poverty and IMF-imposed austerity for themselves, and corruptly gained riches for the politicians.
For the left the only joy was that the DEHAP block, a tripartite alliance consisting of DEHAP ( the latest reincarnation of HADEP, the pro-Kurdish party), EMEK (one of the more important socialist formations in Turkey) and the SPa small party led by the very well-known and respected human rights activist Akin Birdal, gained 6.5% of the vote.
Their platform called for cancellation of all agreements with the IMF and the World Bank, an end to repayment of the debt, renationalisation of privatised industries, an end to attacks on working people, opposed the coming war in the Middle East; called. for the withdrawal of US and other imperialist forces from the region, and supported the idea that the Kurdish and Turkish peoples and other ethnic minorities, as well as people of all different religious beliefs, should live together on the basis of equality and fraternity, calling for the basis for this to be prepared, including by the finding of a democratic solution to the Kurdish question.
DEHAP's 6.5% was an increase on HADEP's vote last time round, and was not a bad result considering the conditions, although activists were of course initially disappointed that the 10% barrier was not some places the party organisations were new, and that more time was needed to win the trust of new layers of voters who are with reason wary of approaches made to them even by the left and the Kurdish movement.
Furthermore, DEHAP received no media coverage, did not have the same lavish funding as some of the other parties, and as usual considerable efforts were devoted by the powers that be to attempting to lower the Kurdish vote.
There was a fair amount of threats and intimidation by police, village guards etc, especially in the rural areas, and a big problem with mis-registration (incorrect addresses or names being recorded, resulting in people being unable to vote), thought to affect as much as 25 or 30% of the vote for DEHAP for example in the biggest Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
Without these problems DEHAP still might not have got through the 10% barrier, but obviously the more obstacles were put in the way of campaigning, the less time can have been devoted to actually winning new people. The fact that HADEP had to withdraw from standing itself because of the likelihood that it would be banned, thus meaning that DEHAP had to be got off the ground, both administratively and politically, quite quickly before the election did not help.
The ODP (Freedom and Solidarity Party, a regroupment of some parts of the far left did stand candidates but did not make a big
The primary effect of the victory of AK will be to give the IMF and those forces in Turkey which support it a breathing space to deal with the economic crisis, which is so bad now that probably some 30 million people in Turkey are hungry and desperate
AK (an acronym meaning "white, clean or unsullied", designed to lure voters who are tired of corrupt politicians) sold itself as proIslamic, but only moderately so, pro-EU entry (overwhelmingly a popular cause with desperate voters), and in favour of prosperity and success
The impression given to the voters was that they will negotiate with the IMF to get rid of conditions that are a problem, but the reality is that they will not put up any real resistance to the IMF-led squeezing of ordinary people and carve-up of Turkey's assets.
Several commentators suggest, no doubt correctly, that the decisive players within the military have indicated to the AK politicians that they can "govern" as long as they stay within well-understood limits on questions of the economy, democracy and of course religion.
Be can expect those who voted for AK to give them a chance for a certain period; the crunch will come when those voters realise that AK too cannot answer their needs for bread, peace and some degree of human dignity and freedom.
Of course the left in Turkey is very weak
..... The effect of the victory of AK will be to give the IMF and those forces in Turkey which support it a breathing space to deal with the economic crisis and beset with historical and current problems including of political perspective and method, but the fact that voters gave the established capitalist parties such a severe punishing which probably breaks a few records in the Guinness Book of election ate and searching for a way out.
That HADEP. (close to KADEK, formerly PKK) and EMEK, one of the more important organisations on the Turkish left, were able to agree on an electoral alliance, increase their overall vote, and apparently intend to continue some joint work in the future, are very important.
Such efforts to build unity, and discussions around what the unity can be based on, are vital to the process through which the Kurdish movement and the left in Turkey can strengthen themselves and move forward to tackle the tasks that face them
It should also be noted that while the vote for MHP collapsed along with that of the other ex-governmental parties, much MHP support will have transferred to the new GP (Young Party) led by a notorious criminal businessman called Cem Uzan.
He ran a populist and very right-wing and xenophobic campaign and seems to have had backing from various quarters including parts of the MHP machinery, and came clos er than Ecevit or Ciller's party to breaking the 10% threshold.
Implications of election result on Turkey's attitude to the war on Iraq, to the EU and to the Kurdish question.
Governing cirdes in the US are probably not too displeased about the election result - probably some people even see a "moderate" Islamic government, guided from behind the scenes by the military, as a useful by Turkey, as well as reluctance to be drawn into assisting the US operations to remove Saddam Hussein and regain western control of Iraq, though to what extent this opposition can concretely assert itself in the prevailing difficult conditions is not clear.
On the question of EU entry it is clear that the AK government is going to push hard; how far they will succeed is not clear, but the question may become more of a live issue within the EU itself.
Britain, Italy and Spain seem to be keenest on having Turkey in, Blair, Berlusconi and Aznar sharing to some extent the US view on how to control the Middle East and curtail the power of France and Germany (if Turkey entered the EU, much more of the costs of maintaining Turkey on the IMF drip results, shows that the electorate is desper-_ feed would come to. be borne by the FU and especially Germany*
And there are some indications that the governing German SPD and Greens are less opposed to Turkey's entry than were the Christian Democrats. But undoubtedly there are still many obstacles to Turkey's entry to the EU, even if several major powers want them in.
Meanwhile, socialists should be under no illusion that much real improvement has taken place on the human rights front in spite of the much-vaunted legal changes.
It is clear for example, that numerous bureaucratic and police obstacles are being put in place to make the planned teaching and learning of Kurdish language as difficult, miserable, restricted, hazardous and humiliating as possible.
While Abdullah Ocalan's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment recently, for the last two months the authorities have been deepening his isolation by not permitting even the usual restricted level of visits by lawyers and family. Human rights reports continue to find that torture is still routinely practised in police sta tions, and thousands of political prisoners still languish in very harsh conditions.
It is true that there are far fewer disap pearances and extra-judicial killings than at the height of the war against the PKK, but the level of harassment and repression of Kurdish or left-wing political and trade union activity is still very high.
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20 soclalst rest Socialist Alliances stance Winter 2002