TKP / Türkiye Birleşik Komünist Partisi Archives

Period (1958-) 1967-1990
Total size   31.5 m.
Consultation Restricted
Permission required by the IISH and TüSTAV for the entire archive; inv.nos. 1-19, 42-49, 53-66 and 437-439 are closed
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History

Founded on 10 September 1920 in Baku, Azerbaijan; participated in the Turkish national liberation struggle of 1918-1922; its chairman Mustafa Suphi, general secretary Ethem Nejat and 13 of their comrades were murdered by the nationalists on the Black Sea on 28-29 January 1921; forced into illegality during most of its history and faced a large number of mass-detentions; attracted many Turkish intellectuals, among them the poet Nazim Hikmet; weakened by factional disputes over the policy of the COMINTERN and the position of the party towards the Kemalist Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP; Republican People's Party); in the 1950s its activities were mainly limited to those conducted from abroad; started Bizim Radyo (Our Radio) broadcasting from Budapest in 1958; revived in the early 1970s, adopting a new programme; started the radio station TKP'nin Sesi (Voice of the TKP) broadcasting from Leipzig; published the central committee organ Atilim from 1974; hundreds of its members were arrested after the military coup of 12 September 1980; held its 5th congress in October 1983 in Moscow; merged with the Türkiye Işçi Partisi (TIP; Workers Party of Turkey), under the name of Türkiye Birleşik Komünist Partisi, (TBKP; United Communist Party of Turkey) in 1987; upon their return to Turkey the general secretaries of both parties were immediately arrested and detained until 1990; in 1990 a group of founders of the TBKP applied for legal status of the party, but a decision of the Anayasa Mahkemesi (Constitutional Court) prohibited the TBKP in 1991.

Content

Agenda, minutes, delegate lists and other documents relating to the TBKP Yurtdişi Konferansi (Europe Conference) 1987-1990; documents relating to party conferences in various European countries 1987-1990; minutes and other documents relating to meetings of the Central Committee of the TBKP 1988-1989; circulars and letters by the central committee of the TKP and the TBKP 1987-1990; copies of Durum, information bulletin of the TKP (1969-1985); lists of members 1988-1990; letters of members and reports of local party organizations 1987-1990; public statements, correspondence and other documents relating to the return of the TBKP leaders to Turkey 1987-1990; documents relating to education, research and propaganda 1978-1990; manuscripts of daily broadcastings of the radio station TKP'nin Sesi 1967-1987; contributions to Bizim Radyo by Nazim Hikmet 1958-1962; documents relating to solidarity activities with the Devrimci Işçi Sendikalari Konfederasyonu (DISK; Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions), Bariş Derneği (Turkish Peace Committee) and other associations 1980-1989; texts of indictments, defences and other documents relating to lawsuits against the TKP, the TBKP, the Ilerici Gençler Derneği (IGD; Progressive Youth Association), the TIP and other organizations 1971-1990; reports, copies of periodicals and other documents on human rights violations, Kurds and other subjects 1971-1990; documents relating to political parties, organizations and groups 1970-1989; documents relating to Nazim Hikmet 1963-1988.

Processing information

List made by Erhan Tuskan in 1995

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Türkiye Komünist Partisi (TKP)

