Fight Back News Service is circulating the Labor Party of Turkey (EMEP) statement on the presidential and parliamentary elections held on May 14.

Despite the ruling party's use of state facilities and resources to implement all kinds of restrictions, provocations, censorship and threats against its opponents, the result of the presidential and parliamentary elections was a decline in the mass support of the one-man regime and the AKP's loss of power in parliament.

The AKP did not refrain from terrorizing the environment by recalling at every opportunity the methods of violence used between the 7 June and 1 November elections in 2015, using their connotations as election material, and fueling rumors that para-military groups would take to the streets. It has provoked the prejudices of the people in the pool media by embracing the most reactionary vein coming from the National Vision with sects and communities, with parties such as Hüda Par, the extension of the contra tradition; it has tried to expand the boundaries of a racist-chauvinist political ground. The fact that Hüda Par, The New Welfare Party (YRP) sent deputies to the parliament, that the MHP increased its vote – at a rate unexpected from itself – and that the centrifugal and, so to speak, more radical tendencies outside the nationalist-conservative vein, of which the People's Alliance is the main axis, have been drawn into the orbit of this alliance and protect it.

Unable to stop its own decline despite the increase in its allies and the contribution of its distant support, the AKP made a special effort to ensure that the presidential elections went to a second round. The interventions on the election results took place in full view of everyone. The AKP, which tried to gain time even with methods that strained the patience and physical endurance of observers and other officials by having the minutes counted again and again, still could not hide the altitude lost by the one-man regime.

The Labor and Freedom Alliance, including our party, entered the elections under extraordinarily difficult conditions. Despite the threat of the HDP's closure, the arrest of politicians and journalists, the pressure on voters, armed demonstrations and attacks on election day, the Labor and Freedom Alliance completed the process more or less preserving the number of deputies it sent to parliament, even though it could not increase the number of deputies it sent to parliament.

Various reasons for the failure of the one-man regime to be defeated in the first round will undoubtedly be discussed. The main reason that needs to be underlined is that a united struggle that directly organizes the workers and the oppressed around their own problems could not be formed at the national level. The gap arising from this organizational weakness of the working class and laborer’s was filled by parties provoking reactionary sensitivities. This situation has once again repeated the old experience that the reactionary prejudices of the poor, unemployed, precarious and unorganized masses can be mobilized. This explains the partial increase in the votes of the old and new allies of the AKP.

However, the parliamentary picture that has emerged is not merely a change in the arithmetic redistribution of the power that is dragging the country further and further into darkness.

Our party sent two MPs to the parliament from the list of the Green Left Party as representatives of the workers and laborer’s. Together with the other MPs of our alliance, our friends who entered the parliament from the Green Left Party lists will fight against anti-people and anti-laborer policies, capitalist politics, anti-democratic practices against women, Kurds and immigrants.

Our party will make a broader evaluation of the 2023 elections after the evaluations to be made both in its own boards and in the Labor and Freedom Alliance.

A new period of struggle is now opening before us. The result that our people, who express their tendency for change in one way or another, put before us with their votes is to transform this tendency into a power that can overthrow the one-man regime. This responsibility lies with the forces of labor and democracy.

Our party calls on all laborer’s to mobilize in order to overthrow the one-man regime, which was weakened in this election, in the second round.”

#Turkey #LaborPartyOfTurkey #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Labor Party. Turkey (EMEP).

The Labor Party called for workers, laborer’s and the public regarding the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

Corona virus is not a disaster that suddenly surfaced due to the Chinese eating bats. Neither is it a natural disaster, an unexpected anomaly. On the contrary, the likelihood of such a pandemic had already been identified by health organizations, discussed by relevant bodies in each country, and the need to prepare for such an eventuality had been noted. It is established that the Ministry of Health in our country prepared a report on this issue as late as April 2019. Warnings and advice from scientists and health professionals that warned of a likely epidemic, when the first Chinese cases had surfaced, were ignored. Capitalist countries that invested billions of dollars on development of weapons technology, supporting arms monopolies, left their peoples unprepared for a pandemic of this scale.

