Socialist People's Party (Kyrzbekistan)
The Socialist People's Party of Kyrzbekistan is a democratic socialist political party, the ruling party of the Democratic Republic of Kyrzbekistan. It was established in 1569 as the merger of the Workers People's Party, the Arberian Socialist Party, the Kyrzbek Democratic Party, and minor far-left and left-wing organizations. The current party's leader is Aygöl Zamambekuz, who was elected General Secretary of the Socialist People's Party in their first congress in 1569. Since 1571, she is also the President of the Democratic Republic of Kyrzbekistan.
The party is known for the advocacy of what it calls a "market-oriented socialist economy". The highest institution of the Socialist People's Party is the party's Federal Congress which elects the Executive Central Committee. In between party congresses, the Executive Committee is the supreme organ on party affairs. Once every six months, local representatives from the local branches of the party meet and discuss general policy in General Assembly meetings, in which policies are discussed and party representatives may raise concerns about local problems. However, the General Assembly can only propose debates based upon the policies which have been approved in advance by either the Executive Central Committee or the party's Federal Congress. As of 1582, the Executive Central Committee comprises 15 members.
Unlike communist states, the Socialist People's Party is officially independent from the state and the federal government. The Chairman of the Socialist People's Party, a rather symbolical position, is Zarobzyan Irekur since 1571.
History
Workers People's Party
The Socialist People's Party traces its lineage with the Workers People's Party, founded by Nizhan Ilgizur in 1547. Although the Socialist People's Party was founded as the merger of several left-wing organizations, it was the Workers People's Party which contributed with the largest number of members, and whose most prominent politicians came from, with a few but notable exceptions.
Nizhan Ilgizur had started his political career in the Arberian Social Democratic Party, then the largest left-wing political party in the Qenderi Commonwealth. He became First Secretary of the Social Democratic Party for the Autonomous Northeastern Territory -one of the Kyrzbek-majority autonomous regions in the Arberian monarchist state- in 1539, although he was replaced in 1544. Ilgizur, headed a faction which demanded a more staunchly anti-monarchist and revolutionary strategy, and a larger influence for Kyrzbek cultural issues - although the majority of the population was ethnic Kyrzbek, most prominent leaders of the Arberian Social Democratic Party belonged to the Arberian ethnic minority. In 1546, he was expelled from the Arberian Social Democratic Party, after denouncing in a social democratic newspaper the party leadership in very harsh terms. Six months later, Ilgizur founded his own political organization, the Kyrzbek League of Workers, and most of the local branches in Kyrzbek-majority provinces -and most ethnic-Kyrzbek nationwide- joined the new political party, which was renamed as Workers People's Party a year later.
The strategy of the Workers People's Party, unlike the more moderate Arberian Social Democratic Party, where most of its member came from at first, was based in a radical strategy of mass revolutionary unrest aiming at the proclamation of a federal socialist state. Unlike the Arberian Social Democratic Party, the Workers People's Party was never a legal organization, and their tactics were based on revolutionary propaganda, sabotage, riots, strikes, protests, and demonstration against the Arberian government. The Workers People's Party tried to gain the support of the Kyrzbek population, but most moderate Kyrzbek organizations and clergy denounced them as "anti-Akhadic provocateurs...oppossed to the national interests of the Kyrzbek population". Nizhan Ilgizur and other party leaders argued that its violent actions against the government forces were explained by the need to defend Kyrzbek popular masses in the context of what it was denounced as a colonial and class domination by both the Arberian state and the Kyrzbek upper class, and that the Arberian monarchy was unreformable. As response, the Arberian security forces used violent and oppressive methods against its Kyrzbek citizens to stop them supporting revolutionary organizations as the Working People's Party.
The early 1550s were characterized by economic crisis, high unemployment, social unrest and political violence, which culminated in the 1553 Royal Decrees, in which King Kreshnik II abolished the Qenderi Commonwealth and suppressed the Kyrzbek autonomous regions, proclaming the Kingdom of Arberë and the royal government as the only authority in the country, and increasing the powers of the monarch. The Arberian Social Democratic Party was suspended shortly afterwards, although it was not officially banned as other left-wing organizations.
