When
the Communist Party of Cyprus was established officially on 14 August 1926,
there was no Turkish Cypriots among its founders. Although one of its aims was
"to form a united anti-British front of Greeks and Turks", its
contact with the Turkish Cypriot community was very limited. The party
supported at first the independence and later the autonomy of the island. The
difference of ideas between the Communist Party of Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot
nationalists who were advocating the union of the island with Greece (enosis)
obstructed the formation of the "anti-imperialist unity front" which
was the aim of the communists. On the other hand, Kemalism was the only valid
ideology in Turkey and among Turkish Cypriots. The socialist literature published
in Turkish language was almost non-existent in Cyprus, because the influence of
the Communist Party of Turkey, which was prohibited in Turkey in 1923, was
negligible even in Turkey.
According
the information at hand, some T/C workers were also organized in the common
Trade Union of Construction Workers, established in April 1919 and the T/C
workers took part in the activities of the Limassol Labour Centre, which united
all the workers under one organization in 1924. The constitution of the
Limassol Labour Centre was translated into Turkish language, so that the T/C
could learn the aims and the purpose of the Centre. Mr.Yiannis Lefkis, who was
one of the founders of the Communist Party of Cyprus, wrote in his memoirs that
the Constitution of the Labour Centre was translated into Turkish by a T/C
called Mustafa who had a good knowledge of Greek who later emigrated to Turkey
and worked for a while at the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Both T/C and G/C
participated at the opening ceremony of the centre and the constitution was
adopted unanimously.
We
can also see from a T/C newspaper called "Birlik" (Unity) that it had
a good relationship with one of the first communist publications in Cyprus
"Neos Antropos". Birlik in its issue of 30 January 1925 (No.53)
reproduced a letter written by Mr.H.Solomonides, written in the name of the
writers of the Neos Antropos newspaper, published in Limassol. Mr.Solomonides
thanked Birlik for the letter it sent on the occasion of the publication of the
first issue of "Neos Antropos". Mr Solomonides told that they
followed the Birlik newspaper with great interest and that he was sorry for not
being able to publish half of the newspaper in Turkish, although they decided
to do so, but since there was no Turkish printing house in Limassol, they could
not succeed. Birlik, in its next issue, reproduced an article of Neos Antropos
in Turkish, which was telling that the people of Cyprus did not want to get rid
of British administration for the sake of living under the Greek administration.
In
April 1924, there were 250 G/C and 65 T/C representatives at the first meeting
of the agricultural workers which was organized by advocate Kyriakos Rossides
in Lefkoniko. Two T/Cs were elected as delegates. The second meeting was held
in Nicosia in July 1925 where it was decided to form a common "Rural
Greek-Turkish Party". Owing to personal dissensions, this party did not
come into effect.
We
also know that there was another constitution translated and published in
Turkish in Nicosia on 20th October 1931. This constitution belonged to the
"Nicosia Labour Club" (Lefkoşa Amele Kulübü Nizamname-i Esasisi)
which had 16 pages. 500 copies were printed and sold for one piastre.
At
the end of 1920's and at the beginning of 1930's, there were drought and poverty
in Cyprus and economical crisis in the capitalist world. The people of Cyprus
was leaning to the ideals of socialism and organizing themselves in trade
unions. On the other hand, the British colonial administration tried to block
the development of the working class movement by changing the penal code and
prohibiting the left wing books.
After
the rebellion in October 1931, the British Colonial Constitution and the
Legislative Council were abolished. Before this event happened, we read an
article in the Soz newspaper, dated 13 August 1931, under the title "The
one who left the flock behind will be eaten by the wolf!" which gives us
an idea about the political activities of the T/C left-wingers in those days:
"In
the last weeks, the communists issued statements in Nicosia and in other
district centres and they invited the artisans to Bolshevism. We shall not
analyze or support their statements. Since we have seen some T/C names among
those who signed these statements, we want to deal with them and explain our
views... We do not know which T/C approached and met the Bolsheviks. But
whoever they are, we are offended with this act and they put themselves in a
very dangerous position...We understand from the complaints in the G/C
newspapers that there are some 60 G/C teachers who cooperate with the
communists. But there is none from the T/C teachers. This is a good sign for us
and this is a clear evidence that the T/C community has no relationship
whatsoever with the bolshevik movement. If one or two illiterate T/C who are
not aware of themselves had gone under the influence of the communists and left
us, this is not due to the failure of our community. If there is any fault, it
is of those who deviated to dark roads and we are sure that they will be eaten by
the wolf, because they left the flock behind."