Not only did governments around the world fail to take steps to stop the early spread of the virus, they underestimated and downplayed the threat until it became serious enough to disturb capitalist economy and the mechanism of exploitation.

Pandemics with high death rates were witnessed in history, all around the world. We continue to see different epidemics of varying types every so often. It is not possible to say that Coronavirus is the last stop in a succession of epidemics caused by virus mutations such as bird flu, swine flu, SARS-MERS.

Main factors that trigger modern epidemics are profit-driven industrial interventions that disrupt ‘natural’ progress in and damage the entirety of our natural environment; ranging from the conditions small cattle and poultry animals are kept in, to hybridization of legumes and pulses, to genetic modification of almost all food products. Opening of forests to looting and interventions on key sources of water, leading to the disruption of natural balances, can also be added to this list. In short, the pandemic had announced its arrival long ago.

However, the spread of the pandemic, affecting such a huge population, is not down just to the virus itself. The real issue is the liquidation of the gains of workers and the public in the area of health and healthcare becoming a commodity. Healthcare services have become an area in which big capital invested heavily in and hopes to make the most profit. Capitalism develops not only the opportunities for epidemics but also the conditions and the basis for worsening consequences of their destructive effect.

THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM AND GOVERNMENTS ARE MAKING WORKERS AND LABOURERS PAY THE COST OF THE PANDEMIC

The reason for high loss of life in this coronavirus pandemic is the fact that we live in a system that doesn’t have public health as its priority. Disregard for the core principles of public health, systemized as a result of hundred years of scientific development and the struggles of the peoples; privatization of health institutions, leaving production of medical equipment and drugs to the mostly unsupervised industrial companies after maximum profit; the almost complete elimination of protective and preventative health services; the erosion of social welfare policies; these are the main culprits that led to the situation today. Accumulations and gains over the centuries by peoples have been laid to such waste and public resources pillaged to such a degree that it is almost impossible to deal with the current situation. The issue that arises now, also in the light of governments’ stance regarding isolation and quarantines, in support of companies that do not want to give up on their profits: the rulers of the system see viral elimination fitting for the workers and the underprivileged, doomed to die of hunger if they don’t work and from the pandemic if they do. The attitude is we will lose some if we must but will continue to exploit the ones that survive.

Workers suffer the heaviest burden of the consequences of the functioning of a capitalist ring that collectively led to the rise of the pandemic by creating the conditions for it but also led to its spread through their actions. This virus has once again exposed the rift between social classes. While the capitalists have withdrawn to their own safe environments and isolated, production and provision of services continue in their factories, companies, workplaces, at the expense of workers’ lives. The bourgeoisie are the ones on the protected side of the pandemic and the workers are on the unprotected side.

THE ONE-MAN REGIME IS AFTER SAVING THE SYSTEM NOT THE PEOPLE

The path followed by the AKP leadership in the face of the pandemic prioritises not public health but the continuation of the system. This does not differ from many countries in the world. However, it is slower in our country as the declared ‘national struggle’ against the pandemic carries the colour and stamp of approval of the now well-established leadership reflex. The economic packet introduced opens up the support of the treasury and the banks to big capital and big companies; while the government is underwriting their liabilities, it is also mercilessly and tactlessly collecting donations from workers.

The one-man party leadership has once again demonstrated that it is in the service of its partners of monopolist capitalists. Trying to make each event favourable to itself, the government is trying to create a nationalist vibe; using this time of great concern for the public to increase the encroachment on rights and political pressures. The pandemic, just like it was on the coup attempt of 15 July, is seen as a means and reason to strengthen the one-man regime by Erdoğan and his circles.

The Erdoğan government, transferring all the riches, especially those created by the workers, of the country to the capitalists has left the fight against the pandemic to individuals. While nothing noteworthy is done for public health, the campaigns for donations by local authorities controlled by the CHP and the ‘We’re defending the public’ campaign by HDP have been suspended by the government, which sees any action that does not involve them as a threat. The leadership, having shown the same attitude during the Van and Elazığ earthquakes does not allow others to fill in the gaps it left and determines the parameters of its order to “look after your own selves”; “as much as I allow you to, in the way that I want you to.”

