View source for Workers' Party (Turkey)

{{short description|Left-wing political party in Turkey}}
{{Distinguish|Workers' Party of Turkey (1961)|Workers' Party of Turkey (2017)}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Advert|date=August 2013}}
{{Expand Turkish|topic=hist|İşçi Partisi (Türkiye)|date=July 2014}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2014}}
{{use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}}}
{{Infobox political party
| country          = Turkey
| native_name      = İşçi Partisi
| name             = Workers' Party
| logo             = [[File:Flag of workers party of Turkey.png|200px|Workers' Party Logo]]
| colorcode        = {{party color|Workers' Party (Turkey)}}
| leader           = [[Doğu Perinçek]]
| foundation       = {{start date|1992|7|10|df=y}}
| dissolution      = {{end date|2015|02|15|df=y}}
| predecessor      = Socialist Party
| successor        = [[Patriotic Party (Turkey)|Patriotic Party]]
| slogan           = Bağımsızlık, devrim, sosyalizm! ("Independence, revolution, socialism!")
| ideology         = [[Kemalism]]<br>[[Scientific socialism]]<br />[[Left-wing nationalism]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://arsiv.marksist.org/teori/irkclk-milliyetcilik/739-milliyetci-olmayan-bir-parti|title=Milliyetçi olmayan bir parti|publisher=Marksist|access-date=21 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007154750/http://arsiv.marksist.org/teori/irkclk-milliyetcilik/739-milliyetci-olmayan-bir-parti|archive-date=7 October 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><br />[[Left-wing populism]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://arsiv.zaman.com.tr/2003/09/20/yorumlar/default.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526045619/http://arsiv.zaman.com.tr/2003/09/20/yorumlar/default.htm |archive-date=2006-05-26 |title=ZAMAN GAZETESİ}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com.tr/gorus/avrupanin-populist-sol-parti-ihtiyaci |title=Avrupa'nın popülist sol parti ihtiyacı|language=tr|publisher=Aljazeera|access-date=21 September 2015}}</ref><br />''[[Ulusalism|Ulusalcılık]]''<br />[[Maoism]]
| position         = [[Far-left politics|Far-left]]
| european         = 
| international    = CILRECO (International Liaison Committee for Reunification and Peace in Korea), Los Partidos Y Una Nueva Sociedad.
| colours          = {{color box|#BB0000|border=darkgray}} Red<br>{{color box|#FFFFFF|border=darkgray}} White<br>{{color box|{{party color|Workers' Party (Turkey)}}|border=darkgray}} Wine Red (customary)
| headquarters     = Toros Sokak No: 9 Sıhhiye, [[Ankara]]
| website          = 
}}
The '''Workers' Party''' '''(İP)''' ({{langx|tr|{{italics correction|İşçi Partisi}}}}) was a Turkish [[political party]] founded in 1992 and led by [[Doğu Perinçek]]. It had its roots in the [[Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Party of Turkey]] (TİİKP), the [[Workers' and Peasants' Party of Turkey]] (TİKP), and the Socialist Party (SP), which was banned by the [[Constitutional Court of Turkey|Constitutional Court]] in 1992.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://vatanpartisi.org.tr/english/haberler/brief-history-of-the-patriotic-party-turkey-10962|title=Brief history of the Patriotic Party|website=Vatan Partisi|access-date=5 January 2020}}</ref> They were known as "''Aydınlıkçılar''" (Clarifiers) due to their daily newspaper ''[[Aydınlık]]'' ("Clarify" or "Enlightenment") which had a circulation of 63,000 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.medyatava.net/tiraj.asp |title= MEDYATAVA - Çift Sarılı Yumurta Tadında|website=www.medyatava.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014101010/http://www.medyatava.net/tiraj.asp |archive-date=14 October 2012}}</ref>

During a [[general assembly]] on 15 February 2015, the Workers' Party rebranded and changed its name to [[Patriotic Party (Turkey)|Patriotic Party]]. Perinçek remained as leader.<ref name=":0" />

==Overview==
The İP traditionally combined [[Maoism|Maoist]] rhetoric with hard-line, left-wing [[Kemalism]] called ''[[ulusalcılık]]''.  The party accepted [[scientific socialism]] as their main ideology, combined with more of a [[Patriotism|patriotic]] core than other left-wing parties in Turkey. Their revolutionary ideals were based on the "National Democratic Revolution", close in name to [[Mao Zedong]]'s "[[New Democratic Revolution]]". İP supported Stalin's "[[Socialism in One Country]]" thesis, rather than [[Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev]]'s "[[national communism]]" thesis. 

