Communist Party of Turkey (historical)
[2][3] The party was legalized again after the Second World War, albeit with very limited power and it was heavily monitored by the Turkish government.
[5] The party was founded at a congress in Baku on 10 September 1920,[1] gathering together elements from three different left-wing tendencies influenced by the October Revolution in Russia.
[4] Its founding members were united in ending social injustice and economic inequality amongst the empire's citizens, and to drive out the Western powers carving up Anatolia among themselves.
[4] Other notable members who played important roles in the TKP include Fuat Sabit and Şefik Hüsnü.
[4] Meanwhile, Nâzım Hikmet, the Turkish poet and intellectual, was active in the communist world and the TKP, meeting and working with individuals such as Vâlâ Nureddin, Ahmet Cevat, and Şevket Süreyya Aydemir.
This provoked the founding of the People's Communist Party of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Halk İştirakiyyun Fırkası) in 1920.
According to the official version, Mustafa Suphi was killed by the order of the Ottoman Sultan because of his support to the liberation of Turkey.
Albeit an illegal party, the TKP issued a series of publications like Kızıl Istanbul (1930–1935), Bolşevik (1927), Komünist (1929) and İnkılap Yolu (published in Berlin 1930–1932).
However, as the political situation became yet more intense, and the more radical wings of the left movement opted for armed struggle, TİP was banned.
[1] The TKP believed that change could be implemented through democratic reforms, but after 1960 the party adopted a more revolutionary approach, even if it was not as politically active when compared to the 1920s.
[5] At the beginning of the 1970s, labour organisations and left wing political parties faced with the despotism of 1971 Turkish coup d'état.
Under the leadership of General Secretary İsmail Bilen, the TKP saw this trend as a new era of revolution and reform, so named it as Atılım which means leap in Turkish.
Despite the party's illegality, and the problems of working underground, the TKP found a way to intervene in the political agenda of the country with the support of DISK.
[15] The TKP merged with the TİP and formed the United Communist Party of Turkey (TBKP) in 1988 under the motto "unity, renewal and legality".
[15] Both of the leaders the TKP and TİP, Haydar Kutlu and Nihat Sargın respectively, returned from their political exile in on 16 November 1987 to establish the new TKBP, but they were immediately arrested and held in custody until April 1990.
In 1990, its leaders officially established the TBKP as a formal political party, which would be banned the next year after a lengthy court case.