The leadership is irresponsible, visionless, inept, unscientific and illogical in terms of combating the pandemic. Initially causing people to infect each other in front of post offices, lining up to receive the 1000TL government help, and taking two days to think of delivering the help to people at their homes; they are making it up as they go along. They do not have a plan or a method.

Unions and workers’ associations that offered a plan and coordination are kept out of the process. Keeping the scientific committee that they themselves set up as just advisors, they even demand words of allegiance from the health secretary as he is about to go on to TV to make a statement. The hurt caused by leaving workers’ associations, especially the Turkish Doctors Association (TTB), health organizations and workers’ organizations out of the struggle against the pandemic is increasing by day. The public suffers from the attempts to save the day and to benefit from an extraordinary situation.

If political pressure and government bans are increasing by day, it is a necessity and legitimate to counter this and defend the democratic rights and freedoms of the public.

Furthermore, if under the current conditions, working means playing puss-in-the corner with death, it is legitimate and right for workers to go on strike or down tools. We will only overcome these extraordinary conditions through the solidarity of workers, continuing our efforts to organize and preparing for harder struggles.

The Labor Party (EMEP) will continue its work regardless of the conditions.

In terms of the urgent steps to be put into practice to fight the pandemic and for public health, we call firstly on workers and the public, workers’ organizations and democratic forces to;

1. Within the struggle against the pandemic, the running and control of all private health establishments, factories that produce healthcare equipment and drugs should be transferred to unions, workers’ associations and health workers.
2. Healthcare cannot be a subject of profit and trade. Privatization of health services should be stopped, the public right to free and quality healthcare should be guaranteed.
3. All work and production in non-essential sectors should immediately be stopped, workers in these sectors should be given paid leave. Flexible working practices that flaunt the pandemic conditions should be banned and sackings should be outlawed.
4. Factories, workplaces and living areas where infection has surfaced and all risky areas should be assessed, tests carried out and free masks, gloves and disinfectants should be distributed.
5. All families living below the official line of poverty should be exempted form utility bill payments as well as telephone and internet costs for the duration of the pandemic. Citizens in this situation should have their credit payments deferred without cost and should receive a minimum level of income.

#Turkey #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #Coronavirus #COVID19 #Asia

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Labor Party of Turkey (EMEP) YEP is the proof of a plan to make the public pay for the crisis

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and many government representatives of Turkey, deny the crisis triggered by the drop in the value of Turkish Lira as “foreign manipulation”, saying “there is no crisis, there is psychological problems.”

But the mid-term New Economic Plan (YEP) announced by the Minister of Treasury Berat Albayrak, is an admission of a rapid deterioration into a crisis.

Regardless of AKP attempts to define it, the dependent capitalist system and policies pursued by its staunch defender, the Erdoğan administration, are the cause of this crisis. Since taking power, Erdoğan’s focus has only been interests of himself and the capitalists behind him, working to enhance their gains. He is now trying to minimise his losses through this period; even trying to turn it into an advantage for himself. The YEP is the product of such an attempt.

YEP, planned to span the next three years, predicts a smaller economy; a drop in industrial production; ever higher current account deficit; higher inflation and unemployment. This programme is a clear announcement of the beginning of a crisis, ‘heralding’ the hardship awaiting public in the coming months.

The roadmap for the economy in general, and public finances and employment in particular, summarises how the working classes will be made to pay for the crisis.

YEP creates new opportunities for monopolies and unemployment and poverty for the people

With this economic program, turning the crisis into an opportunity, the gifts for the capitalist classes include; incentives, removal of redundancy pay, widespread flexible and part-time work, freezing of wages, reduction in social spending. Working classes will be stripped of their historical gains. YEP means the BES cuts – introduced as ‘individual retirement insurance’ but in essence another way of squeezing money out of the public – becoming established or the two month withdrawal period be extended until the end of the program..