The
CP of Cyprus and eight affiliated organizations were outlawed in August 1933
after some amendments were made to the existing laws. The leaders of the CP
were sent abroad. The G/C newspaper "Hronos" reported in its issue of
4th October 1933 that a T/C called Hasan Hilmi of Gilani was among those who
were arrested for making propaganda of communism.
When
the British colonial regime allowed the activities of political parties in
1941, the AKEL was formed as the legal organ of the CP of Cyprus. Again there was
no T/C among its founders.
When the AKEL adopted the policy of
union with Greece (enosis) at its second congress at the beginning of 1943,
there started some problems for the T/C in their cooperation with the G/C, both
in the trade union movement and in the political activities We observe here for
the first time the division of the working class movement on the ethnic
basis.
The
First T/C Trade Union was formed on 27 December 1942 under the name
"Nicosia Turkish Carpenters' Union" with the departure of 12 T/C
carpenters from the common Trade Union under the leadership of Niyazi Dagli.
The propaganda for Enosis was again the reason why the T/C agricultural workers
left the newly formed Pancyprian Agrarian Union in 1943. The enosis leanings of
the PEK prevented the further participation of the T/C. On 1 May 1943, the T/C
villagers formed their own "Turkish Cypriot Union of Farmers".
The
division of the working class movement on ethnic basis deepened when on 13
August 1944, hundreds of T/C workers left the PEO building in order to
establish new T/C trade unions. In 1945, 843 T/C workers were organized in the
separate T/C trade unions, under the name "Turkish Cypriot Union of
Workers".
D.A.Alkan,
who was Dervish Ali Kavazoglu's pseudonym, wrote the following in his article
titled "Why the Turkish Workers' Union separated from the
Greek-Cypriots?" on 13 June 1944 (No.429) of the Halkin Sesi newspaper. He
was answering the article of Mr.Yakovides, the District Secretary of the
Nicosia Workers Union, published in Anexartitos newspaper, dated 28.5.1944:
"(...)
You decorated your union's building on 25th March with your own flags and made
various speeches, but you did not never let us to raise the Turkish flag on our
national days and we did not say any word about the celebration of our such
national days. The worst of it, you did not give us the opportunity to hear to
the Ankara radio during the greatest sports bairam. (...) Your
secretary-general Mr.Ziartides sent a pompous telegram to the British Prime
Minister for the union of Cyprus with Greece. Although hundreds of Turkish and
Armenians were members of your Union, you shouted in some of the general
meetings "Brothers! Because we are Greeks, we have to continue our
struggle and organize ourselves, so that at the end of the war, we could
develop our nation." If you do not make discrimination between the racial
and religious differences, why is there not a single Turk in the district board
of the Union which is recognized by the government (...)."
I
quote another passage from the open letter of Nicosia secretary of the T/C TU,
Mehmet Niyazi, to the Nicosia District Workers Union, published on 22 June 1944
in Halkin Sesi:
"How
many Turkish placates were among the hundreds of the Greek ones during the
celebrations of 1 May 1943? None were present. During the meeting where the
decision was taken for the general strike in 1943, noone spoke Turkish and
suddenly when this was told to you after the G/C workers dispersed, you wanted
to keep the workers under the rain... Did you try to employ T/C workers at
least according to the population quota? Was there any research that the wages
of the T/C would be equal or near to the G/C workers? In short, did you care
for the rights of the Turks? No! No! No!"
The
T/C newspaper Yanki, on its issue of 26 February 1945 No.9, published an
article under the title "G/C parties and us". It was referring to
another article published in the journal of the Limassol Municipality under the
title "The position of the Turks". Here are some excerpts:
"Although the Limassol Municipality accepted the fact that we don't
support enosis, they want to see efforts for our future participation at this
cause...We believe in the true friendship between the T/C and G/C... But we see
with sorrow that the love we see from the G/C friends is not more than a
political respect. Because they still insist not to give the post of second
presidency in the municipalities to us and they neglect the Turkish language in
municipal matters..."
