The diplomatic meaning of a handshake

In October 2024, a surprising moment in Turkish politics occurred when Devlet Baheli, leader of the nationalist MHP party, shook hands with DEM party leaders during the opening of the legislative session of the Turkish Parliament. Known for his hard line and frequent criticism of the DEM party, which represents Kurdish political interests, Baheli's gesture sparked much discussion. Political analyst Veysi Sarszen says that while the CHP's gestures signal alignment with the ruling bloc, the DEM party's diplomatic exchanges represent a principled stance: uncompromising in the class struggle, open to peace talks.

Veysi Sarszen

In the main newscast of Tele 1, criticism was made comparing the ovation of the main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan with the handshake of the Party's co-president for the equality of peoples and democracy (DEM), pro-Kurdish, with the extreme right. Devlet Baheli, leader of the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). At the same time, the position of the chairman of the Workers' Party of Türkiye (TP) was praised.

What can we say about it?

In seeking an answer to this question, I put myself in the shoes of the DEM party leaders. Would I have shaken Baheli’s outstretched hand?

If I was a leader of the TP (the former TP), I would have left Bahelis' hand hanging in the air.

However, if I had been a leader of the DEM party, particularly of the Kurdish faction, I would not have hesitated to shake the outstretched hand of the representative of the Kurdish people in the name of the Turkish state, even if I did not understand it. not really the reason. time.

I believe that there is a qualitative difference between a parliamentarian representing the leading sections of the Turkish working class and a parliamentarian representing the Kurdish people.

For the Turkish working class, there can be no class reconciliation with capital or its political representatives, especially when these representatives are ultranationalist and anti-union. In the class struggle, there is no room for parliamentary and diplomatic courtesy. There can be no social peace with the class enemy in the class struggle.

On the other hand, a parliamentarian representing colonial Kurdistan is also a diplomat in a context of war with the colonizers. In a way, they represent one of two countries at war and, like any diplomat, must respect the demands of diplomatic courtesy towards their enemy. Indeed, the role of this parliamentarian-diplomat is both to wage war against the colonial aggressor and to work for peace with equal rights.

To be precise: Devlet Baheli greeted the DEM party group at the opening meeting of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and shook hands with the group's representatives. Whose hand did he shake? In the hands of the DEM Party leaders, whose immediate closure he had previously called for, with their salaries confiscated and handed over to the families of our heroic martyrs. It is Baheli, not DEM party members, who should explain this action. And indeed, he explained: If we want peace in the world, we also want peace in our country.

These words have no real value in Turkish politics. DEM Party leaders have heard even more grandiose statements like this before and have not forgotten what those who called Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Calan Mr. Calan during the peace process, they continued to say later. Politically, this is the case. On the other hand, when the most hawkish representative of the war against the Kurdish people speaks of peace, these words are not recorded in Bakrhan's political diary but in his diplomatic diary as valuable words for peace. These words are precious because the invincible struggle of the Kurdish Freedom Movement forced Baheli to say them. They are valuable because they signal that those who simply talk about peace will one day be forced to sit at the peace table. And so it will be.

In the class struggle, the DEM party and Bakrhan have only one book, and in this book, the determination to continue the class struggle without compromise until achieving women's libertarian, ecological and community socialism is written and emphasized repeatedly. In the war that lasted almost half a century, the words Freedom for Calan and Solution to the Kurdish Question based on an equal and honorable peace are written in the same bold terms in the notebooks that the DEM Party and Bakrhan carry in their pockets.

No one can tarnish the struggle of the DEM party in the slightest, based on the words written in these two books. At the same time, there is no contradiction between these two books. Some only look at the diplomatic logbook and see a conflict between the class struggle and the struggle for peace, saying that if peace between the PKK and the Turkish Republic is achieved in exchange for the freedom of the calan and a solution to the Kurdish question, the Kurdish people will turn away from the class struggle. They fail to see that it is precisely because such peace has not yet been achieved that the class struggle has been curbed and Turkish workers have been forced to collaborate with their class enemies under the influence of nationalist-chauvinist-militarist propaganda.

The conclusion is clear: CHP leader zgr zel standing up, chatting over coffee with Baheli, and DEM party leaders not letting Bahelis extend his hand in the air are two absolutely irreconcilable and incomparable actions.

The state is gradually pushing the CHP toward a national coalition with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and the CHP leadership is responding in kind. The standing ovation and the friendly exchange with Baheli are nauseating signs of this.

Bakrhan, however, as a member of the Turkish Parliament, declares: “We will not compromise with you in the class struggle, and this uncompromising position is well documented in the half-century history of his party.” But as a Kurdish diplomat, Bakrhan is effectively saying: “We would even sit down with you at the peace table to end the half-century-old war and seek a solution.

No one should confuse the situation with unfortunate comparisons, looking for something that doesn't exist.