The September 12 military coup was a major blow to the working people in Turkey. It was inspired and supported by imperialism and coordinated by NATO. Its aim is to impose social stability at the expense of the working class and its mass organizations. A wave of repression has been launched against the working people and the economic screws are being tightened against them.
The extent of NATO involvement in the coup was demonstrated by the simultaneous military maneuvers being conducted in Turkey at the time. These maneuvers continued after the coup with only one country, Belgium, withdrawing.
The reason for the heavy involvement of the imperialists lies in the increasingly severe social and political crisis in Turkey and adjacent countries demonstrated by the Iranian revolution, the Iraqi war against Iran, the working class struggles in Syria, and the struggle of the Kurdish people for their right to self-determination. For U.S. imperialism, the necessity of consolidating the eastern flank of the NATO alliance after the massive insurrection that toppled the shah and the impact of the unfolding Iranian revolution has become a top priority. They are using the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan to win acceptance of this goal.
The imperialists pretend that the new regime has popular support for its actions. But this is a lie. Despite its camouflage of a government composed of civilians and retired military figures it is a military regime which aims to deepen the attacks of the previous administration on living standards and democratic rights by repressive military methods.
The political crisis that preceded the coup involved the failure of governments led successively by the two big bourgeois parties and had resulted in the last months in preventing the election of a president of the republic. It is only the reflection of an even deeper economic and social crisis. This has stimulated a polarization that has been concretized on the one side in very hard fought workers’ struggles and mobilizations of students and the radicalized petty bourgeoisie, and on the other side in the emergence of a fascist current with considerable mass influence.
In carrying out the coup after a series of warnings, the army, which is also closely linked to the economic structures, wanted to counter the paralysis of the institutions 1084 and political leadership. It sought to put an end to the constant deepening of the crisis at every level and to prevent the polarization from worsening even more and thereby provoking even deeper social explosions.
Its spokespeople declare that a new constitution will be adopted. They want to create the illusion that they are ready to enforce and respect constitutional norms. If they were sincere in this they would only have to prepare elections to a true constituent and democratic assembly which would respect the popular will.
Their objective is, on the contrary, to impose an even more conservative constitution than the present one. This would both be an instrument for consolidating the system and for giving legitimacy to systematic repression—prolonging what has already characterized Turkey for many years, particularly since Suleyman Demirel came to power (65,000 people were in prison for political reasons before the September coup).
The decision of Turkish chief of Staff General Kenan Evren and company to proceed in this direction has already been confirmed by the fact that much harsher repression has been directed against Bulent Ecevit’s Republican People’s Party than against Demirel’s. While the trade unions, and in particular the DISK have been suspended, the procapitalist Turk Is (the right-wing union federation) can function normally and its leader Side has become a minister.
Besides this Evren has drawn up an economic orientation which recommends the “functioning of the economy within the framework of natural laws.” It is clear that the new regime is applying an austerity program along the lines dictated by the International Monetary Fund. Such severe measures have already been imposed in various countries with disastrous social and political consequences for the toiling masses.
The continuation of Demirel’s policies by the present regime in regard to both the constitution and the economy is symbolized by the appointment of Torgut Ozal, the economic minister in the Demirel government, as the director of state planning in the new regime.
The basic cause of the chronic crisis of the country has been, and remains, the increasingly catastrophic economic situation which involves the pauperization and uprooting of larger and larger layers of the peasantry, massive unemployment of nearly 15 percent of the working population, and the blocking of any future for the young generation coming out of secondary oe:
Istanbul after the military coup.
and university education. The policy that the military want to impose could bring at most a partial “rationalization” and recovery, however small in concrete terms, and in any case would be achieved through a brutal aggravation of the oppression and exploitation that the great mass of workers already suffer.
In addition, an eventual reestablishment of order can only imply a greater oppression of the Kurds, who will continue to be deprived of their most elementary national and democratic rights and submitted to the most severe repression.
Internationally, a solidarity campaign must be launched. The involvement of the imperialist governments in the coup must be denounced and their further support for the military regime halted. The campaign must be developed by trade unions internationally, but particularly in Western Europe where there are hundreds of thousands of Turkish workers.
This campaign must support the actions of the Turkish workers organizations and the oppressed nationalities in Turkey, especially the Kurds, in the struggle against the new regime.
The campaign should demand the freeing of all political prisoners, the right of political parties and the trade unions to function freely, and the right of selfdetermination for the oppressed nationalities.
The trade unions in the imperialist countries should demand that their governments cut military, diplomatic, and economic links with the military regime.
The coup also demonstrates once again that NATO is not only a vehicle for imperialist war, but an instrument to repress the workers movement. NATO must withdraw from Turkey. Down with the military regime! Full support to the Turkish workers in the struggle against reaction!