In
another excerpt from the letter of the "Turkish Labour Union" sent to
the British Secretary of the Ministry of the Colonies, published in Yanki,
dated 6 May 1945, was saying this:
"Don't allow the oppression of the
T/C civil servants or workers under the G/C, so that they would develop and
have success... The street labels which are put on the walls of every street
should be written also in Turkish... Every document to be sent from the
colonial offices to any Turk should be written in Turkish, not in Greek or
English... Besides 1st May, the Turkish national days should be accepted and
celebrated officially. The T/C and their schools should be called not as
Islamic, but as Turkish."
In
October 1947, the first T/C left wing publication was issued under the name of
"Iscinin Yolu SASMAZ" (which means in English, "the path of the
worker does not deviate"). But this monthly journal stopped its
publication after the second issue, with the pretext that the contents were
"too ideological".
The Great Miners' Strike, which
continued 125 days from 13 January to 17 May 1948, is a good example of
cooperation between the T/C and G/C trade unions. In the beginning, the T/C
newspapers Halkin Sesi and Hursoz which were close to the T/C leadership
supported the strike. But later they withdrew their support. There was a need
to publish a daily newspaper of the workers for the first time. This was
possible only on 19 May 1948, two days after the end of the strike. The name of
this newspaper was "Emekci" (Labourer). This newspaper stopped its
daily publication for a while in 1949 and restarted as a weekly. It had to stop
its publication because of a libel case from Dr.Kucuk, T/C leader and owner of
the Halkin Sesi daily.
Mr.Ezekias Papaioannou was elected as
the new secretary-general of the AKEL at its 6th Congress in August 1949. His
slogan was "Enosis and only enosis" and he had the support of Nicos
Zahariades, leader of the CP of Greece.
Neos
Cosmos, the illegal organ of the CP of Greece wrote in its issue of November
1951 that the enosis slogan permitted the strongest anti-imperialist mobilization
under the then existing conditions.
At the 7th Congress of the AKEL in
December 1951, a resolution was adopted which pledged for the party "to
pay greater attention to those in the T/C minority who were still under the
influence of the chauvinist (mainland-oriented) Turkish bourgeoisie and
landlords."
The
nationalist policy of AKEL alienated the T/C community more and more. An
interesting article was published in the Greek-Cypriot daily Neos Anthropos
which was reproduced a few days later, on 19.3.1952 by the Turkish-Cypriot
daily Halkin Sesi.
The
article was written by G.Ioannidis, K.Koliannis and P.Roussou and its title was
"Liberation Struggle of the People of Cyprus - The Turkish Minority".
Here
are some excerpts:
"The
problem of Turkish minority is the main problem in the anti-imperialist
struggle. And the AKEL has to put its policy on these problems with seriousness
and certainty...It is obvious that the Turkish-Cypriot worker will not believe
in the slogan of enosis with Greece...The Turkish-Cypriots do not believe in
the Greek-Cypriots and they don't trust the Akelists. Because they don't trust
the chauvinism of Great Greece...There has to be a single party of the working
people. This can be the National Turkish Branch of this single party
(AKEL)...Turkish problem in Cyprus is a special national question within the
whole National Question. If the AKEL does not have a complete national policy
for the Turkish minority, it will not be able to deal both with the enosis
cause and the Greek National Cause."
The
PEO which started to cooperate from the summer of 1948 onwards with the T/C
Trade Unions decided in November 1952 to open a central bureau for its T/C
members. In March 1954, Mr.Ahmet Sadi Erkurt, who was the owner and the editor
of the "Emekci" newspaper (and since 1952, a member of the Central
Council of the PEO) was appointed to the head of this T/C Bureau of the PEO.
The
AKEL, too, published the first Turkish language statement of the "Turkish
Branch of the Party" in October 1954 which was widely distributed up to
Galatia village in Karpasia. This first historical statement included the
well-known Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet's message to the T/C, who asked them to
cooperate with their G/C brothers in their struggle for peace and freedom in
Cyprus which should stop being a colony and a military base, serving for
imperialism.
At
the end of 1954, we see that 1,500 T/C workers were organized in the PEO. The
left-wing trade union PEO started to publish statements frequently in Turkish
language and a monthly organ called "Isci Bulteni" (Workers
Bulletin). It was even planned to publish a weekly trade union newspaper called
"Iscinin Sesi" (Worker's Voice), but when "Inkilapci"
(Revolutionary) weekly newspaper was published on 13 September 1955, they did
not realize this plan.
