Progressive Youth Association


The Progressive Youth Organization was the legal youth organization of the Communist Party of Turkey. The İGD was founded on 5 January 1976.
It developed close relations with trade unions and other progressive organizations, took part in May Day celebrations, protests against DGMs and campaigns against the ultra-right party MHP and its youth organization. The İGD organized activities such as «National Independence and Democracy» meetings, «National Independence Week», international solidarity activities, and campaigned on issues as safety of life and freedom of education, and democratization of textbooks. It worked in cooperation with Progressive High School Students Organization and Apprentices Organization. The İGD also worked for unity of the broader progressive youth movement, especially developing cooperation with other youth organizations such as Genç Öncü, Sosyalist Gençler Birliği and the Kurdish Devrimci Demokratik Kültür Derneği .
The organization was banned on 6 November 1979 by the martial law authorities, but it defiantly continued its activities until 12 September 1980 military coup d'etat, undergoing a number of organizational changes during the military regime as the youth wing of the Community Party of Turkey, which was dissolved in a series of mergers after forming the United Communist Party of Turkey together with the Worker's Party of Turkey, joining in a new legal Socialist Unity Party in the early 1990s.