Mehmet Bedri Gültekin, deputy chairman of the party, wrote a book on [[Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev|Sultan-Galiev's]] [[counter-revolutionary]] role.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kaynakyayinlari.com/urun/sultan-galiyev-elestirisi_541.aspx?CatId=140 |title=Sultan Galiyev Eleştirisi : Teori ve Siyaset : : Kaynak Yayınları |access-date=2013-08-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130818134645/http://www.kaynakyayinlari.com/urun/sultan-galiyev-elestirisi_541.aspx?CatId=140 |archive-date=2013-08-18 }}</ref> They admired the founder of the Turkish republic, [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] (considered a "left-wing [[Bourgeois revolution|bourgeois democratic revolutionary]]" by Chairman Perinçek <ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.kitapyurdu.com/kitap/default.asp?id=40652 |title=Kemalist Devrim 1/Teorik Çerçeve - Doğu Perinçek |date=19 March 1992 |publisher=Kitapyurdu |isbn=978-975-343-038-8 |access-date=21 September 2015}}</ref>), as much as they admired [[Marxism|Marxist]] revolutionary leaders like [[Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]] and [[Mao Zedong]]. The party promoted alliances with nations that the party believes have [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]] tendencies (such as [[Venezuela]], [[Brazil]] and [[Cuba]]) and opposed the existence of [[United States|American]] [[expansionism]] (such as [[India]], [[China]] and [[Russia]]).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=180 |title=Worker's Party (Turkey)&#124; 08.11.2012 |access-date=2013-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108042335/http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=180 |archive-date=2012-11-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=190 |title=Worker's Party (Turkey)&#124; 23.10.2013 |access-date=2013-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023070728/http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=190 |archive-date=2013-10-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

İP stated that a brotherhood-based solution to the [[Kurdish nationalism#Kurds in Turkey (Bakur)|Kurdish question]] must exclude [[Imperialism|imperialist]] initiative in the [[Middle East]]. They claimed that the [[Kurdistan Workers' Party]] (PKK) has been completely under the control of the USA since the [[Gulf War]]. İP asserted that it is still possible to unite [[Turkish people|Turkish]] and [[Kurds|Kurdish]] people in [[Turkey]] within the borders of an [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]] [[nation state]] which will be established through a [[democratic revolution]]. According to the party, [[separatism]] became a tool of [[American imperialism]] in breaking national markets in the [[Third World]] in post-[[Cold War]] conditions. Although they traversed separation, they also defended democratic rights and freedoms of [[Kurds|Kurdish peoples]] in Turkey. For İP, the key tool to solve the Kurdish problem is to demolish "[[Feudalism|feudal]] structures" in Kurdish provinces and make peasants "free citizens".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=156 |title=Worker's Party (Turkey)&#124; 08.11.2012 |access-date=2013-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108044818/http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=156 |archive-date=2012-11-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=173 |title=Worker's Party (Turkey)&#124; 22.10.2013 |access-date=2013-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022052401/http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=173 |archive-date=2013-10-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=188 |title=Worker's Party (Turkey)&#124; 22.10.2013 |access-date=2013-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022030508/http://inter.ip.org.tr/lib/pages/detay.asp?goster=tbelgegoster&idbelge=188 |archive-date=2013-10-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Wings==
*The youth student wing of İP was known as ''Öncü Gençlik'' ([[Vanguard Youth (Turkey)|Vanguard Youth]]).
*The women wing of İP was known as ''Öncü Kadın'' (Vanguard Women).

==Media==
*''[[Aydınlık]]'' (Clarity), daily newspaper.
*''[http://www.aydinlikdaily.com// Aydınlık Daily]'', news portal in English.
*''Teori'' (Theory), monthly theory and strategy review.
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20111126204056/http://www.bilimveutopya.com.tr/ Bilim ve Ütopya]'' (Science and Utopia), monthly science journal.
*''[[Ulusal Kanal]]'' (National Channel), television station.
*''[http://www.kaynakyayinlari.com/ Kaynak Yayınları]'' (Source Publications), publisher.

==Election results==

=== Parliamentary elections ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+[[Grand National Assembly of Turkey]]
!Election date
!Leader
!Votes
! %
!Seats
|-
![[1995 Turkish general election|1995]]
| rowspan="4" |[[Doğu Perinçek]]
|61,428
|0.22%
|{{Composition bar|0|550|hex=#BB0000}}
|-
![[1999 Turkish general election|1999]]
|57,593
|0.18%
|{{Composition bar|0|550|hex=#BB0000}}
|-
![[2002 Turkish general election|2002]]
|160,227
|0.51%
|{{Composition bar|0|550|hex=#BB0000}}
|-
![[2007 Turkish general election|2007]]
|127,220
|0.36%
|{{Composition bar|0|550|hex=#BB0000}}
|}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Turkish nationalism}}
{{Political parties of Turkey}}

[[Category:1992 establishments in Turkey]]
[[Category:2015 disestablishments in Turkey]]
[[Category:Defunct socialist parties in Turkey]]
[[Category:Kemalist political parties]]
[[Category:Defunct Maoist parties]]
[[Category:Maoist organizations in Turkey]]
[[Category:Left-wing nationalist parties]]
[[Category:Defunct nationalist parties in Turkey]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1992]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 2015]]