The public is told to accept this fraud and impoverishment; put up with it in the name of the survival of the country and the state. But, claiming that “austerity does not apply to prestige” they are building themselves palaces, purchasing luxury planes; not bothered at all by servicing their luxurious lifestyle by the public purse, at a time where suicides due to poverty and unemployment are on the rise.

Austerity is a sacrifice demanded only from workers. The public must adhere to this austerity; without any complaints about the high cost of education and healthcare, marketisation of public services, unemployment or lack of job security. Otherwise, the example of third airport workers- prosecuted for complaints on working conditions – should be a lesson; regardless of the level of oppression they suffer, they must be convinced that their complaint is a result of their own psychological problems!

The most striking recommendations of YEP to reduce the current accounts deficit, are the development of health tourism and an increase in the consumption of national products, linking it to the ‘national unity project’. Turning provision of health into a commodity led to health being the victim of economic interest; government guarantee of patients for hospitals built under public-private partnerships.

On the other hand, in terms of agricultural output, the country has been turned into a desert under the 16-yer rule of AKP; all grains, fruit and veg, and even hay is imported. There is no domestic product to be consumed.

Sackings already started due to crisis; workers are sentenced to poverty wages, with the threat of unemployment if their factories are shut; unpaid and forced holidays are on the increase; the abortion of collective bargaining agreements is on the agenda. Prices already burning holes in pockets; new price rises and direct/indirect taxes are on their way. Wages and rights of the workers are not the cause of this crisis; they have been well-pruned in the last 16 years.The debt that the government promised to pay the monopolies is not the debt of the 81 million, as stated by Necdet Takva, the TOBB (The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey) Council Leader. Hence, this debt cannot be paid by the public; those that created this debt should be paying it.

The fitting response to the call for sacrifice – targeting few pennies left in the pockets of the workers – came from workers in Makel, Mercedes, the third airport, Cargill and Tüpraş. We are in no doubt that responses of this nature will increase. Crisis are periods where opportunity for coordinated struggle for the workers increase; workers can regain losses through such a struggle.

In this context, wages eroded by price rises and exchange rate manipulations should be increased; minimum wage should be determined with poverty levels in mind; basic commodity prices should be frozen; unlawful sackings should be banned; workers’ wages should be paid first in businesses that close down or go bankrupt. Meeting of these demands is compulsory to redress the losses and to establish minimum welfare. Workers will not give up on these demands. Policies that threaten their living and working conditions can only be defeated by a united struggle. Our party will work for this struggle to grow and strengthen.

SELMA GÜRKAN

Chairwoman

#Turkey #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #LaborPartyOfTurkey #EMEP

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Labor Party (EMEP), Turkey.

The elections on 24 June took place under conditions of OHAL (State of Emergency), inequality, media monopoly and the oppressive, polarizing political discourse of the government. Therefore, Erdoğan’s declaration of a “celebration of democracy” – which he based on high participation – does not reflect reality. You cannot claim that the election was just or it took place under free conditions and equal opportunity of propaganda: the ‘Presidential Alliance’ recklessly used all resources of the government and turned its oppression into physical violence; causing the death of 5 people in a bloody election, the legitimacy of which will continue to be a topic of argument.

Despite the perceived confirmation at the ballot box of Erdoğan’s presidency and the transition to a new regime, it is clear that a considerable section of society does not agree with a ‘one-man regime.’

Ruling parties, the very source of the problems faced by society, cannot solve the problems they created. AKP and its allies are the architects of high unemployment, corruption, politics of oppression, violence and warmongering; these problems will multiply and increase under continued rule of these parties and lives of the whole society will be affected by its catastrophic consequences.

