“We would not support Merkel against Hitler, we would aim socialism,” says Aydemir Güler, the independent communist candidate, regarding an analogy with Turkey's elections and the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Independent communist candidate Aydemir Güler from ‘This Social Order Must Change’ Platform attended a TV program on June 13 along with an MP candidate from pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and a spokesperson of a pro-HDP initiative.

As a comparison between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was under debate during the program with reference to Turkey’s upcoming elections and the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Güler said, “We would not support Merkel against Hitler, we would aim socialism.”

Güler from the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) and Musa Piroğlu from HDP party are parliamentary candidates in the same electoral district of İstanbul. As the TV speaker asked whether they are rivals, Güler said, “I do not know whether we are rivals, yet it is clear that we are different. While we are talking about changing the social order, these friends are talking about stopping the current trajectory.”

‘WE ARE TALKING ABOUT CHANGING THE SOCIAL ORDER’

Indicating to the political experiences of the past in Turkey, Güler reminded that the left-wing had called for supporting the Republican People’s Party (CHP) against nationalist governments in the 1970s and the oncoming military coup in 1980, adding that some people always had excuses to postpone the socialist alternative.

Piroğlu argued that they would not abandon the idea of socialism and revolution if they urgently struggled for stopping the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) because the government wants to institutionalize fascism with its current attacks through paramilitary forces against civilians.

“I agree with ‘urgency’,” Güler responded, adding that every second under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a disaster for Turkey. He underlined that postponing socialism in the name of urgent tasks and priorities became a traditional tendency, thus damaging the people and left-wing in Turkey. Güler argued that the country could get rid of the impact of the military coup of 1980 thanks to the great march of mine workers, not with the help of left or right wing pro-establishment parties or figures.

Suggesting that the people could also get rid of Erdoğan’s dictatorship at the time, Güler indicated to the June Resistance, the countrywide mass protests against the government in 2013. He said that if 10 to 15 million took to the streets actively and called for the government’s resignation, that government would fall down.

“The CHP assembled its parliamentary group in those days. Everyone expected the CHP to call on the government to resign, or rather, to withdraw the party from the parliament. The CHP called on the government to establish a dialogue. It rejected to represent the masses that demanded the government’s resignation,” Güler noted.

‘DEMİRTAŞ MADE A MISTAKE DURING GEZİ RESISTANCE’

Stating that he never made an analogy between the CHP and HDP parties, Güler expressed his solidarity with Selahattin Demirtaş, the unjustly jailed co-chair of the HDP party, adding that the pro-Kurdish party and its presidential candidate Demirtaş had also opted for a wrong inclination during the June resistance. He reminded the analysis of Demirtaş who had described the legitimate mass rallies as a basis for a “military coup” against the government.

Güler also criticized Sezai Temelli, the current co-chair of HDP, for having supported Erdoğan’s and his party’s referendum in 2010 with an infamous “not enough, but yes” campaign. He said that the lack of socialist alternative would lead the people to wrongdoings all the time.

“Of course, they are not equal,” Güler said about the analogy German Chancellor Merkel and Adolf Hitler. “But we would not support Merkel against Hitler. Instead, we would aim socialism while sending Hitler away. The Merkels were also present at that time, they produced democrats from the former Nazis in Western Germany,” he said, underlining that the social democrats had been the murderers of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the leaders of the German revolution.

Güler asked MP candidate Piroğlu whether they would provide ministers for any AKP cabinet, Piroğlu replied, “We would not.” The pro-Kurdish party had provided two ministers for the electoral cabinet of the AKP party after the June elections in 2015 when Erdoğan’s party had lost the parliamentary majority and imposed a snap election in November as it could consolidate its majority again.

As Güler criticised the HDP group’s recent visit to TÜSİAD, Turkey’s top capitalist organization, the pro-HDP participators abstained from making any comment on their party’s visit as the country is running up to the parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24.