Workers Party of Turkey (Türkiye İşçi Partisi) was a Turkish political party, founded in 1961. It became the first socialist party in Turkey to win representation in the national parliament. It was banned twice (after the military coups of 1971 and 1980) and eventually merged with the Communist Party of Turkey in 1988.
TİP was founded by a group of labor union members. After a year of inactivity, the founders invited Marxist lawyer Mehmet Ali Aybar to assume the leadership of the party. Following Aybar, several other Marxist intellectuals also joined the ranks and the party soon adopted a Marxist programme.
The party's breakthrough came in 1965 when it got 3% of the votes in the national elections and won 15 seats in the parliament. TİP deputies' highly publicized active participation in parliamentary sessions contributed to a radicalisation of the political scene in the country. By 1967-68, militant left-wing student organizations and labour unions were formed.
In 1968, after the invasion of Czechoslovakia, Aybar adopted a rhetoric hostile to Soviet Communism. However, when TİP failed to increase its votes in the 1969 elections, Aybar had to resign from party leadership and Marxist sociologist Behice Boran, who had opposed Aybar's anti-Soviet stand, was elected as party leader in 1970.
TİP was banned after the military coup of 1971 and Boran, together with other senior TİP leaders, arrested and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. They were released following an amnesty in 1974 and re-established TİP the next year.
TİP was once again banned after the next military coup in 1980. This time, Boran went to exile in Europe and the party continued to operate clandestinely. In 1988, it merged with the Communist Party of Turkey to form the United Communist Party of Turkey.
Read more about Workers Party Of Turkey: See Also
Famous quotes containing the words workers, party and/or turkey:
“When men and women across the country reported how happy they felt, researchers found that jugglers were happier than others. By and large, the more roles, the greater the happiness. Parents were happier than nonparents, and workers were happier than nonworkers. Married people were much happier than unmarried people. Married people were generally at the top of the emotional totem pole.”
—Faye J. Crosby (20th century)
“It is a well-settled principle of the international code that where one nation owes another a liquidated debt which it refuses or neglects to pay the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging to the other, its citizens or subjects, sufficient to pay the debt without giving just cause of war.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“A turkey is more occult and awful than all the angels and archangels. In so far as God has partly revealed to us an angelic world, he has partly told us what an angel means. But God has never told us what a turkey means. And if you go and stare at a live turkey for an hour or two, you will find by the end of it that the enigma has rather increased than diminished.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)