Kalyon Holding and Makyol Grup, which, although were established long before Erdogan came to power, accumulated their wealth during his rule. They are the most prominent representatives of this new bourgeoisie.

The support of the poor classes, the segments of the petty and middle bourgeoisie, for Erdogan’s power can also be explained to some extent by their view that he protects them from all sorts of “dangers and “enemies”, that he is the embodiment of the image of the ” state-father” in Turkish “Devlet Baba” who takes care of them and gives them their bread. This is why during every election campaign, and in all the periods of crises that have been witnessed to date, during Erdogan’s rule, he directed the anger of his supporters towards certain ‘enemies’ and ‘targets’, which were often collective. If you have watched his public speeches, he is very good at this. Thus, over the years, he was able to mobilize electoral support. Because of the lack of a real alternative to power and the weakened position of the communist movement, despite the massive impoverishment, unemployment and galloping inflation of the last few years, he has largely retained the support of a section of the popular masses.

Supernova: 3) Turkey in recent years has played an increasing role in international scenario. Is it correct to speak of Turkey as an imperialist country? Currently, Turkey wants to be the needle of the scales in major conflicts (mediation with Russia over the war in Ukraine) by demanding more punishment against political exiles in Europe in return. It wants to be a hegemonic force in the Middle East. Are we facing a new ‘Ottoman’ policy?

New Solution: In the last few years, the topic of what kind of country Turkey is has been discussed more frequently among leftist circles, both inside and outside Turkey. Some of these circles argue that it is an imperialist country, others that it is an “alt-imperialist country”, by which they mean that there are several types of imperialists, in this case Turkey belongs to a kind of “second echelon” or second category of “imperialist” countries. There are also quite a few supporters of the thesis that Turkey is a semi-periphery country.

Under this concept, the countries of the world are divided into 3 types: centre / Western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand /, semi-periphery: Turkey, India, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, China, Russia, Poland /, and periphery / Balkans, Eastern Europe, Africa, Oceania, most of Asia and South America /. According to this theory, Turkey occupies an intermediate position between the imperialist countries of the centre and the countries of the periphery of capitalism. That is, the development of capitalism in Turkey is at such a stage that it is no longer so dependent on the countries of the centre and can develop more independently than before and develop its own interests.

The claim that Turkey is pursuing a neo-Ottomanist foreign policy also overlaps to some extent with the above reasoning that the country’s status in the system of international relations has changed.

To some extent the semi-periphery thesis has a connection with reality, but on the other hand its proponents forget something very important. The bourgeoisie in Turkey does not have a “national” character, i.e. it did not develop thanks to the internal dynamics of the development of capitalism in the country. The bourgeoisie in Turkey began its real development after the end of the Second World War thanks to the links it developed mainly with the US imperialists. For decades, foreign capital: US, German, French, Canadian, British, etc. has been dominating all sectors of the economy.

It is not possible for the imperialists to constantly use their own armies in regional conflicts and to occupy other countries. It is costly, politically risky, and in practice in many cases impossible. Under the Nixon Doctrine, developed by the US in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, it began to develop the thesis of using certain regional states of strategic importance as gendarmes for its military and political interventions. The United States had done this in previous periods as well, but it was not until the 1960s that it shaped this into a doctrine. Countries that can be called gendarmes are named by the Americans with the terms pivot and pillar. For the US, Turkey is one of the pillar countries. The armies, as well as the entire state apparatus of such countries, are structured by imperialism taking into account two main functions:

1- The army is prepared to wage civil war, its primary task is to defend the imperialists’ investment and market in the country, against all the workers;

2- To act as a gendarme in regional conflicts, military and political interventions to be undertaken in the future;

Without economic independence, there can be no political independence. In this line of thought, the fascist oligarchy in Turkey, although to a certain extent, has its own interests in the neighboring regions and beyond, but these interests overlap completely with the interests of the US imperialists and the other Western imperialist countries. So, all these diplomatic moves and all the foreign policy activities of the regime in Turkey and its affiliated organizations ultimately serve the interests and goals of the imperialists of the US and Western Europe. And the demagoguery about the “revival of the Ottoman Empire” is more for domestic political consumption rather than a real strategy for “making Turkey Great Again”.

Supernova: 4) Political Islamism takes different forms, and presents itself in many cases as a liberation and anti-imperialist force. However, the role it plays in Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc. is directly reactionary towards the popular masses. What do you think is the approach that the revolutionary left should take.