The Türkiye Komünist Partisi (Communist Party of Turkey) , one of the oldest political parties in Turkey, was founded on 10 September 1920, having its first congress in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Congress in Baku brought together three Turkish communist groups which carried out activities in Istanbul, Anatolia and abroad (especially among Turkish prisoners of war in Russia) in the years 1919 and 1920.
A group of Turkish Leftists, inspired by Spartakists, had already founded the Türkiye Işçi Çiftçi Firkasi (Workers and Farmers' Party) in Berlin. They published the paper Kurtuluş (Liberation). In September 1919, Şefik Hüsnü Degmer had joined this group and they founded the Türkiye Isçi Çiftçi Sosyalist Firkasi (Workers' and Farmers' Socialist Party) in Istanbul.
In Anatolia, within the nationalist resistence movement a left wing was active. In the spring of 1920, the Yesil Ordu (Green Army) was founded. To counter this movement, the nationalist leader Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) in October 1920 founded his 'own' communist party, which is known as 'resmi' (official) Türkiye Komünist Firkasi. But members of the left wing of the nationalist movement who did not recognize this party, founded the Türkiye Halk Iştirakiyun Firkasi (People's Communist Party) in December 1920. This party published Emek (Labour) as its organ.
Some of the leading members of the Halk Iştirakiyun Firkasi were actually at the same time members of the TKP. Another communist group had been organised in Russia, by the former journalist, teacher and 'Unionist' Mustafa Suphi. Mustafa Suphi had fled to Russia in 1914 where he became a communist. He started publishing Yeni Dünya (New World) in 1918. At the congress in Baku he was elected to the presidency of the TKP. At the same congress, Ethem Nejat was brought to the general secretariat.
On 28-29 January 1921, Mustafa Suphi, Ethem Nejat and 13 of their followers, who were forced to leave Turkey, were brutally killed at the Black Sea on their way back to Batum. They had come to Turkey from Baku, with the intention to take part in the national liberation struggle, and were heading for Ankara, but met with hostile provocative demonstrations in Kars and Erzurum.
The congress of the People's Communist Party, which was held in August 1922, is considered as the second congress of the TKP. Since the People's Communist Party had been officially recognized in December 1921 by the Ankara government, the congress started legally. But by the pressure of the government it was terminated illegally. Salih Hacioglu was elected general secretary of the party by the congress. One month later, in October 1922, the People's Communist Party was banned. More than 200 members and activists of the party were arrested.
In the same period Şefik Hüsnü's group in Istanbul continued its activities in a semi-legal way. They started publishing Aydinlik (Enlightenment) in June 1921. Due to critical voices at the fifth Comintern congress about Aydinlik's rather intellectual tone, in January 1925 a more worker-oriented journal, Orak-Çekiç (Sickle and Hammer) was published. In the same month the third congress of the TKP was held in Istanbul with the strong support of the COMINTERN. This congress appointed Şefik Hüsnü to the general secretariat. Şefik Hüsnü was elected general secretary again at the fourth congress, which was held in 1932. He also pioneered holding a party conference in Vienna in 1926.
Between the third and fourth congress the TKP was faced with three mass-detentions, first in 1925, then in 1927 and finally in 1929. In March 1925, with the enacting of the Takrir-i Sükun Kanunu (Law on the Maintenance of Order), all opposition currents, including the leftist ones, were forbidden. Since then the communist party has been prohibited in Turkey. The detentions in 1927 became possible by the information given to the police by Vedat Nedim Tör, who was opposed to the interventions of the Comintern. He supported the liquidation of the TKP in favour of the Kemalist Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP; Republican People's Party), the leading party at the time. In the period 1928-1938 the position of the TKP towards the Comintern, as well as towards the CHP, led to many struggles and conflicts within the party. As a result of these internal struggles Nazim Hikmet, the best-known poet of Turkey, was temporarily dismissed from the party in 1930. After the detentions in 1938 Nazim Hikmet was sentenced to 28 years of imprisonment. Another figure who was sentenced to prison in the same "so-called" navy trial was Dr. Hikmet Kivilcimli.
During the period 1927-1938 the TKP published a number of periodicals, such as: Kizil Istanbul (Red Istanbul; 1930-1935), Bolşevik (Bolshevik; 1927), Komünist (Communist; 1929) and Inkilap Yolu (Path of Revolution; 1930-1932, printed in Berlin).
During the Second World War the TKP carried out propaganda activities against the war and fascism in the following journals: Ses (Voice; 1939), Yeni Edebiyat (New Literature: 1940), Yurt ve Dünya (Homeland and World; 1941) and Adimlar (Steps; 1943). The party plenum in 1943 adopted a document entitled 'Struggle Front Against Fascism and Profiteering'.
In 1946, Turkey changed to a multi-party election system. In June of the same year Şefik Hüsnü founded a legal party called the Türkiye SosyalistEmekçi ve Köylü Partisi (Socialist Labourer and Peasants' Party of Turkey) . At the same time another group, led by Esat Adil Müstecaplioglu, also founded the Türkiye Sosyalist Partisi (Socialist Party of Turkey). Attempts to unite the two parties failed. Both parties were initially permitted to exist but were eventually banned in December 1946 with the arrest of 43 executives (including Şefik Hüsnü) and members of the TSEKP.
One of the results of the Cold War was a big mass-detention of TKP members in the years 1951 and 1952, launched by the Demokrat Parti government, which came to power in 1950. More than 184 people were brought to trial accused of being members of the TKP and 131 of them (including Zeki Baştimar, who became general secretary in 1962) were sentenced to imprisonment. The effect of this attack turned out to be fatal for the party's organization in Turkey in the 1950s and 1960s.
Between 1953 and 1973, the activities of the party were mainly limited to the activities conducted from abroad. In April 1958, Bizim Radyo (Our Radio) started broadcasting from abroad. The periodicals Yurdun Sesi (the Voice of Homeland) and Yeni Çag (New Age) appeared during that period, starting in 1963 and 1964 respectively.
The 1961 Constitution, which was introduced after the military takeover of 27 March 1960 enabled socialist parties to be legally founded. Thus in February 1961 the Türkiye Işçi Partisi (TIP; Workers Party of Turkey) was founded by a group of trade union leaders. Under the presidency of Mehmet AliAybar , a prominent Istanbul lawyer, the Workers Party managed to elect 15 members to the parliament, winning nearly 3 percent of the ballots in the 1965 general elections. As a result of the debate on the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Mehmet Ali Aybar, who condemned the invasion, resigned in November 1969. The sociologist Behice Boran, who didn't support Aybar's condemnation, succeeded Aybar as chairman of the TIP in October 1970. After the military coup of 12 March 1971 the Left was persecuted and the Workers Party was banned in July 1971.
The suppression of the Workers Party of Turkey and many New Left organizations in 1971-1973 gave an impetus to the activities of the TKP. It became an effective force once more in left politics of Turkey during the mid and late seventies. At a meeting in 1973 the Politburo of the TKP decided, along with some cadres from the 1968 youth movement, to a new attempt at a breakthrough in Turkey. As part of this decision a new programme and new statutes were drafted. Ismail Bilen became general secretary of the party; a Central Committee organ called Atilim was published in 1974, and the radio TKP'nin Sesi (the Voice of the TKP) started broadcasting from Leipzig (DDR). In 1977, the TKP held a conference in Moscow, its biggest organisational meeting since the 4th congress in 1932.
After the military coup on 12 September 1980 an extensive campaign of persecutions and arrests was launched against all democratic movements, including the TKP. The number of TKP members who were arrested or sentenced to prison on the basis of the Articles 141 and 142 of the Turkish Penal Code, amounted to thousands.
Despite these attacks the TKP held its 5th congress in October 1983 in Moscow. The congress approved a new programme and new statutes. It also elected Nabi Yagci (who is known in the party as Haydar Kutlu) general secretary, while Ismail Bilen became chairmman of the party.
At a press conference in Brussels on 7 October 1987, it was announced that the Communist Party of Turkey and the Workers Party of Turkey, reconstituted in 1974, were going to merge under the name of Türkiye Birleşik Komünist Partisi (TBKP; United Communist Party of Turkey). The general secretaries of both parties, Haydar Kutlu and Nihat Sargin, returned to Turkey on 16 November 1987 from their political exile in order to legally set up the United Communist Party of Turkey. However they were arrested immediately upon arrival and detained until April 1990. Therefore the founding congress of the TBKP in 1988 was held abroad. In January 1990, a group of founders applied for legal status of the TBKP, in spite of the fact that the Articles 141 and 142, and the Political Parties Code, both prohibit the Communist Party. In the same year, awaiting the decision of the Constitutional Court (Anayasa Mahkemesi), the legal congress of the TBKP was held in Ankara. The congress decided to merge with some of the other left parties and groups in a united party later called Sosyalist Birlik Partisi (Socialist Union Party). At the end of 1991, the Constitutional Court (Anayasa Mahkemesi) made a decision which in effect prohibited the TBKP.

