Erkan Baş

Erkan Baş was born on 14 July 1979 in Berlin, West Germany in a Bosniak[2] immigrant family coming from Sandžak. His family name was Jusović in former Yugoslavia. His father was a worker who went to Germany and his mother was a housewife who has been a textile worker for a while.[3]

Erkan Baş completed his primary, secondary and high school education in Istanbul and graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Literature, Department of History of Science. He has completed his undergraduate studies in the History of Science Department affiliated to the Istanbul University Faculty of Literature. He worked as guest lecturer at Istanbul Technical University Department of Humanities and Social Sciences for a while. But he has removed from office by the school administration, because Baş took part in the struggle for the rights of the cafeteria workers in the university.[4][5]

Erkan Baş was a member of the Socialist Power Party (SİP) at a young age, and also has been a co-founder of the Communist Party of Turkey and has assumed various responsibilities within the party.[6] He was mostly active in the Istanbul organization, as he became the secretary of the province of Istanbul, and was a part of the Bureau of the Organization and the Central Committee. During his tenure, the party carried out the press statement in Taksim Square in the 1 May 2008 demonstrations.[7] He also participated in a student rally in Ankara against legal regulations that would make possible the Hijab to be worn in universities.[8]

At the TKP 9th Congress, Aydemir Güler has left his post as president, and instead, Erkan Baş was elected to the post of president. The TKP General Assembly entered into force with the congressional decision taken to facilitate party representation. The Party Central Committee abolished the "general presidency" office after about 6 months, as this move did not bring about the desired success. The TKP is ruled by the Party Central Committee as a collective leader. However, TKP split in 2014 into two: KP and HTKP, the latter founded by the faction led by Erkan Baş.[9] In 2017, HTKP members, joining forces with different sections of the Turkish left-wing, founded the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP).[10]

Baş became a parliamentary candidate of the Peoples' Democratic Party for the 2018 Turkish general election, in which he was elected as a member of the parliament for Istanbul.[11] In November 2018, it was announced that he and Barış Atay would both resign from the HDP, and continue their political work under the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP) instead.[12] Although, TİP parliamentarians got elected through and later resigned from HDP, two parties maintain close ties and act together on several issues, even positing a possibility of an electoral alliance in the upcoming elections.[13] As the party increased its seats to four in the parliament, under the leadership of Baş, TİP became one of the most fierce opponents of the Erdoğan and AKP.[14]