New Solution: My view on this is that the representatives of political Islam, because of their class character, cannot be consistent anti-imperialists. Islamists have a relatively progressive character only when they direct their struggle against imperialism. But as has been evident over the years they are quite susceptible to being directed by imperialist states against the peoples and organisations that are fighting for social and national liberation from the oppression of imperialism. Apart from this, the Islamists take their political positions according to the international conjuncture. Essentially, they are the bearers of a political line that can easily come to compromise and reconciliation with US and European imperialists and their lackeys.

However, as long as Islamist organisations oppose imperialism, the revolutionary left can support them without running counter to its own principles. Support for this type of organisation specifically, is determined by the fact that the principal contradiction in our world is between the imperialists and the peoples of the world. The fact is that the Islamist organisations have a reactionary ideology which can neither be an alternative to capitalism nor can it develop a democratic government of the popular masses. Nevertheless, the Islamist organisations which have in one way or another directed their struggle against the imperialists must be supported in these efforts, because weakening imperialism as a system and detaching countries and regions from its influence has more positive effects than leaving them under its control. And one more thing, if the Islamist organizations fighting against imperialism are left alone to the attacks of the imperialists, just because their ideology differs with the principles of Marxism-Leninism, it means giving a carte blanche for new and even greater attacks against all the peoples of the world.

Last but not least, I would like to stress that when we talk about Islamist organisations, we are not talking about the likes of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, or other similar organisations created, armed and trained by the imperialists. No alliances or support can be made with them, because they are enemies of the peoples.

Supernova: 5)In the media we saw huge government demonstrations in Turkey in favour of Palestine, yet it is the same government that attacks its own popular masses. The struggle of the Palestinian people and their organisations has demonstrated the importance of the anti-imperialist struggle. The forms of direct solidarity have been manifold and have mobilised thousands of people also in Europe and the USA. In some countries, groups of workers have directly boycotted production and distribution (port-sea workers). In different countries in the Middle East, there is a direct response against the US and Zionist imperialist forces (iraq et yemen). On what basis and how does the Turkish revolutionary left’s solidarity with the Palestinian struggle differ from Erdogan’s statements?

New Solution: The difference between the solidarity of the revolutionary left and Erdogan is diametrically opposed. Erdogan uses pro-Palestinian rhetoric for his political purposes to present himself as an anti-imperialist, and a promoter of peace, and as a kind of “leader” of the Muslims of the world. But the truth is that he has never severed his economic relationship with Israel. The Zionist occupiers import 65% of the oil they use, including for military needs, from Turkey. It is Azeri oil that is shipped through the pipeline – Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan, where there is a port with a terminal through which it is loaded onto ships. Again, 65% of the steel that Israel uses is imported from Turkey. Israel imports 95% of the cement it uses from Turkey. On average 8 ships per day depart from ports in Turkey, they are loaded with various products and goods used by the troops of the Zionist occupiers.

At the same time, the revolutionary left and the left movement in general in Turkey has a long history of solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people. From hanging posters and banners, to graffiti, to peaceful marches and demonstrations in the streets and squares, to armed actions, the left in Turkey has a long tradition of active solidarity and support for the liberation of Palestine. As early as the late 1960s, communists from Turkey, and in particular those from the group formed by Deniz Gezmiş and his comrades, who later founded THKO – the People’s Liberation Army of Turkey, went to Palestine where, in the camps of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, they underwent military training which they used in their revolutionary activities after their returned to Turkey. In 1971, Mahir Çayan and his comrades from the THKP-C, the People’s Liberation Party-Front of Turkey, kidnapped and assassinated the then Consul General of Israel in Istanbul, thus expressing their strong protest against the Zionist occupation of Palestine. In the following years, and especially after the fascist military junta came to power in 1980, many communists from Turkey found refuge in the camps of resistance in Palestine and Lebanon. Some of them died fighting the Zionist occupation forces.

Over the past 10 years, one emblematic example of the revolutionary left of Turkey’s solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people was the “human shield” initiative organized in 2014 by the People’s Front – Turkey. Helin Bölek, the musician from Grup Yorum who died during a hunger strike against the government’s repressions in 2020, took part in it then. Although the members of the People’s Front were unable to reach the final destination of their tour in the Middle East due to Egypt’s refusal to let them enter the Palestinian territory, they showed their determination to continue their solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Zionist occupier.

