Interview with Veli Umut Arslan, leader of the Socialist Laborers Party (SEP) of Turkey

Veli Umut, In Buenos Aires with Nicolás del Caño- PTS/ FIT

Interview with Veli Umut Arslan, leader of the Socialist Laborers Party (SEP) of Turkey, and the transport wokers union, which lost more tan ten members during the attack of ISIS in October 2015 in Ankara. Veli Arslan talked with “Kurdistan from the south” about the coup attempt of 15^th July, the international realignment of Erdogan’s regime, and the perspectives for class struggle in Turkey and Kurdish national liberation movement.

Introduce yourself. Your post in the party, your role in Turkish workers' movement

I am Veli Umut  Arslan. Central Committee member of our party, the  SEP-Socialist Laborers Party. The SEP is a Trotskyist party and active in 7 cities working in workers movement and we have also a base in universities

How do you the see the coup attempt? Who do you think was behind it?

Gülen who has very strong sect was behind the coup. We met Gulen at first in 1970s when he was an imam and founder of anticommunist association in the eastern part of Turkey where was a strong rightwing tradition.

His sect was split from another sect-"Nur" movement-and started to organize his own movement. We assume that his relationship with USA-CIA was first established in this turbulent era of 1970s. Then he supported military takeover (which smashed the left and organised by CIA) in 1980.

His sect has become very powerful through the years with the help of every bourgeosie party. Lastly Gulen was a partner of Erdogan against Kemalist. Gulen and Erdogan won over Kemalist bureacracy collectively and after that they start to fight each other.

Gülen has always parallel approaches with USA but Erdogan sometimes act separately especially after he won over Kemalists. Also i should add that after Gülen and Erdogan finished with the Kemalists they supressed the Gezi uprising in 2013 which is anti-AKP and dominated by leftists, Kemalist and some secular liberals.

After Erdogan started to attack Gulen this fight turned to be military coup at last. We are sure that CIA has known the operation but we are not sure how actively CIA intervened because it was quite amateur attempt.

What do you think is the role of imperialistic blocs - the NATO bloc, the Russian-Chinese bloc - in the coup attempt?

USA has role as i said. Gülen is a very important tool for Americans because Gulen is not only active in Turkey but all over the world, (from Africa to the Far East, from Middle East to ex USSR and Eastern Europe) they have schools through the world and they establish important links with the local elites, and they have always corelation with USA embassies. also "the grand leader-imam of the universe" lives in Pennsylvania.

Gülen controls billions of dollars. He has many capitalist followers who contribute to the organization. Russians never allowed Gülen to organize in Russia. Putin wants to separate Erdogan from NATO and he sees the tension between USA and Erdogan is a chance for this. but Putin will have some demands of course . Iran has a similar approach in this latest failed coup with Russia.

Which do you think could be the consequences of the coup attempt regarding the international alignments of Erdogan's regime?

After the military coup attempt we see the tension between USA and Erdogan. If USA won’t give back Gülen (who was named as the leader of terrorist organization) to Turkey the relationship will worsen. the prime chief of USA army will come to Turkey because some media wing of AKP directly blaming USA and some ex-generals of american army. but Turkey which is a long term NATO ally won’t change the relationship dramatically instead of this Erdogan will follow a balance policy with the help of Putin.

What's the attitude of workers' movement in Turkey regarding Kurdish national liberation movement? To what extent bourgeois Kemalist ideology keeps influencing it?

Kemalism is already weak to affect working class. We have a very strong public servants union (KESK) that is under control of Kurdish movement. we have left wing trade workers’ unions. DISK ( Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions, Translator Note) that is under control of CHP and also HDP is effective.

The real problem is that both KESK (Confederation of Public Workers’ Trade Unions, public workers’ union mentioned above, Translator Note)  and DISK are highly bureaucratized and ineffective. they become more and more passive every year. the other unions are highly nationalists.

What's the strength of workers´movement in North Kurdistan? There have recently been important workers' struggles there?

Workers’ movement is weak in North.Kurdistan. Kurdish nationalist movement is dominating everywhere in there. Most of the organised workers work in local governments which are under control of Kurdish movement. Also most of the businessmen in the region are also members of HDP.

They don’t let workers to have an independent role. Some other pro-AKP entrepreneurs are under threat of PKK so class issues are on background in North.Kurdistan.

Since August 2015, there were uprisings in North Kurdistan, cities like Silvan, Cizre, Nusaybin and others, as you know self goverment was declared and militias (YPS) were formed. What do you think was the role of Kurdish workers' movement and working class in these uprisings?

The fighters are mainly from poor parts of the Kurdish society. However we can't talk about "Kurdish workers movement." there isn't any workers action.

Finallly, how do you see the perspectives for an alliance between Kurdish and Turkish workers in order to topple Erdogan's regime and make revolution possible in Turkey and North Kurdistan? Are Turkish workers ready to break with Turkish bourgeois nationalism, be it secular or Islamist?

Turkish and Kurdish workers work together in istanbul, izmir, ankara, adana,mersin and most of the industrialized parts of turkey. today working class movement is weak so workers are generally nationalists. but when the movement rise up i am sure the internationalism will grow. We saw it in the past.

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