Socialist Party of the Oppressed Ezilenlerin Sosyalist Partisi | |
---|---|
Kurdish name | Partiya Sosyalîst a Bindestan |
Leader | Özlem Gümüştaş Şahin Tümüklü |
Founded | 29 January 2010 |
Headquarters | Çankaya, Ankara |
Youth wing | Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF) |
Membership (2024) | 440 [1] |
Ideology |
Communism Marxism–Leninism Hoxhaism Anti-revisionism |
Political position | Far-left |
National affiliation | Peoples' Democratic Congress |
Colours | Red, White, Blue |
Socialist Party of the Oppressed ( Turkish: Ezilenlerin Sosyalist Partisi, ESP; Kurdish: Partiya Sosyalîst a Bindestan, PSB) [2] is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the Republic of Turkey. It defines itself as "a militant revolutionary socialist party fighting for a workers'-labourers' federative republic in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan." [3]
Some sources, including the public officials, hold the view that ESP is a legal front for the banned ICOR affiliate Marxist–Leninist Communist Party. [4] [5] [6] Among its founders is Figen Yüksekdağ, the former co-president of the Peoples' Democratic Party. [7]
The party is one of the participants in the Peoples' Democratic Congress, a political initiative instrumental in founding the Peoples' Democratic Party in 2012. [8]
In 2013 The Daily Telegraph called it "a small leftist group" after the homes of 90 ESP members were raided in connection with their involvement in the 2013 protests in Turkey. [9] The Telegraph noted that "Police also searched the offices of the Atilim daily [ Atılım] and the Etkin news agency, local media outlets linked to the ESP group, the NTV and CNN-Turk television stations reported." [9] [10] [11]
The youth wing of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed, known as the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF), [7] was the main target of the 2015 Suruç bombing. [12] A group had travelled from Istanbul to Suruç on the Syrian border to assist in the reconstruction of the neighboring Syrian town of Kobanî after it was destroyed by warfare. [7]