The presidential system, based on a “one-man regime” devised for continued leadership of Erdoğan, is a political system designed to serve interests of the financial class. It is clear that people will be made to pay the bill for economic downturn, including high international debt; a prescription of harsh decisions will be served; and oppression will increase in this difficult period. Hence , through its post-election statement, TÜSİAD (Turkish Industry and Business Association) gave the executive the task to reform and to spread the tax burden to the substrata. The leadership never refrained from using peoples’ support as a basis for aggressive policies and there is no guarantee that it will do otherwise from now on. It can be seen today that living and working conditions of all sections of society – and primarily the working class – will worsen. Nevertheless, these aggressive policies; banning of strikes, price hikes, limiting of democratic rights and freedoms, warmongering both at home and abroad will also increase the predicament of the government.

During the election the “Presidential Alliance” was declared to be “local and national” and those that did not support it were claimed to be terrorists. The election results cannot be democratic when the campaigns of both the HDP and the parties in the “People’s Alliance” were openly attacked. The indication that this aggression will not be limited to the election period, but continue during building of the new political regime can be found in Erdoğan’s statements.

The conflict between those restructuring the regime in line with the interests of the monopolies and those struggling for the rule of the people, democracy, rights and freedoms and demanding peace and equality did not end with the election; it will continue.

Our party will strive to fulfil its duty to make sure workers and laborer’s, whom have voted for Erdoğan and the Presidential Alliance in the hope that they will fix the mounting problems of the country, will see how big an error this has been; and to make sure they will join the rest of their class and throw themselves into a struggle for their own futures and liberation.

The one-man regime will take aggressive economic, social and political decisions that will directly impact on the working and living conditions, and will target all democratic gains, rights and freedoms of workers and laborer’s and all other sections of the society. Regardless of the result at the ballot box, our struggle against the one-man regime will continue.

Labor Party (EMEP), Turkey

#Turkey #LaborPartyOfTurkey #EMEP #Asia

Let’s unite our forces and raise the struggle for a democratic constitution and a Parliament!...

Following the referendum of 16 April 2017, in which the result was controversially declared as a victory for ‘Yes’ by the YSK (Higher Election Commission), the construction of a regime of ‘one man, one party’ reached a new stage.

At least half of the population in the country rejected the attempts to “build a new regime” by President Erdoğan, the AKP government and the forces of capital that back them; with their No votes, they countered these attempts. At this point, the palace, government and their supporters are trying to ride over the issue of legitimacy through the State of Emergency (OHAL).

This is the reason for attempts to normalize the continuation of OHAL and governing the country through emergency decrees of law (KHK). OHAL is the main instrument in their attempts to fulfil political and social attacks on workers and the public; terrorizing public opposition and trying to prevent and shut it down by oppression.

Media companies are still subjected to fines and closures; opposition politicians and journalists are still subjected to custody and detentions. Oppression of labor and removal of rights such as redundancy pay and the right to job security are intensified. The pit the country is dragged into by internal and external war policies is deepening.

In this political momentum, where the political future of the country will be shaped by international developments and the power struggle between the classes, the urgent duty of public opposition is to raise the struggle for winning democratic rights and political freedoms.

To put the position to be taken in the Presidential elections of 2019 as a duty in front of the ‘No front’, in an environment where the legitimacy of 16 April referendum is discussed, will only create a climate that enable the palace, government and their supporters to bring in any ‘adjustment law’ they need on the way to the ‘one man, one party dictatorship’.

Taking these into consideration, our party calls on:

All labor, democratic and progressive forces, including political parties, labor and workers’ organizations, women’s, youth, environmental and religious groups, to unite their forces for a Constitution and a Parliament that will form the basis of a political system that secures full sovereignty of the people; primarily, to ensure the removal of OHAL and the cancellation of KHK’s, to prevent further political and social attacks; the democratic solution of the Kurdish issue; freedom of faith and establishing real secularism; protection of immunity of property and individuals; freedom of speech, media and right to organize; the workers’ and public’s right to work, shelter, job security and a secure future.

#Turkey #AntiwarMovement #Labor #WomensMovement #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #EnvironmentalJustice #LaborPartyOfTurkey

Realistically, Turkish authorities are so unserious and hypocritical in terms of Jihadism as a political current. Yes, they condemned the attack and attackers. But, although there were warnings by the American authorities like the CIA, as it was claimed in the mass media, they didn’t take strict measurements.

