Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
The neo-nationalist (Ulusalcı) and militant ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has established strong ties with North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), a communist organization subject to sanctions by the UN, the European Union, Australia and the United States.
The WPK, led by North Korean President Kim Jong Un, recently sent a letter to Turkey’s Homeland Party (Vatan Partisi, also known as the Patriotic Party), congratulating them on the anniversary of their founding.
Dated September 21, 2024, the letter was signed by Choe Yun Chon, the deputy chief of mission at the North Korean Embassy in Bulgaria, which is also accredited to represent North Korea’s interests in Turkey.
“I, under the assignment of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, send warm congratulations to the Central Committee of the Vatan Party, Turkiye, on the occasion of 105th founding anniversary of the Vatan Party, Turkiye,” wrote Chon. He further stated that “WPK appreciates the stand against the imperialists of your party and hopes active cooperation and solidarity in the struggle of anti-imperialists between our parties.”
Letter sent to the Perinçek group’s political wing, the Vatan Party, by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea;
The Vatan Party welcomed the WPK’s letter, with Özgür Bursalı, its secretary general, expressing gratitude to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“As the parties and countries fighting on the front lines against US imperialism on both ends of Asia, we look to the future with friendship and confidence,” Bursalı said. He also revealed that his party has been actively lobbying for the establishment of a North Korean embassy in the Turkish capital in the near future.
Rebranded in 2015 from its previous name, the İşçi Partisi (Workers’ Party, İP), the Vatan Party has its ideological roots in Maoism and Stalinism. The party forged an alliance with the Erdogan government in 2014.
The Vatan Party, also referred to as the Perinçek or Aydınlık group, is led by controversial politician Doğu Perinçek, who has faced multiple indictments in Turkey for various criminal activities, including terrorism, and has served prison time.
Past investigations have revealed the group’s involvement in serious crimes, including the storage of weapons and ammunition in clandestine locations as well as threats against minority groups, such as Christians and Armenians, in Turkey.
Perinçek is the only Turkish politician who has visited North Korea, where he went on February 17, 1993 to express his allegiance to the late president Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea in 1948 and its supreme leader until his death in 1994.
Recalling his encounter with North Korea’s founder, Perinçek said Kim Il Sung urged him to establish diplomatic relations between North Korea and Turkey. Perinçek later boasted about how he fulfilled Kim Il Sung’s wishes in 2001 by persuading then-Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who was also a neo-nationalist figure, to pursue the initiative.
For the past decade Perinçek has closely aligned himself with President Erdogan’s government, facilitating the release of convicted neo-nationalists from prison, securing funding for his party’s operations and appointing loyalists to positions of influence within the military, intelligence and judiciary.
With the assistance of the Perinçek group, the Erdogan government has dismissed thousands of military officers, including two-thirds of all generals and admirals, using a coup attempt in 2016 as a pretext. The entire group of officers, who had formed the backbone in military strategy and operations, was either removed from their positions or imprisoned due to their past service at NATO facilities or their support for the transatlantic alliance.
The Perinçek group has actively collaborated with pro-Iranian networks in Turkey to revoke base access rights for the United States and NATO allies. This collaboration has involved violent attacks on visiting US troops and breaches of military bases where US personnel are stationed. Perinçek advocates for Turkey’s withdrawal from NATO and seeks to forge closer ties with Russia and China.
The group’s ties to the North Korean government have strengthened since Perinçek’s visit in 1993. He has met with North Korean diplomats in Bulgaria multiple times, with the most recent meeting occurring in 2018. He was invited by Pyongyang to speak at the commemoration of Kim Jong Il in February 2023.
Video footage of Doğu Perinçek during his visit to North Korea on February 17, 1993 captures his meeting with then-president Kim Il Sung:
“Today, under the leadership of honorable leader Kim Jong Un, the DPRK [Democratic Republic of North Korea] is challenging the armed threats of US imperialism, inspiring all of humanity with courage by following the path set by Great Leader Kim Il Sung and drawing inspiration from Kim Jong Il,” Perinçek said.
The Perinçek group’s militant youth wing, Öncü Gençlik, has also been cultivating ties with the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, the North Korean youth organization affiliated with the ruling communist party. Bursalı, who was then the head of Öncü Gençlik, along with Cem Dikmen, the deputy chairman of the Vatan Party, led a delegation to North Korea in September 2018 as part of this collaboration.