Already in late 1551, Nizhan Ilgizur had declared that the country was prepared for a social revolution, calling for a revolutionary war against the Arberian state. The thesis was at first considered controversial by some prominent members of the party, but Ilgizur's main opponents were slowly expelled in a series of political purges. Workers People's Party militants started a campaign of bomb attacks on government, police, and Arberian armed forces installations. Kidnaping and assassination against government and military officials and even Akhadic clergy and Kyrzbek tribal leaders who were named as puppets of the state were performed as well, with the aim of destabilize Arberian monarchy through a long, low-intensity confrontation.
The Arberian state answered with a counter-insurgency campaign in which human rights abuses were widespread. The Workers People's Party found most of its support in the northern Kyrzbek-majority region, where were some of the most poorest provinces of the country, specially between impoverished peasants. Nizhan Ilgizur was arrested in 1555 in Zargistan, and was deported to the Kingdom of Arberë, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died, three years later, in prison.
The Arberian civil war
In 1559, only a year after Ilgizur's death, there were large protests in several Kyrzbek cities and towns, including Dashkek, Tabul, Sfiracheny, Kaygyr, Ozmakhya, and Seroksta. The Arberian armed forces tried to repress the protests quickly and violently, but they turned soon into an open revolt and soon into a civil war. The revolutionary movement was initially led by conservative Kyrzbek merchants and Akhadist militants, with soon clearly separatist demands. The conflict, known initially as Arberian Civil War, but also as Second Arberian-Kyrzbek War (and "Kyrzbekistani National Revolutionary War" officially in the Democratic Republic of Kyrzbekistan since 1571), lasted almost a decade, destroyed completely the national economy and caused 800,000 deaths and several million of displaced refugees.
Zöfär Narimanur, who had led the party's armed-wing, replaced Nizhan Ilgizur as leader of the Workers People's Party after Ilgizur's death. Under Narimanur's leadership, the organization strategy and goals did not change much, but the party was highly divided about the nature of the recently started military conflict in the country. The official stance of the party was that the conflict was a "revolutionary-nationalist reactionary movement", and the organization continued waging armed attacks against the Arberian state. In early 1561, it was proclaimed the Akhadic Republic of Kyrzbekistan in Dashkek, eastern Kyrzbekistan, in an united Kyrzbek nationalist-Akhadist coalition government, which was only recognized by A'Sir. However, the Workers People's Party rejected cooperation with Dashkek government, and relations between the secular Working People's Party and the Akhadic Republic were tense, although Narimanur's priority was the fight against the Arberian state.
Zöfär Narimanur, however, was arrested in late 1560, and hanged for "crimes against the state" and "conspiracy on terror activity" several months later. He was replaced by Amazat Aydur, who was Nizhan Ilgizur's second son. Aydur had been arrested in 1552, and had remained in prison for three years. In 1562, an intense ideological debate was started by Amazat Aydur, who had at first a weak support by some of the most veteran militants. In Dein 1562, militants of the Workers People's Party held a secret congress in Athos, Ceribia. The new party's manifesto declared "Socialism with Kyrzbek characteristics" was the main aim of the organization, and adopted a shift from "revolutionary insurgency" to "national-revolutionary war", launching a guerrilla war in northern Kyrzbekistan against the Arberian state and, ocassionally, against forces of the Akhadic Republic. Aydur remained in exile, mostly in Severyane, however, and was dealing mostly with theoretical question and the propaganda efforts. In early 1564, it was announced officially the formation of the Kyrzbek Revolutionary Army (KRG), the renamed armed-wing of the Workers People's Party. The Kyrzbek Revolutionary Army was mostly led by local commanders such as Irek Tarakur (1520-1564), Radak Sygur, Damir Kazbekur, or Ildus Yasherur (d. 1566).