After all, ISIS has released a statement to take responsibility for this attack. However, interestingly, for the first time, ISIS used, clearly, one of their attacks as a way of propaganda in Turkey.

Why?

Several Turkish Islamist political groups have been, regularly, doing anti-new year propaganda in the last weeks of the year. But, in this year, they escalated the level of this anti-new year campaign. They say “noel/new year is a Christian tradition.”

Obviously, noel and new year celebrations have different ways. But people can celebrate whatever they want.

But, in this year, even department of religious affairs of Turkey declared that new year is illegitimate. Santa Claus mascots were burned and knifed as ‘street plays’ by radical Islamist youth groups. So, the ISIS attack and its following propaganda was targeted to use this atmosphere in order to gain political and organizational influence along with ‘radicalizing’ youth through Jihadist ideas.

These tactics of the ISIS depend on fault lines in a country. In brief, Turkey has three fault lines: a tension between Turks and Kurds, a tension between Sunnis and Alewites, and another tension between conservatives and secularists.

Until now, ISIS had targeted the peace forces and Kurdish people to break down the attempts of the fraternity between Turks and Kurds; as well as foreign tourists.

But the nightclub attack aimed the third fault line, which is an attack to secularism, as a lifestyle and a democratic acquisition. It is certain that ISIS is willing to strengthen its existence in Turkey with different aspects.

Predictable consequences of ‘active’ foreign policies in the Middle East

ISIS has been organizing in Turkey. Especially, expressions of local people and democratic forces, as well as in police records, demonstrate that ISIS has chapters in Antep, Kilis, Adiyaman, Ankara, Istanbul, Bingol, Konya, and Izmir.[1] Although Turkish security forces had raid some ISIS cells, they were limited attempts. It can be thought as a ‘security’ problem. But the existence of ISIS has developed roots into the people of Turkey. The recent government intervention to social life in authoritarian and conservative ways directly and indirectly provides a great opportunity to the jihadists to organize among conservative masses.

And it is clear that the last attack and following statements of ISIS are a declaration of war against Turkey. By an article in The Independent, Abu Mutassim, an ISIS defector, describes the level of the hate of ISIS leadership against Turkey: “It is a Muslim country whose rulers have turned against Islam, allying themselves with the Americans and the Russians,” he told The Independent. “They are seen as the worst of enemies – Daesh [Isis] has declared war on Turkey.” [2]

Especially, the advance of the Turkish army and its clashes with ISIS, and the military operations of Iraqi, Syrian, and Kurdish forces towards Raqqa and Mosul push ISIS to find a way of escape.

Consequently, it is not a bomb attack. It was a mass shooting, which was so professional, and clearly is an organized act. The attack was not done by a lone wolf (or lone wolves). The attack targeted, directly, secularism in Turkey. And the attack was a result of interventionist foreign and reactionary-driven domestic policies.

This is a new era for Turkey. There is no light at the end of this tunnel. But there are honorable and courageous forces of labor, democracy and peace, who need to get more international solidarity than in the past.

[1] How Did Turkey create its own ISIS: Urban city ISIS cells

[2] Why the Istanbul attack should be read as a declaration of war by Isis

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #turkey #ISIS #Asia

For a long time, the people of Turkey have paid for the inestimable consequences of foreign policies of the Turkish government. On Dec. 19, it cost another life.

The Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov was assassinated by a Turkish police officer, who was also assigned as a bodyguard for Karlov by Turkish governmental officials.

After police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas killed Ambassador Karlov, he shouted, “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria.”

From expressions of the killer and the return of Aleppo from sectarian groups in Syria, it is almost certain what kind of group committed this attack. However, there still remains a lack of clarity. The news agency Sputnik says that the Front for the Conquest of the Levant claimed responsibility, in a letter that was published online, and again in the Sputnik, on the same day, this letter was called fake.

