Güneş Gümüş, Chairwoman of the Socialist Laborers Party (Sosyalist Emekçiler Partisi) in Turkey, declared in a letter of solidarity that her party “condemns the interventions made by the Supreme Court of Appeals Prosecutor’s Office against the party program of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi – Dördüncü Enternasyonal (Socialist Equality Party – Fourth International).”
On August 1, 2025, the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi was officially established. The party received a letter dated September 15, 2025, signed by Muhsin Şentürk, Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, titled “Review of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi – Dördüncü Enternasyonal’s Constitution and Program.”
He demanded that the party’s program be amended to remove the demands for “education in one’s mother tongue” and “Kurdish becoming an official language with constitutional guarantees.” Şentürk stated that otherwise his office “will file a warning lawsuit with the Constitutional Court.”
In its response dated November 3 to the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office, the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi categorically rejected this political intervention and emphasized that it constituted “unacceptable intervention not only against our party but also against the fundamental democratic rights of other political parties and citizens who defend these demands.”
As made clear in the party’s response, this state intervention against legitimate democratic demands came as a “National Solidarity, Brotherhood, and Democracy Commission” was established in the Turkish Parliament under the pretext of resolving the Kurdish issue. The commission, launched with the approval of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, includes members of parliament from his Justice and Development Party (AKP), the fascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP), and the Kurdish nationalist Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), as well as the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) and the Labor Party (EMEP).
Erdoğan appointed Şentürk to the position of Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals in 2024. While he was the chair of the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals, Şentürk refused to recognize two “human rights violation” rulings by the Constitutional Court, the highest judicial body, regarding Can Atalay, a jailed elected deputy and a member of the TİP.
Following the publication of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi’s response to the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office, the party’s chairman, Ulaş Sevinç, sent this response along with a letter to the headquarters, parliamentary groups, and deputies of parties that describe themselves as “left” or “democrat,” including the CHP and Kurdish political tendencies.
After explaining the issue, the letter stated:
The Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi – Dördüncü Enternasyonal and its predecessor, the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu, have a documented record on the World Socialist Web Site and the party website of defending the fundamental rights and freedoms of parties, organizations, and individuals, regardless of their political views. We bring this important issue concerning fundamental democratic rights to the attention of the public and your leadership and urge your party to oppose these anti-democratic demands by the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office.
Only the Socialist Laborers Party has responded to this call so far. The Kurdish and the nominally left press have completely ignored this report that was conveyed to them. This significant attack on democratic rights was only reported by the account “Soldan Gündem” [News from Left] on X/Twitter, which covers news related to left-wing political tendencies.
In her “letter of solidarity” dated November 14, the leader of the Socialist Laborers Party, Gümüş, stated:
In Turkey, the political parties and electoral laws are largely based on state intervention in politics. Restrictions began with bans on the word “communist” at the founding of the Republic [in 1923] and expanded significantly after September 12 [the military coup in 1980]. Currently, the AKP government seeks to suppress social opposition by exploiting the restrictive regime at its disposal.
We have seen dozens of legal and de facto bans, election obstructions, and party closures imposed on Kurdish and left-wing or revolutionary parties in the past. The current climate, in which there is even talk of closing down the main bourgeois opposition party [CHP], shows the extent to which the AKP’s desire to suppress social opposition can go.
It is essential to fight to the end for freedom of association and expression. We stand in solidarity with you on this issue and oppose the unjust interference in your party program.
As the WSWS previously reported, the Socialist Laborers Party was also subjected to a frame-up operation last December. Around 20 of its members and supporters were detained on charges of belonging to a “terrorist organization” during police operations.
The Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu, predecessor of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi, firmly opposed this police state operation, stating: “The SLP and its members, who have been linked to ‘terrorism’ on trumped-up charges, have basic democratic rights, including the right to engage in political activity, and these rights must be strongly defended by the working class.”
The Socialist Laborers Party’s petition campaign against this trumped-up operation has been backed by the Socialist Equality Parties affiliated with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) worldwide. David North, chairman of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS, made the following statement in a post on X/Twitter:
The Socialist Laborers Party in Turkey (Sosyalist Emekçiler Partisi) has been subjected to an attack on its democratic rights by the Erdogan government. Notwithstanding its political differences with this organization, the World Socialist Web Site calls on all its readers to sign the Sosyalist Emekçiler Partisi’s petition and demand the immediate end to the persecution of its members.
The conspiracy against the Socialist Laborers Party was part of escalating police-state repression in Turkey amid deepening war in the Middle East and intensifying class struggles.
The arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul and presidential candidate for the CHP, in March 2025 was a critical turning point. Amid growing social inequality and discontent, his arrest sparked mass protests across the county. While the government responded with police violence and mass arrests, it was the CHP that reined in the mass movement.
The state intervention in the Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi’s program has again confirmed the analysis of the WSWS that the government’s claim to resolve the Kurdish question and bring about peace and democratization is a deception. The Ankara-PKK agreement, developed as part of the escalating imperialist-Zionist aggression and war in the Middle East, has no connection whatsoever with the pursuit of peace and democracy.
The Turkish and Kurdish elites are complicit in destroying and plundering the region alongside US-NATO imperialism and fiercely hostile to the interests of the working class. By their very nature, they are incapable of securing peace or establishing a democratic regime. These goals, which require a frontal attack on imperialism and the ruling class, can only be achieved by the working class taking power and implementing a socialist program. This is an integral part of the struggle for the Socialist Federation of the Middle East.
The Sosyalist Eşitlik Partisi calls on its supporters, WSWS readers, and all defenders of democratic rights to oppose the intervention of the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office and to join the party in the struggle for genuine democracy and socialism.