Turkey: YDG Denounces Harassment and Affirms Conviction

We hereby share an unofficial translation of a declaration published by the New Democratic Youth (Yeni Demokrat Gençlik – YDG) on November 9.

Family Harassment, Forced Collaboration, Threats: We Will Intensify Our Struggle in the Face of Repression

Attacks on the organized struggle of the youth continue. Our comrades and their families are being harassed through phone calls from the Istanbul Police Department. The police, who are calling families with false claims about our comrades, are trying to force revolutionary youth and their families to collaborate and trying to instill fear. Unable to suppress the organization of the people’s youth and aiming to break the revolutionary will, the State is attempting to crush the youth’s struggle through psychological pressure and harassment directed at their families.

We know just how much they fear that the youth, whom the State is trying to shape, subdue, exploit, and numb through every means and policy. We will thwart these attacks through organized struggle. Another truth we know is that these attacks are neither the first nor the last. The ruling class, which is terrified of the power of the masses, fears even a single spark of the accumulated anger. What makes this anger even more terrifying is its potential to become organized. For this reason, today the police are directly attacking the organization of the people’s youth by calling our comrades and our families and “inviting them for a chat.”

Our response is this:

Your system of exploitation, your education policies, your repression and oppression, your bourgeois-feudal media apparatus, and much more – we are thwarting all of these by persisting in youth organization. To those who think they can detach us from the struggle through family visits, we will respond with our pledge: “We will intensify our struggle in the face of repression.”

We know that as the organized struggle of the oppressed grows, so do the aggressive tactics of the ruling classes. In the face of these attacks, we will expose your threats and your lies. We will stand firm in our legitimate struggle; we will not give up on explaining the justice of our cause or on expanding our struggle.

Our response to these attacks will be our organization.

New Democratic Youth, 2026