Whether it was done by this sectarian group, or another one, the consequences of this murder will remain same. The assassination of the ambassador will be to the detriment of Turkish foreign policy in Syria. Given that Turkey was saying “Assad should resign,” and was pushing for a new government in Syria, things didn’t’t go quite as planned.

Reminder: What happened after Russian plane was shot down

Russia became militarily involved in the Syrian conflict, launching airstrikes on Sept. 30, 2015. The Russian government’s main stated political aim is to convince the other parties in the war to reach a political solution with Assad administration.

After a Russian warplane was shot down by Turkish-backed Syrian paramilitary groups, Turkey’s aggressive posture resulted in a major loss on the diplomatic front of the Syrian conflict. Moreover, Russia has already an edge in that it entered the Syrian war opposing a Western solution, and as a collaborative force for peace.

With the relative legitimacy of Russia in the region, the Russian government gained a high-level position against Turkey after the plane incident. It was a remarkable moment in the diplomatic moves of this war, because after that, Turkey was effectively pushed out of the diplomacy game.

However, the recent re-entering of Turkey to this diplomacy is of interest, because the bargaining over Aleppo started at this point. Although Turkey had put the “Assad should be gone” idea to the back of its mind, there is a big problem for Turkish government: Rojava, and the Kurdish people of Syria.

The continuous defeats of Turkey in Syria, politically and militarily, also impacted its domestic politics, as Kurdish gains in Syria affected the Kurdish struggle in Turkey, intensifying the struggle for self-determination.

Turkeys ruling party, the AKP, had been consolidating its political hegemony in the realm of consent for a long time, in which AKP has carried out its policies of economic attacks against the working masses and has been involved in corruption scandals and reactionary politics. When they got to their third term of office, which the AKP calls its ‘master’ term, the essence of their agenda became visible. They want to get control of the social opposition by the means of repression and violence. In fact, their agenda is to build President Erdogan’s dictatorship.

But Turkey’s regime faces another obstacle. One of the greatest dynamics of Turkey's democratic forces is the Kurdish national movement. The only way for the AKP and its political allies to consolidate their strength is to suppress the Kurdish people's movement today, or at least to control it.

For these reasons, Turkish government accepted the Russian deal. It was clear that Turkey is going to give on Aleppo, but the price of Aleppo will be a ‘security corridor’ between two Kurdish areas in Syria. So, this security corridor gave two precious cards to Turkey. One is that they stopped to the unification of Kurdish area in Syria. Secondly, they can maintain their physical contact with the different sectarian groups from ISIS to Free Syrian Army.

The interesting thing is that Turkey has to give on Aleppo because contradictions it faced domestically.

Just before the assassination of Russian Ambassador Karlov, the option of “Assad should be gone” was still the preferred option of the Turkish regime, and with Putin's explanation after the assassination, everything was clear.

If we go back to Karlov, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, called the assassination as a “provocation” against the rapprochement between Moscow and Ankara and attempts of resolving the conflict in Syria.

Putin said, “There can be only one answer to this – stepping up the fight against terrorism, and the bandits will feel this.” These developments left Turkey in a weak position, so on Dec. 20, Turkey, Iran and Russia signed a declaration in Moscow, which draws completely a new alignment in the Syrian war. The agreement states:

“1. Iran, Russia, and Turkey reiterate their full respect for the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, non-sectarian, democratic and secular state.2. Iran, Russia, and Turkey are convinced that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict. They recognize the essential role of the United Nations in the efforts to resolve this crisis in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 2254.The ministers also take note of the decisions made by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) and urge all members of the international community to cooperate in good faith in order to remove the obstacles on the way to implement the agreements contained in these documents.and8. Iran, Russia, and Turkey reiterate their determination to fight jointly against Daesh and al-Nusra terrorists and to separate them from armed opposition groups.”

The plane incident was a milestone for the war. The declaration of Moscow, after the assassination, is a new milestone. Turkey entered the diplomatic game board again. One cannot be certain about future developments, because the political scene is full of provocative actors.