Alongside this initiative, the revolutionary left in Turkey has carried out various protest actions over the past 10 years, some larger, others less so, directed against the aggression of the imperialists and Zionists against the Palestinian people. The most recent landmark example of this was a protest outside the offices of the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR in Istanbul, which went under the slogan “SOCAR stop being an accomplice to genocide!”. The left in Turkey from all segments, except perhaps only the various left-liberals, continues to steadfastly follow the course of supporting the struggle of the Palestinian people and denouncing the complicity of the fascist oligarchy ruling the country in this unprecedented act of open genocide by the imperialists and Zionists against Palestine.

Supernova: 6) The repressive mechanisms in Turkey, special prisons, police, etc. affect the revolutionary militants and the popular masses in struggle. What is the current situation of political prisoners in Turkey? Are there forms of paramilitary groups organised directly by Erdogan’s party to control and repress left-wing and anti-imperialist forces active in Turkey?

New Solution: Until about 1-2 years ago, political prisoners in Turkey were mainly imprisoned in F-type isolation prisons. This type of “high security” prisons were introduced in the country in 2000, after the largest military operation in Turkish history since the occupation of Northern Cyprus in 1974. During this operation against political prisoners, who were armed with nothing but their bodies and improvised tools such as kitchen utensils, they were brutally murdered and hundreds of others subjected to various forms of torture. After this massive attack, in which hundreds of revolutionary communists were imprisoned in one- and three-man cells in F-type prisons, which were often far from their places of residence, the oligarchy nevertheless failed to break their will, and its long-held dream of destroying the revolutionary struggle did not come true.

Yes, the revolutionaries were separated from each other by the high, thick and cold walls of the prisons, but somehow they still managed to communicate with each other and to overcome, if not completely, at least partially the effects of isolation on the mental and physical health of the human being. They were able to continue their resistance even in the face of almost complete isolation from the outside world; their organizational structures also were preserved, albeit in other forms. In short, they were able to adapt the revolutionary struggle to the new conditions in the prisons.

This, of course, did not please the oligarchy and its imperialist masters at all. There are quite a few cases of revolutionaries who, even after more than 10 years in isolation prisons of type F, despite the psychological, physical abuse and torture that became a daily occurrence, continued their struggle and even took part in armed actions against the fascist power after they were released. It was evident that isolation had failed to break them down and turn them into the type of people that the imperialist ideologues and Dr. Mengele’s successors had planned.

That is why they decided to create new types of isolation prisons in which the isolation is even stronger and its effects even stronger than in type F prisons. These new types of prisons are:

Type S : Their construction began in 2017. The cells are for 1 and 3 persons. The main distinguishing feature of this new type of prison is that the cells have 24-hour video surveillance. The existence of this camera, through which the living space of the prisoners is monitored and recorded, gives the feeling that they are constantly being watched.

Prisoners say that torture is frequent and no investigation is carried out in any form against the perpetrators. Furthermore, bans on sending and receiving letters continue to be systematically imposed.

According to information published in opposition media, these prisons are built specifically for people sentenced to life imprisonment under a restrictive regime. This is confirmed by satellite images of the prisons, whose courtyards are divided into extremely small and narrow cells.

Type Y:

The amount of time inmates are allowed to be on the yard is limited to one and a half hours per day. Prisoners are kept in permanent isolation from each other.

Bringing books, newspapers and magazines into the prisons has been almost stopped. The right to talk and meet between prisoners, which was won after the hunger strike from 2000 to 2007, is not enforced in any way. Moreover, there are no places in the architectural structure specially adapted for this purpose. Prisoners are not given radios and they are not sold in the canteen. Prisoners are required to clean the corridor where 6 individual cells are located.

In a letter to an opposition media outlet written in early 2023, a political prisoner held in a Y-type prison referred to himself as ” the man thrown at the bottom of the well.” The cell in which he was imprisoned has an area of 12 square meters, which has a bed, a toilet, a bathroom and a kitchen. The prison consists of 5 separate blocks – A, B, C, D, E. Each block is divided into 5 units – A1, A2, A3, A4, A5. These units have 3 floors, with 6 cells on each floor, i.e. there are 18 cells in each unit, and each block has 90 cells in total. In blocks A, B, C, D there are cells for 1 person only and in block F there are cells for 3 people.