The
"Inkilapci" newspaper could be published only 14 weeks and it became
the voice of the workers. It published articles and news about all the
important social and economical subjects of those days. But after the British
colonial administration declared the emergency situation on 14 December 1955,
this newspaper was closed together with "Neos Democratis", the daily
newspaper of the AKEL. The AKEL, being the first and then the leftist organization
of the villagers, youth and women were outlawed and many leftists were arrested
and put into prison. As it can be understood from the article under the title
"Threat", published in the last issue of "Inkilapci" on 12
December 1955, the then T/C leadership and its underground organization sent
letters of threat to the publisher team of the "Inkilapci", bearing
sentences like "Stop the publication of Inkilapci, you will be killed,
your head will be crushed".
After
the T/C and G/C workers marched together on the 1 May 1958 and stated their
decisiveness to wage a common struggle against imperialism and colonialism, the
TMT (Turkish Resistance Organization) published a statement and asked the
resignation of the T/C workers from the G/C trade-union, the PEO and warned
those who collaborate with the G/C that they would be punished. Then T/C
newspapers of those days were full of resignations from the PEO. And the first
terror action started on 22 May 1958 with the murder attempt to Ahmet Sadi, the
head of the Turkish section of the PEO. Later on 24 May, Fazil Onder, the
editor of the "Inkilapci" newspaper was killed. Other progressive T/C
were either killed or wounded in Nicosia and Limassol.
Simultaneously,
as Turkey and the T/C leadership continued their policy, that the partition
would be the only solution to the Cyprus question. The G/C and the T/C
left-wingers who were against the partition of the island were raising their voices
and making opposition. For example, the T/C branch of the AKEL, in a letter
dated 19 January 1957, given to Prof.Nihat Erim who was in Cyprus during that
time, stated that "the Cyprus people, the T/C and G/C, were a
non-divisible whole. They had lived together on this soil since centuries and
they still live." They conveyed their views such as the following:
"The idea of partitioning the island is both not possible to implement and
cannot be a form of final solution to the Cyprus question, because the T/C and
G/C people do not live in separate areas. It will end up with a problem of
displacement of people. The history has taught us to whose interests such
events can serve."
***
After
almost 50 years, we observe that the prediction of the AKEL Turkish Branch has
proven right and our island, Cyprus, has been de-facto partitioned.
Unfortunately after 1974, the AKEL, which is supposed to be the party of the
whole working people of Cyprus, had decided to close its so-called
"Minorities Department".
Is
it not because of this vital failure of not forming the common anti-imperialist
front of all Cypriots that we experience today the division of our beautiful
island? Since our struggle is common, why are we still not in a position to
form a united front of the G/C and T/C working masses?
1.Ahmet An, Thoughts on the thesis of
the 80th anniversary of KKK/AKEL (8 parts), Afrika newspaper, 15-22 May 2005
2. Ahmet An, An Overview Of The Past And
Present Of The Turkish Cypriot Left, Ex Ibarhi (in Greek), in 5 parts starting
from No.47 (November 2003) to No.51 (March 2004)3. Ahmet An, List of Turkish Books printed in Cyprus 1878-1997, Nicosia 1997
4. Birlik, 30 January 1925, No.53 (quoted by Harid Fedai, From Our Old Press, Kıbrıs, 6 May 2002)
5. Birlik, 6 February 1925, No.54 (quoted by Harid Fedai, From Our Old Press, Kıbrıs, 8 July 2002)
6. Kemal Cankat, The Influence of the October revolution on the political organisation of the Working Class of Cyprus, Soz newspaper, 6-13 November 1987
7. Koylu newspaper, 8 November 1954 and Halkin Sesi newspaper, 20 October 1954 (No: 3528)
8. Michalis Michaelides, The Turkish Cypriot Working Class and the Cyprus Labour Movement, The Cyprus Review, Fall 1993, pp.33-57
9. Nihat Erim, Cyprus as I have known and seen, Ankara 1975, pp.55-57
(This paper was presented at the seminar organised by
the INEK-PEO and DEV-IS on 13 October 2005 in Nicosia)
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