Turkish Government Cracks Down on Communists

New Zeal

While I’m not a supporter of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamicist Justice and Development Party, at least the man knows who his enemies are.

turkishgov

According to the Communist Party USA‘s People’s World leading members of the Turkish Communist Party (TKP) are being rounded up and arrested.

In Istanbul, Turkey prosecutors yesterday called for the arrest of twelve activists in the ongoing struggle against construction of a shopping mall complex in Taksim Gezi Park, including leaders of the Taksim Solidarity Platform, Turkish Communist Party (TKP) central executive board member Erkan Bas and TKP Istanbul Provincial Chairman Kamil Tekerek.

Several other party members were taken into custody, as well as Taksim Solidarity Platform member Mücella Yap?c?, Istanbul Medical Chamber General Secretary Ali Çerkezoglu, members of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions, and members of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions…

Citing a police report on documents seized from searches of the homes of the accused, the prosecutor claimed that “calls for thousands of people to gather in Taksim Square prepared the ground for the marginal groups’ provocations… They caused the injuries of hundreds of police officers and citizens and the calls continued despite these injuries.”

The government… accuses the Turkish Communist Party of having masterminded the demonstrations. There were television commentators who claimed that “Communist protesters” had turned peaceful protests into “violent attacks that ruin social order.”

This included an article in the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram Weekly, by Turkish broadcaster Aylin Kocaman, caliming that young demonstrators were susceptible to the taksim Gezi protests “because they have not been educated against the threat of communism.”

All pretty much the truth. I hope Western governments take note, because these mass disturbances are surely heading their way too.

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