Unlike Type F prisons, cells here do not have separate yards. In Type Y prisons, each unit has its own courtyard, which is separated from the others by high walls with no windows to the cells, with cameras placed at both ends of the courtyard to monitor the prisoner. The only window to the courtyard is for the guards to observe the prisoners.

Another “innovation” in these prisons is that the cell doors are almost entirely automated. There is a button on the outside of the cell door that the guard presses and signals to headquarters, then the guard there unlocks the door and the guard just opens it with the handle. There are also telephones set up that you can use to talk to the person in charge of the unit.

If the prisoner has “good behaviour” he may be allowed to be in the yard for an hour and a half, that is half an hour longer than standard. Again, if he has good behaviour he may be allowed to use the yard with prisoners from the same corridor where his cell is located. The criteria for what constitutes “good behaviour” are not specified in the internal rules for the new type of prison. This may be the only thing not specifically proscribed in the regulations.

According to lawyers of political prisoners held in this new type of prisons, they have not been subjected to torture so far, but the prison conditions themselves are much worse than those of Type F prisons. For example, they can hardly see the sky from the windows of their cells, sunlight barely reaches the inside of the cells even on the top floor of the prisons, and in those located on the first floor there is actually none and they are almost plunged into eternal darkness without access to the natural day light.

Type R:

These prisons were put into operation in 2016. These prisons were presented by the authorities as “rehabilitation centers”. This is the government’s “solution” to the problem of political prisoners who have chronic illnesses or various physical and mental disabilities. This is a very serious problem that has always existed, but it has been aggravated after the opening of the F-type prisons, and there have been numerous deaths of political prisoners suffering from various illnesses. Currently, there are over 1 600 political prisoners suffering from various illnesses caused by torture, poor prison conditions and other factors.

For years, organisations of prisoners’ relatives and human rights activists have been demanding the release of all sick prisoners. However, the fascist oligarchy has not complied with this demand; instead, it has introduced this new type of prison, which has become another form of concentration camp, as if out of a film telling of the Nazi period in Europe.

For now, there are a total of 3 R-type prisons – 1 in Istanbul / the former military prison Metris, opened shortly after the military junta came in power in 1980 /, 1 prison near the city of Elazığ, in eastern Turkey, and 1 prison near the city of Menemen, Izmir province, in the Aegean region of the country. Of these 3 prisons, the most famous is the one near Menemen. In recent years, articles can often be read in the opposition media about the extremely poor and degrading conditions under which prisoners are held in this place. In just 8 months in 2019, 14 prisoners have died, or to be more accurate, been killed in this prison. The deaths are a result of the poor conditions, the frequent exceeding of the housing capacity, the poor quality of the food, the lack of adequate or actually any real medical care, and the torture used against the prisoners.

The problem of these prisons and the problem of sick prisoners are interconnected. None of the prisoners suffering from chronic diseases or having physical and mental disabilities are released, even after repeated decisions by the Forensic Medicine Institute of the Turkish Ministry of Justice. In the rare cases when such prisoners are released, they are already in a very serious condition or in the final stages of their illnesses, and a lethal outcome is unfortunately inevitable. But this in no way disturbs the fascist oligarchy of course. Every year dozens of prisoners die either in these 3 prisons or in other isolation prisons around the country without being able to receive adequate medical care from qualified professionals.

Of course, political prisoners are resisting against these new isolation prisons and concentration camps. Several hunger strikes against them have taken place since last year, the most emblematic being those of the members of the People’s Front – Turkey, Nedim Öztürk, Hüseyin Karaoglan, and Nurettin Kaya.

Their hunger strikes, which lasted for months, had 2 main demands: the closure of S, R and Y type prisons, and the transfer of political prisoners from these prisons to F type prisons. The demands of Nedim Öztürk and Hüseyin Karaoglan to be transferred from a type S prison to a type F prison were accepted and they ended their hunger strikes last September / 138 days after the beginning / and in February this year / 143 days after the beginning / respectively. At the time of writing this interview, Nurettin Kaya has been continuing his hunger strike for over 150 days.

Bakıcan İşık and Sezgin Zengin have held a hunger strike for 100 days, until end of February 2024, in solidarity with their comrades and their demands for the closure of the new isolation prisons and an end to violations of the rights of political prisoners. At the end of February, a hunger strike against the new isolation prisons was announced by Cem Dursun and Oktay Kelebek, whose demands are identical to those of their comrades. Political prisoners of the People’s Front,

Along with the new types of isolation prisons, a frequent practice used by the fascist oligarchy against political prisoners, and especially against those of the People’s Front, is so-called internment. Prisoners are transferred from one prison to another that is hundreds of kilometres away from their hometown, and where there are no comrades from their organisation. Thus, their contact with their comrades and families is restricted to the maximum.

