The 'black ribbon' action called by the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) in order to draw attention to the health workers who lost their lives in the pandemi was a "treacherous scheme", MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli said, "The TTB should be closed immediately and without delay" and "Judicial action to be taken against its administrators". It is clear that this call of Bahçeli is not the personal opinion of a party chairman. On the contrary, since the establishment of the one-man power, Bahçeli's statements have also reflect the official view of the fascist "People's Alliance" bloc.
In this regard, it is enough to remind that the decision to hold the June 24 snap elections was taken after the statements of Bahçeli, despite the government spokespersons saying "No elections" in early 2018. For this reason, Bahçeli's last statements should also be understood as an expression of the ruling bloc's determination to silence all opposing social segments and establish a fascist regime in the country. What is more striking was that the TTB was again targeted before the June 24 elections, which was one of the important turning points in the establishment of the one-man power.
Remembering that as a result of the government's perception of the Syrian Kurds as a "threat", the Afrin operation was launched in early 2018, and the TTB published the "War is a Public Health Problem" declaration advocating peace against this operation. After President Erdogan's statements targeting the TTB, who reacted to this declaration, members of the TTB's central council were detained in raids on their homes - which, as a result of the trial, 11 TTB executives were sentenced to prison. The detention of TTB executives during the Afrin operation revealed the extent of the government's intolerance against those who defended peace in the face of this operation. Subsequently, the nationalist wave created during the Afrin operation and the total aggression against the society who defended democracy and peace against it became one of the important pillars of the victory of the 24 June elections by the ruling bloc. However, while the pandemic that threatens the lives of people continues to increase, the reckless targeting of the TTB as a professional organization at the center of the fight against the pandemic points to a new stage in the aggression of the ruling block.
These statements of Bahçeli, are not only to the TTB; which are an expression of the intolerance of the ruling bloc against making its own failures visible by the society. At the same time, it is necessary to say that it is an implicit threat to the scientists who say that control is lost in the fight against the pandemic and to the people who no longer have confidence in the statements of the Minister of Health that lay the blame on the citizens. Beyond that, if the government in the past put the bar associations as a target and enacted the law of division of the bar associations was not only an issue for lawyers and law makers, today it is not only a matter that concerns doctors. On the contrary, the tendency towards the TTB is the last link of total aggression, committed to establishing a fascist regime which is a part of the regularisation of the bar associations.
Here it is useful to make a few brief reminders about the role of Bahçeli and the MHP in the construction of this fascist regime. After the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, the state of emergency was declared and the country started to be governed by decrees and the 'Operation Euphrates Shield' was launched against ISIS, but in reality Syrian Kurds in the same process. It paved the way. Thanks to this support of the MHP, the "Presidential Government System" was accepted in the referendum on April 16, 2017, one of the most dubious elections in the country's history. Later, this cooperation was made permanent under the name of the "People's Alliance" and after the June 24, 2018 elections, the one-man regime was transformed into an institutional framework.
Of course, fascism cannot be explained by the attitude of a party. Fascism is the most aggressive form of government of the monopoly bourgeois reaction, and the MHP, together with the Erdogan AKP, is one of the political pillars of the construction of this regime. The warrior policies and expansionist aspirations of the current ruling bloc based on the interests of the monopoly bourgeois reaction, likewise, as a result of the Kurds' not wanting to share their own sovereignty as a threat, the practices aimed at the liquidation of Kurdish politics in the country, the prohibition of strikes and all kinds of working class and opposition society segments. There is no need to be an oracle to say that the policy of the government, especially the prohibition of the act of rights by the governorships on the pretext of a pandemic, aims at the construction of such a regime.
Here, women's organizations have been suspending this step for now, following the reaction of the broader sections of society against the desire to leave the Istanbul Convention, similarly, the regulation on this issue has been suspended due to the reaction of the working class to the liquidation of severance pay, or the imperialists in foreign policy in the Eastern Mediterranean. The withdrawal of Oruç Reis to Antalya in the face of the increasing pressure is not to give up these expansionist and aggressive policies; it becomes meaningful as maneuvers to create / wait for more suitable conditions for these policies.
As a result, the targeting of the TTB during the pandemic process shows strikingly how harmful and dangerous this fascist ruling bloc, which has nothing to give the working class and working people apart from war, exploitation and oppression, is for public health. For this reason, it is of great importance to embrace the TTB and its actions in order to defend life and democracy in the face of building a fascist regime against the policies of the government that leave people to their fate.
Yusuf Karadaş
Ceren Sözeri
Aras Coşkuntuncel