Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist

that desired to carry out armed struggle.

TKP/ML participates in International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations.

History

Following the military memorandum of 1971 the Turkish government cracked down the communist movement in Turkey. Kaypakkaya and several of his colleagues were arrested. The party machinery was destroyed. It was Kaypakkaya died in prison in 1973 allegedly because of torture.

Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist re-organized between 1973 and 1978. The first party congress took place in 1978 ("TKP/ML I. Kongresi" in Turkish). In 1981 the second congress was organized ("TKP/ML II. Kongresi"). The party split following the second congress, the splinter taking up the name Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey).

However it was nor the first neither the last split in the party. The Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist - Hareketi had already split in (1976) during the re-organisation period. Other splits followed the second congress: Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist - Revolutionary Proletarian (1987), Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (Maoist Party Centre) (1987) and Maoist Communist Party (1994).

Organisation

The armed wing of the party is named Turkish Workers' and Peasants' Liberation Army ("Türk İşci ve Köylü Kurtuluş Ordusu" in Turkish, abbreviated as "TİKKO").

The main periodical of the party is called "Partizan" (Partisan). There are two other periodicals they have published: "İşçi-Köylü" (Worker-Peasant) and "Özgür Gelecek" (Free Future) [Family Tree of the Turkish Radical Left [http://www.broadleft.org/tr.htm] .

Designation as a Terrorist Organisation

The organisation is listed among the 12 active terrorist organisation in Turkey as of 2007 according to Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security (Turkish police) [TÜRKİYE'DE HALEN FAALİYETLERİNE DEVAM EDEN BAŞLICA TERÖR ÖRGÜTLERİ: http://www.egm.gov.tr/temuh/terorgrup1.html] .

Human Resources

A study carried out by the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security over a sample of files about people convicted of being a terrorist under Turkish laws including 826 militants from the organisation and the three other currently active left-wing organisations (see reference 1) 65 % of the members are aged 14 to 25, 16,8 % 25 to 30 and 17,5 % are older than 30. University graduates make up 20,4 % of the members, high school graduates 33,5 %, secondary school graduates 14 %, primary school graduates 29,9 % and illiterates 1,9 % (while they have no sampled literate non-graduate members) [Zaman. 25.12.2007. "Dikkat: Hangi yasadışı örgüte kimler üye olur?". http://www.iyibilgi.com/haber.php?haber_id=47595] .

References

External links

* [http://www.partizan.org/tkpml.htm Party info]
* [http://www.partizan.org/ "Partizan"]

ee also

*List of illegal political parties in Turkey
* Communist Party of Turkey for a list of communist parties in Turkey