Removing Can Atalay from parliament is an attack on the working class

Can Atalay was elected as the Member of Parliament for Hatay from the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) in the 2023 election. Since 2022, he has been serving an 18-year prison sentence for his involvement in the Gezi Park protests in 2013. We have translatedthis article from Marxist Tutum.

Can Atalay’s court case has bounced back and forth between the Constitutional and Supreme Courts like a tennis ball, but the regime has once more shown its open contempt for the law and the Constitution by finally removing the TİP MP for Hatay from Parliament.

Before the reading of the Supreme Court’s verdict in Parliament, the TİP leader Erkan Baş’s speech from the rostrum summarised how the usurpation of Can Atalay’s rights has been a travesty of justice:

“If the Parliamentary Council does not recognise the constitution, then there is no President of Parliament. When this decision becomes official, all of your positions as MPs will come into question. The President of the Republic, the ministers, all of it will come into question. I want to ask one single question. I put this question to all citizens with a working mind, with a conscience. Now the verdict will be read and Can Atalay will be removed from parliament. So, was Can Atalay an MP or wasn’t he? How can you keep him in prison for nine months? If he is an MP, why is he in prison? If he wasn’t an MP, then how can he be removed from parliament? This enterprise is against all reason, all conscience, and the law.”

TİP MPs reacted to this verdict in Parliament alongside MPs from DEM (People’s Equality and Democracy Party - the successor to the now-banned HDP), CHP (Republican People’s Party - nationalists and secularists, the largest opposition party), and the Felicity Party (an Islamist party which opposes the government), but the regime did not change course. The fascist regime, which declared Atalay a terrorist, set its sights on taking revenge against all workers, socialists, and democrats who resisted, struggled, and refused to submit. Can Atalay was not only targeted by the regime because he is a symbol of Gezi. As Barış Atay said, he was also the lawyer of the Soma miners, of the survivors of the Çorlu train accident, of those killed by the earthquake, and of the children who burnt to death in Aladağ.

There have been protests across the country against the removal of Can Atalay from parliament. TİP gave this statement at a protest in Ankara organised by a number of different political parties:

“We say this to all who had a hand in this decision, from the smallest share of responsibility to those who signed the verdict: If you think that you can profane the Gezi Resistance, one of the greatest pages in this country’s history, you are mistaken. You will pay for disregarding the will of the people of Hatay, who you have condemned to death. We also make this call to our own people: we are bigger than the Palace, we are greater than the government, we are bigger than the bosses. That’s why we must come together again and fight. Sooner or later, Can Atalay will be released from within those four walls where he is held captive. The people of Hatay will once again have their MP.”

Can Atalay released this message from Marmara (Silivri) Prison where he is being held: “Turkey will not fit into this straightjacket of lawlessness, together we will come to see that”. With these words, he challenged the sense of the despair that the regime is trying to spread. “Will I stop trying to do my duty just because they say it is over? Never! I owe that to my country, to the people of Hatay, to the people who voted even from the centre of a destroyed city.” Even though the conditions are difficult and the opportunities are few, Atalay said “I will try to be a representative for our people, especially those in Hatay and the earthquake zone, and those who live by their own labour”, and confirmed that he would continue the struggle from behind bars.

The removal of Atalay, who has defended the workers in court and was elected by their votes, is a black comedy that once again demonstrates the fascist character of the anti-working class regime. This is an attack against all workers and the oppressed. The working class will not let the regime get away with this of course, and will respond with increased organised struggle. This attack from the regime also demonstrates that the parliament has ceased to do its job. Again, it shows that without the organised struggle of the working masses, being a member of parliament means very little. The truth is that Turkey is in a state of complete fascist putrefaction and decay. This thick fog will only be dispersed by the organised struggle of the working class. All the powers of the class should be focused on this goal.