In recent years, attempts have also been made to introduce new armoured vehicles to transport prisoners who are isolated to a maximum. Until now, the vehicles have carried 2 or 3 prisoners, but the authorities are trying to impose the new type of vehicles, which again aim to completely isolate and prevent contact between political prisoners.

Finally, to conclude this part of the interview, there were a total of 30 555 people convicted of ‘terrorism’ and held in Turkish prisons as of 31 January 2021. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find more statistics on political prisoners. I hope this figure can give some information to your readers.

As for the gangs and the various paramilitary structures used by the government. The oligarchy in Turkey has always used various fascist and Islamist groups for this purpose. In addition to these, there have also been various mafia gangs. For a period of time in the new century, they were in the shadow of the repressive structures of power. But since 2014, fascist groups and mafia gangs have begun to be actively used again by the authorities against the left. The most emblematic examples of this were the attacks by nationalists on the Okmeydani neighbourhood after the death of Berkin Elvan in March 2014. In October of that year, Islamists attacked demonstrations by Kurds against Erdogan’s support for the so-called Islamic State and its attacks on Kurds in Syria and Iraq. This was followed by the 2015 bombings of events and rallies organised by the left – the attack in Suruc and the one in the square in front of Ankara’s train station. These were carried out by Islamists under the control of the repressive structures of the government.

Later, allegations emerged in opposition media that groups of Islamists and nationalists had been sent to areas of eastern Turkey where the Kurdish National Movement had declared autonomy. The fighting that began in the summer of 2015 had lasted almost until May 2016, with numerous Massacres targeting civilians as well as brutal executions of Kurdish fighters during the heavy battles. These crimes were committed by both the official repressive forces of the government and these gangs. Both on the night of the coup attempt itself in 2016 and in the first 10 days after it, gangs of Islamists and nationalist supporters of Erdogan armed by the police staged attacks on areas of Istanbul where the left has a strong influence. During these attacks, there were gun battles between leftist militias and members of these gangs.

After Fethullah Gulen’s supporters were eliminated from power, Erdogan began to restructure the repressive apparatus in order to fulfil one of the AKP’s wishes, namely to create its own armed groups loyal to the party.

For this purpose, a paramilitary organization under the name of the People’s Special Forces / Halk Özel Harekat / was established in 2018. At the same time, it was reported that the government had set up 7 camps to train its own illegal fascist assault brigades to be used in the event of a new wave of mass protests in the country or another large-scale event that would threaten the survival of the AKP government. Allegedly, one of these training camps is located near Istanbul. In 2022, information emerged about another organization under the name of the State Fedain of Turkey / Türkiye Devlet Fedaileri /.

Another similar structure is the so-called National Movement for the Survival of the State / Milli Beka Hareketi /, which, according to some sources, is linked to former Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.

After 2020, an organization under the name of the Brotherhood of White Youth / Ak Gençlik Ocakları / has also emerged, white here should not be understood as a race, Ak comes from the first 2 letters of the abbreviation of the ruling party.

To these “brotherhoods” belongs the organization Ottoman Brotherhoods / Osmanli Ocakları /, which emerged in 2013 and as of today has a wide network across the country.

One of the most interesting organisations, which is also believed to have its own paramilitary units linked to the government, is SADAT, which is a private company providing security consultancy, military training and education, as well as purchasing and supplying ammunition. Its founder is former Turkish army brigadier general Adnan Tanruverdi.

What all the above organisations have in common is that they regard President Recep Erdogan as their supreme commander. Perhaps the only exception to this is the private military company-PMC SADAT.

One thing is clear, in the event of a new wave of mass protests against the government or any similar event, the confrontation between the revolutionary left and the popular masses on the one side, and the official repressive forces and the semi-legal and illegal fascist groups of the oligarchy on the other, will be much larger than anything we have seen so far.

Supernova: 1) How do you define the Erdogan regime, what are the differences between the current Erdogan government and the military dictatorship in Turkey?

Supernova: 2) How Erdogan’s party is structured, what consensus it has and what social classes it refers to and expresses.

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