Fascism can be seen as a means to an end to maintain the limits of the capitalist, neoliberal and patriarchal social order. It can be described as an extreme right-wing, chauvinist ideology in which a nation state is idealized under one leader, while other political ideologies, population groups and other faiths are devalued and persecuted. It creates, so to speak, an enemy image with which anti-propaganda is exercised against the persecuted and criminalized population groups. Fascist ideology tries to integrate, i.e. assimilate, all people, cultures and beliefs that deviate from the given ideal. Where this does not succeed, persecution and annihilation sets in. Violence, patriarchal images of masculinity and unity are idealized. Everything that could destroy this unity corresponds to the enemy image of the fascist regime. The emergence of fascism can be interpreted with a look at the history of resistance as the response of the ruling powers to the beginning of revolutionary movements. According to this ideology, the security of the state is preserved and consolidated.
Historically, it is often assumed that Mussolini established the first fascist regime by coming to power in Italy on 29 October 1922. The term fascism is also derived from the Italian and the definition was strongly influenced by the Italian fascism of the black shirts. Fascist ideology in Italy has been repeatedly described as a revolutionary current in which the actual social order is not changed. This can also be evaluated as a general characteristic of fascist ideologies and reinforces the thesis that fascism was used by the ruling powers as a means to consolidate the conservative and right-wing normative social order. Fascism is a response to revolts and revolutions of social movements that want to overthrow and change the existing system. Seemingly revolutionary, fascism in turn only stabilized the shaky social order and thus protected the power of the ruling class.
Even in the neoliberal nation states, fascist fundamentals are more or less strongly based. Thus all nation states are based on the assumption of the homogeneity of a nation, with a common language, culture, faith and a common ancestral habitat. Neo-liberal nation states, which cannot be called fascist directly, nevertheless always have fascist tendencies. The assimilation of other population groups, faiths and cultures also takes place here. The image of an apparent democracy is easy to upset, because according to Ugo Palheta, the issue here is not democracy itself, but an accumulation of money in the name of democracy. The apparent freedom to do everything and say everything is only for the bourgeoisie and the ruling class. But even the lower classes are growing up in the belief that they can do everything and thus they are guided by the ideal of the bourgeois middle and try to come closer and closer to this ideal. This supposed freedom in turn stabilizes the system of rule, in which the population is left in the belief that it is free, and the thought of change is no longer necessary with this apparent attainment of freedom, that is, no one thinks of revolution and a change in the existing conditions. These characteristics of the neoliberal nation state alone illustrate its intertwining with fascist ideology very well.
Turkey openly carries its fascist views to the outside world, which have become more and more entrenched since the construction of this nation state. Although it is largely assumed that fascism originated in Italy, fascist ideologies began to be consolidated much earlier. The existing way of thinking around the emergence of fascism is very Eurocentric. In 1908, the Committee for Unity and Progress, also known as Ittihad ve Terraki, came to power in Turkey, which was demonstrably the driving force behind the Armenian genocide between 1915 and 1916. Between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were deported and murdered during these years. It is known as the most important party of the Young Turks’ organization, which aspired to create the mystical Ottoman Empire and to realize this dream through Turanism, the unification of all Turkic peoples in one nation. Through some German sympathizers, such as Hans Humann, who himself lived in Turkey, the movement was increasingly influenced by conservative and nationalist ideologies. Shortly thereafter, a massive racist persecution of non-Muslim population groups set in. Kemal Atatürk came to power in 1923, he was the first leader within the newly founded Turkish Republic and sympathized with the Young Turks’ movement since his youth. In his, he retained key elements of the previous Ottoman Empire, such as authoritarian governance through the predominance of the military and civil service. European fascist currents oriented themselves to the implementation of fascism in Turkey. Hitler, too, took Ataturk as a model and once described him as a shining star in his Munich fighting days.
Since then, fascism in the Turkish state has continued to develop and has taken on the most diverse forms. But here, too, fascist ideology is a means of the ruling powers to consolidate a cult of strength and unity around Erdogan and the coalition between the AKP, to which Erdogan belongs among others, and the MHP, in which the Grey Wolves organization is located. The expansion of the Neo-Ottoman Empire would not be possible without the immeasurable violence and oppression of special war and the occupation of other populations. The fascist state of Turkey is supported by many other nation states around the world. Germany, the U.S., Britain, Israel and many other countries annually supply huge arms exports to Turkey, supporting the invasion of the liberated Kurdish areas and adjacent nation-states. There is also diplomatic, financial and political support. The support of Turkey is a clear statement against free life, against the building of democracy and against the liberation of women worldwide!
The biggest enemy image of Turkey is the Kurdish population, which has been oppressed and colonized for a long time and which has organized itself further and further under the formation of the PKK and entered into a serious resistance against fascist Turkey. Under the ideal of “one culture, one religion and one people” Turkey also tried to assimilate the Kurdish population. After this did not succeed, for example in Dersim 1938, poison gas was used, following the German example and with actual german support, against the Kurdish Alevi population, who were claiming their autonomy rights, in order to destroy them. The assimilation of the most diverse peoples into the Turkish state was advanced by the most diverse means. For example, the Kurdish language was banned without further ado and Kurdish children learned only Turkish in schools. Attempts were made to snatch them from their culture and integrate them into another culture.
With the freedom movement of Kurdistan and the revolutionary forces of the Middle East, autonomous, self-governing areas were fought for and defended.
