Erkan Baş

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 members of parliament from TİP got elected through HDP and later resigned from HDP, the two parties maintain close ties and act together on many issues. The possibility of an electoral alliance in the upcoming elections was given as a possibility.^[13] On 25 August 2022, HDP, TİP, other left-wing parties put the groundwork for their electoral alliance, known as the Labour and Freedom Alliance.^[14] Under the leadership of Baş, the party was able to increase its seats to four in the parliament, and TİP has become one of the most fierce opponents against Erdoğan and AKP.^[15]