Turkey: September 2 Founding Festival
Featured image: Demonstration during the September 2 Founding Festival. Source: Yeni Demokrasi
The 24th September 2 Founding Festival was held on September 12–13, 2026, in Istanbul’s 1 Mayıs (1st of May) neighborhood, marking the forty-ninth anniversary of the neighborhood’s founding. The festival combined political discussion, public demonstrations, music, and collective remembrance. It was organized with the participation of Partizan and other organizations.
We previously published the call to the festival:
The festival opened with a forum at the Ataşehir branch of the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association under the title “Struggle Against Degeneration, Drugs, and Gang Formation,” Yeni Demokrasi writes. The discussion began with a moment of silence for those who gave their lives during the 1 Mayıs neighborhood resistance. Speakers described the spread of gangs and drug use as part of a systematic State policy aimed at weakening revolutionary neighborhoods. They emphasized that young people – particularly in Alevi and Kurdish neighborhoods – were being targeted, while women were also exposed to coercion and sexual exploitation.
A representative of Partizan highlighted that social degeneration and gang formation were not isolated local problems but expressions of imperialism and the semi-colonialism. The speakers recalled that revolutionary movements had once maintained a stronger presence in working-class neighborhoods and insisted that the struggle against these problems could not be left solely to revolutionary organizations. It had to be organized together with local masses.
After the forum a march gathered in front of the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association (PSAKD) Ataşehir Branch, carrying banners reading “Let’s strengthen the struggle against poverty, corruption, drugs, and gang activity with the spirit of 2 September!” and “Long live our 2 September Resistance,” “Freedom for the May 1st Prisoners,” “Organize for Militant Revolutionary Youth,” and “Organize with the Spirit of 2 September.” The march ended in front of the 30 August Primary School, where a press statement signed by the 2 September Organizing Committee was read.
The second day featured a panel titled “The Current Political Process,” with representatives from Partizan, KÖZ, the Socialist Freedom Movement (SMF), the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP), and the Oppressed Peoples’ Party (TÖP). The panel addressed the threat of imperialist war, Turkey’s political and economic crisis, the Kurdish national question, and the problems confronting the revolutionary movement.
The TÖP representative stated that fascism in Turkey had not yet become fully institutionalized but was moving in that direction. The speaker also criticized the current revolutionary movement for failing to transform popular anger into a lasting revolutionary rupture. KÖZ described the period since 2015 as a temporary “pause” and called for the construction of an independent mass movement rooted in the working class.
The SMF representative stated that the organization was not opposed in principle to a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question but rejected what it characterized as liquidation and compromise with the ruling classes under the name of peace. The speaker argued that social liberation would come through class struggle and revolution.
Partizan’s representative situated these developments within the deepening crisis of the imperialist system, arguing that war and armament are the only option for overcoming it. Citing developments in Iran and Yemen, the presentation linked the conflicts in the Middle East to regional conflicts. It further stated that Turkey, through its role at the NATO Summit in Ankara, is one of the most dynamic elements of this war policy. The representative also argued that the reflection of imperialist tendencies in domestic politics appears as a process of encirclement, focused on the disarmament and liquidation of the Kurdish National Movement and on isolating revolutionary movements from the masses through arrests and repression. The presentation concluded with a call for a legitimate, dynamic, and militant vanguard capable of connecting with the masses.
The festival ended with concerts by Ozan Yağan, Gökçe Selim, and Kutup Yıldızı. Participants performed halay dances and chanted slogans for the September 2 resistance, revolutionary solidarity, Comrade İbrahim Kaypakkaya, and imprisoned revolutionaries.
