Sadun Aren (19 March 1922 – 8 March 2008) was a Turkish academic and politician. He was one of the cofounders of Workers' Party of Turkey and of the leading figures of socialist movement in Turkey.

Early life and education

Aren was born on 19 March 1922 in

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

. His father was a civil servant, and his mother was a housewife who died when Sadun Aren was a child. Due to his father's frequent appointments he completed his primary and secondary education in different cities, including Eskişehir, Ankara and Istanbul. He graduated from

Ankara University Ankara University () is a public university, public research university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the History of the Republic of Turkey, formation of the Turkish republ ...

's Faculty of Political Science in 1944. He held a PhD which he received from the same university.

Career and arrests

Following the completion of his PhD studies Aren began to work at the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University, as an associate professor and taught courses in sociology. In 1951 he was sent to

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

to work at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

' European Economic Commission. However, he resigned from the post and began to work at

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's Turkish section. He returned to Turkey in 1956, but was arrested for a short time due to his communist activities. He became full professor in 1957 at the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University. Following the military coup on 27 May 1960 Aren was appointed to the economic committee of the military government. In 1961 he involved in the establishment of the Workers' Party of Turkey and became the head of its Ankara branch in 1962. He became a cofounder of the Socialist Culture Association () in 1963. Aren won a seat in the

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

for the party representing Istanbul in 1965. Within the party Aren and Behice Boran formed an alliance. They both resigned from the party in 1968 due to their opposition against the views of the party chair Mehmet Ali Aybar. Aybar did not support the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in August 1968. Immediately after the military coup on 12 March 1971 Aren was arrested and imprisoned for three years in Niğde. He was not allowed to continue his academic work at the university and began to work as an advisor to a trade union, DİSK. He was also imprisoned one year after the military coup on 12 September 1980 and released in 1984. Aren founded a political party,

Socialist Unity Party The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Ma ...

, in 1991. Following the dissolution of the party he joined Freedom and Solidarity Party and was made the party's honorary chair.

Personal life and death

Aren married to Munise Hanım on 25 October 1949 with whom he had two children, a daughter and a son. He died in Ankara on 8 March 2008 and buried there on 10 March.

Works and views

Aren is the writer of several books. He published several articles in the newspapers and magazines, including '' Yön'', '' Forum'', ''Emek'', ''Marksizm ve Gelecek'' and ''Politika''. When Aren was a member of the Workers' Party he claimed that the focus should not be exclusively on the theory. He also argued that the clash between

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

should be nonviolent due to the changing nature of the economy and that discussions which led to

polemics Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

were not useful. Although Aren also did not support the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovia like Mehmet Ali Aybar, he was an ardent critic of Aybar's conceptualization of democratic socialism. Because Aren argued that a non-authoritarian and democratic version of socialism was needed in Turkey. He considered

statism In political science, statism or etatism (from French, ''état'' 'state') is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy, especially in regard to taxation ...

as an ideological tool to mobilize the masses. Aren was one of the opponents of Turkey's association with the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

on the grounds that it would have negative effects on Turkish industry which was not yet developed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aren, Sadun 20th-century political scientists 20th-century scholars 20th-century Turkish politicians 21st-century Turkish politicians 1922 births 2008 deaths Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences alumni Academic staff of Ankara University Deputies of Istanbul Turkish communists Turkish political party founders Turkish political scientists Turkish prisoners and detainees Turkish social scientists Workers' Party of Turkey politicians