The archives

The archives mainly consist of the records of the post-1960 TKP and those of the TBKP, the united party of the TKP and the TIP. These records were deposited in 1993 at the IISH for a period of twenty years. They have been arranged and will be micro-filmed under an agreement between IISH and TUSTAV (Türkiye Sosyal Tarih Araştirma Vakfi; Foundation for Research on the Social History of Turkey). TUSTAV, the owner of the archives, was founded on the basis of a decision taken by the legal congress of the TBKP and is the legal inheritor of the archives of the TKP and TBKP.
The records previously stored in Duisburg, Germany since 1990 were transferred to the IISH in 1993. The remaining portion of the archives, currently in Russia is expected to be transferred to Amsterdam in the near future. This material will also be arranged and catalogued. Eventually an inventory of the complete archives will be compiled.
The archives listed below account for the material from Duisburg only. The largest part of this archive is related to the TBKP, covering the 1980s. But it also contains documents of the TKP including the radio transcripts of the TKP'nin Sesi (the Voice of the TKP) which go back to the early seventies. Due to the forthcoming portion of the archives from Russia, the following list is preliminary and not exhaustive.
Documents of organizations such as Ilerici Gençler Dernegi (IGD; Association of Progressive Youth), Ilerici Kadinlar Dernegi (IKD; Association of Progressive Women), Avrupa Turkiyeli Toplumcular Federasyonu (ATTF; Federation of Turkish Socialist in Europe), which can be considered as front organizations of the TKP, are arranged in separate sections. The same can be said of some manuscripts of and other documents concerning the poet Nazim Hikmet.

L I S T