Socialist Party of the Oppressed (, ESP; , PSB) is a Marxist-Leninist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the

Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It defines itself as "a militant revolutionary socialist party fighting for a workers'-labourers' federative republic in Turkey and

Northern Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () is the southeastern part of Turkey where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of them in the ...

Development

Some sources, including the public officials, hold the view that ESP is a legal front for the banned ICOR affiliate Marxist–Leninist Communist Party. Among its founders is

Figen Yüksekdağ Figen Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu (born 19 December 1971) is a Turkish politician and journalist, who was a former co-leader of the left-wing Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey from 2014 to 2017, serving alongside Selahattin Demirtaş. She was ...

, the former co-president of the Peoples' Democratic Party. The party is one of the participants in the Peoples' Democratic Congress, a political initiative instrumental in founding the Peoples' Democratic Party in 2012.

Prosecution

In 2013 ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' 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 A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting ...

.''

'', 18 June 2013
'Standing man' inspires Turkish protesters amid raids
/ref> ''The Telegraph'' noted that "Police also searched the offices of the Atilim daily 'Atılım''">Atılım.html" ;"title="'Atılım">'Atılım''and the Etkin news agency, local media outlets linked to the ESP group, the NTV and CNN-Turk television stations reported."

2015 Bombing

The youth wing of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed, known as the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF), was the main target of the 2015 Suruç bombing. 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 Siege of Kobanî, destroyed by warfare.

References

External links

* {{Political parties of Turkey 2010 establishments in Turkey Communist parties in Turkey Far-left politics in Turkey Hoxhaist parties Anti-revisionist organizations Peoples' Democratic Congress Political parties established in 2010