Roni Gönen, Istanbul Provincial co-chair of the Socialist Re-establishment Party (SYKP), one of the parties of the Labor and Freedom Alliance, spoke to ANF and said that they have been working as a component party since the day the HDP was founded.

Gönen said that SYKP adopted the principle of joint work from the first day and acted accordingly. As for the election strategy, he said: “There is a serious economic crisis in Turkey and this is a sign that we are going to have a serious class election. In both SYKP and the Green Left Party, we will carry out an election campaign focusing on where the real liberation of the working class and workers lies. The AKP government has caused a lot of destruction in the past 20 years. We see the next election as a turning point, because what is happening is the institutionalization of fascism in Turkey. There is a group which is the most reactionary alliance in history, called the People's Alliance, established by the AKP-MHP, and it is our historical duty and responsibility to defeat it. Today, SYKP will continue to fulfil its responsibilities both in the Green Left Party and in the streets, and will put forward a line of struggle that will disrupt the institutionalization of fascism.”

We have been working for a safe election for one year

Stating that one of the important issues in the elections is election security, Gönen said that the SYKP started working on this issue a year ago. Gonen said that election security is not just about keeping the minutes, but is also fighting against the provocations that will occur on election day.

SYKP will announce after its central meeting the support for a candidate for the presidential elections, said Gönen, adding: “We are looking at defeating the AKP and Tayyip Erdoğan rather than choosing between Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu. We know both Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Tayyip Erdoğan. Today we continue a discussion about how to manage a transition. In this regard, we think that AKP-MHP should be defeated, Erdoğan should be defeated and the opposition should be supported. We will continue a discussion on this axis at the Party Assembly meeting we will hold in the coming days."

After the election, the struggle

Gönen said that the struggle will continue regardless of the outcome of the election, and that this struggle will grow even if the opposition wins. "The probability of Erdogan's victory has gradually decreased in today's conditions, but it is not possible to say with certainty that he won’t win. Even if the AKP wins the election, we will continue the struggle. We see that if the opposition parties support the HDP, Kılıçdaroğlu will win. Whether the AKP wins or loses, we think that the struggle should move to another phase after the election and be discussed at another level.”