No heroes, no martyrs, and no gurus! ÖDP President Ufuk Uras was elected by unanimity. Masis Kürkçügil asked this 36 year-old lecturer in Economics and International Relations about his views on the new party, the Turkish left's heavy heritage of sectarianism and Stalinism, and the tasks ahead • How do you define the ÖDP? The ÖDP defines itself as a mass, left party, oriented towards internationalist, libertarian, self-managed socialism, based on the solidarity of opposition and left forces, created to respond to a political need in Turkey. Our conception of socialism is a critical appropriation of Turkish and international socialist theory and experiences. Unlike classical left and socialist parties, we see our construction as a process starting with the base, and growing upwards. We reject hierarchical relations, and we are developing a party project which we intend to be unambiguous and transparent. • The ÖDP unites forces of very different origins. Internal democracy must be very important. Of course. From the inaugural meeting of the new leadership, we have stressed the oluralist nature of the party. A range of voices express themselves in and through the ODP. There is no room for any "first among equals". No heroes, no martyrs, and But this is not the political culture here in Turkey! So we have to improvise, to build a new tradition. By correcting, and overcoming old habits, particularly the sectarian tradition. It will doubtless be a difficult process. But we hope we can create an amenable climate for such a development.. • How do you personally evaluate the Soviet and Chinese experiences? You can approach this question through the * old debate between Lucas and Bloch. Lucas thought that the worst kind of socialism would be better than the best kind of capitalism. But Bloch argued that bad socialism wasn't socialism! In 1921, the Kemalist regime assassinated the leaders and many cadre of the Turkish 6 International Viewpoint March 1996
Communist Party. Three months later, they signed a state treaty, the Turco-Soviet Accord, with the Soviet union. Lenin, Trotsky and. Stalin all held high positions in the Soviet leadership. Not one of them asked himself if the establishment of privileged relations between the two neighbouring states, over the bodies and blood of Turkey's Communist leaders, represented a political or ethical problem. They gave interstate relations a higher priority than international solidarity between the [Communist] parties. You could argue that our history gives us some early indications of the future development of events. A series of other examples demonstrates how Marxism was sabotaged in the USSR and China. How it became a frozen, official ideology. An obstacle for all of us. ÖDP members have a critical view of these experiences and political traditions. Which is why we are trying to develop, within the party, mechanisms which will eliminate any bureaucratic methods. • Your programme stresses internationalism. What does this mean concretely? Internationalist traditions are weak here. A big handicap for us. Much of Turkish socialist ideology is characterised by nationalism, provincialism. But our party sees internationalism as an essential precondition for the realisation of our project. We offer solidarity to all those who share our objectives of egalitarian, libertarian, self-managed and internationalist socialism. And we are ready to take our place in all international opposition platforms. • And the Kurdish question? We are for a bilateral cease-fire, an immediate end to hostilities, and peace. We support any civic initiative in this direction. The real problem, though, is seeing which parties will sit down and negotiate a peace settlement. All the other Turkish parties are pro-war, pro-army parties, which want to maintain the status quo. In the [Kurdish] region, we consider as legitimate representatives those HADEP candidates who won the election in their constituencies (even though they were not able to join the parliament in Ankara, since their party did not receive 10% of the statewide vote. • Is the ÖDP an institutional party or a Both. We aim to be present in parliament, which will make our struggle in the street somewhat different from that of some other left groups. But, since we come from the street, our presence in parliament will have a very different dimension from that of the other parties there. Our first such challenge will be the partial municipal election in June. Ethics, and the way one does politics, are very important for us. Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto that the bourgeoisie had created the world in their image. We want to do the same, though without falling into workerism. • The media are calling you the "Love and Revolution Party" This is very good for us. Political life in Turkey has traditionally been asexual, while even the left has been dominated by a male, patriarchal and macho political culture. "Love and Revolution Party" might suggest that we love revolution and socialism. But it also stresses that love and revolution are inseparable. Take "Land and Freedom", Ken Loach's film about the Spanish civil war. These people are at the front. They struggle, and they fall in love. All at the same time. People who see the film will understand the ÖDP a little better! *