After some defeats of fascist Turkey in the autonomous regions of Kurdistan during the last years, the attacks on the antifascist struggles in Northeast Syria, in the mountains of South and North Kurdistan and in Europe are increasing more and more. In June, Turkey launched two new ground offensives in Southern Kurdistan in the region of Heftanin. Since then, drones and fighter planes have been bombarded there again and again and some military bases of the Turkish army have been established. The population is systematically attacked in cooperation with Islamist gangs. On June 23, a drone attack was reported in Kobane on three civilians, all of whom lost their lives. In connection with this attack, a few days later a feminist action took place in Vienna, which was attacked by Turkish nationalists. A few days later, about 250 Turkish fascists also attacked the EKH, a leftist autonomous center in Vienna.
In August, Turkey attacked the regions of Shengal, Mexmur and Quandil. There was also a drone attack on a factory in Quamislo to sabotage the direct economic supply of the population in Rojava. In the last month, too, more and more civilians became victims of drone strikes, and in the regions around Minbic and Ain-Issa there were in the meantime daily bomb attacks, artillery attacks and an attempt to take over by Islamist gangs. In recent days there have been protests in the occupied territories of Serekanye and Afrin after a teacher in France was beheaded for showing the Islamophobic cartoons of Charlie Hebdo in his classroom. Erdogan therefore called for a boycott of France, whereupon French flags were burned during the protests in the occupied regions and Islamists could openly show their daeshflags and shout their slogans in the streets. On the same day, protests also took place in Deir ez-Zor. There, too, Daeshflags were again shown openly in the streets.
With the tolerance of many nation states towards Turkey, indirectly all fascist takeovers and attacks all over the world are legitimized and tolerated. The influence of the MIT in many European states, the strengthening of the AFD in Germany and the FPÖ in Austria and also the close friendship between Erdogan and the Hungarian dictatorship under Victor Orban leave no doubt about the progressing normalization of fascist currents. This is only a small fraction of the current processes. In Poland, women’s right to self-determination is being increasingly restricted and patriarchal rule is being strengthened, and politicians in France speak openly about their fascist views and how they intend to exploit the Islamist attacks to consolidate the extremely right-normative image of unity among the population.
The antifascist struggle is a response to these attacks on life. The resistance against the fascist, patriarchal and neo-liberal system is essential for survival and can give alternatives to the dominant and state dictated social order. The social and systemic norms, which are determined by the ruling powers, can only be answered and destroyed with a worldwide revolution.
In the mountains of South and North Kurdistan and in Rojava, the antifascist struggle is being lifted to a new level and a first step towards a worldwide change of the current conditions is taking place. The formation of a revolutionary united front against Turkish fascism is expressed by the union of some Turkish leftist groups together with the PKK in the HBDH. The revolutionary united front HBDH was founded in 2016 and since then has been actively resisting imperialism, fascism, racism, capitalism and conservatism in all forms. This liberation struggle is a model for all antifascist struggles around the world. The revolution is not only a revolution for the liberation of the Kurdish population, but a worldwide revolution for the liberation from the modern disease of capitalism, the consumerist attitude of society, from patriarchy and its oppression of women worldwide and from the selfish individualistic way of life, in which we can no longer turn our eyes away from ourselves, towards a truly free life without ruling powers that forbid us to think independently and live a diverse life!
As internationalists, who see ourselves as part of this revolution, we want to learn from this struggle to create a stronger organization of society and a change in the existing systemic order in the rest of the world.
While direct action and defensive struggles against attempts at state repression and restriction predominate in Europe, more in-depth work is being done here at various levels. The liberation of women and the accompanying struggle against patriarchy, the participation in ecological struggles against the advancing climate destruction and a militant way of life are part of the anti-fascist struggle and must not be excluded from it.
But what does an antifascist organization with revolutionary values look like?
If we unite more strongly and no longer look at individual small parts of the world and their struggles, if we stop splitting up into small groups even in the smallest units in cities, which cannot work together and are in eternal conflict with each other, then we will lose our current powerlessness and weakness, which is particularly evident in Europe in relation to the ruling system. Hope and utopias are a driving force in our struggle that should not be underestimated. We have to move away from nihilism and the neoliberal attitude that we are fighting only for our own ends and for our closest friends, and even then, we no longer have faith in the realization of our goals. The fight out of an end in itself is a liberal antifascist fight, with which we half-heartedly stop where it could become uncomfortable for us, in which we let ourselves be consistently restricted by the threatening repression of the state and thus move within a legal framework that the state gives us. It should be clear that this will not change anything.
In order to beat the ruling powers with their enormous technological progress and their huge armies, it is necessary to build up a counter power that can take on this monster. Only through blockades, demonstrations and isolated small actions this monster will not die. The ideological training of ourselves, of our friends and of society, and all the other methods and actions with which we fight day after day against this system should not be neglected and should not be pushed into the background.
How do we want to live? How do we manage to overcome our individualism and create a cooperative collectivism together? What does organization mean? What revolutionary antifascist and antipatriarchal struggles are taking place and have taken place all over the world? What can we learn from these struggles and what should we do differently and, above all, how can we support the current revolutionary processes in the world more strongly and participate in them more?
Above all, understanding our society, our culture and history is a first good step towards change. Without a basic understanding of these things, change is impossible.
It is equally important for the ruling system to take their places where they spread their fascist, patriarchal and neoliberal ideology. So let’s take back the places that the state and the fascists have taken for themselves, including the schools, the villages, the youth centers and especially the neighborhoods we left because too many fascists have taken them for themselves. Basically, it is important that with all the resistance we offer, we have our goal in the first place, and only in the second place to think about the threatening repression of the state, making us weaker than we actually are.
Let us stand up together against the worldwide spread of fascism and for the defense and construction of the revolution!
Smash turkish and worldwide fascism!