ISIS bombers attacked Turkish troops in Al-Bab in Syria. 14 Turkish soldiers lost their lives, 33 of them were wounded. Just after one day after this attack, ISIS released a video in which they are burning two Turkish soldiers alive.

The Turkish government pays the bill for its foreign policy with human lives – the lives of working people from different nationalities.

#Turkey #NewYorkNY #AntiwarMovement #Opinion #PeoplesStruggles #Syria #HandsOffSyria #MiddleEast

The World Federation of Trade Unions expresses solidarity with the people of Turkey and support to the members and friendly organizations of WFTU in Turkey.

The members and friends of WFTU in Turkey, all the militant trade unions in the country are struggling under difficult conditions. They have to confront the antipeople’s and antilabour policies of the Government of AKP, they have to confront the reactionary, undemocratic practices of the bourgeoisie.

The vast majority of the working class in Turkey lives under conditions of poverty, unemployment, insecurity for their present and future.

This situation becomes worse today after the attempted coup and the beneficial use of it by the Government of Erdogan.

Turkey is a country that actively participates in the imperialist war in Syria. The Turkish Capitalists seek bigger share from the profits in the wide area, the capitalist class of Turkey aims for an enhanced role as a strong regional power.

In the complicated net of inter-imperialist contradictions, the ruling class of Turkey struggles to promote its own interests.

These competitions generate international and internal confrontations. The organized motion of powerful forces of the army, the large number of dead, the thousands of arrests and imprisonments, the battles on the streets and all those that are taking place, underline that the inter-imperialist conflicts are enormous. It is not known yet what is the role of the USA, the NATO in this attempted coup.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is utilizing these developments for arresting, dismissing public employees, imprisoning, organizing generalized persecutions everywhere.

The WFTU appeals to the working people in Turkey and calls them to not be trapped in the strategies and the inter-imperialist contradictions, to empower the class unity, to resist the state and employers violence, to struggle for the satisfaction of their contemporary needs and the improvement of their living and working conditions.

The WFTU demands the full respect of trade union and democratic rights, the end of imperialist wars and conflicts in the region and the dismantling of NATO.

THE SECRETARIAT

#Turkey #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #Asia

1. July 15th coup attempt has not brought ideologically conflicting centers subject to each other, but involved at least two and even more state cliques, which have identical class identities and ideologies. It is not possible that these cliques would be totally unaware of each other's plans and actions just like it is being impossible to dissociated them. However the attempt on 15th of July is not a bloody scenario totally planned by Erdoğan as some claimed so, but is a real coup attempt.

2. There are two dimensions of the path leading to the coup. First one, is the “fight for power” between Erdoğan supporters and Gülen Community which has gained a new dimension after the large purge of Gülen followers. This fight is getting ever deeper on both political and economical context and is also having an international dimension and different trends within the imperialist centers are supporting those factions.

3. It is the reality that most of the officers took place in the coup attempt are members of the Gulen Community and it is well known that the Community has deep and strong connections in USA. The opinion that,since Turkey has close military relations with USA as being a member of NATO, the coups in Turkey can not be made without the consent of USA is very much true. And the main reason that the high ranking members of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) who are not happy with the AKP haven’t attempted any coup, was the support of the USA government to AKP.

4. This support has been reduced recently because of various reasons, even, some constituents have teeth in USA and some European countries, have started to get ready for Erdoğan’s purge. The uprising of the people in 2013 with the participation of the millions, the mischievous affects on the interest of the system of the tension created in society by Erdoğan and finally the failure of the Syrian policy deeply effected the relations between Erdoğan and some imperialist countries. It is not possible to consider the 15th July coup attempt without taking account this tension.

5. Coup plotters having connection abroad is not making Erdoğan a patriot or anti-imperialist. As a politician, Erdoğan largely served to the USA and international monopolies and now he is sealing some alliances and maneuvering in order to save himself as a politician loosing his grace among the powers supported him for years. His approaching to that or this international focus doesn’t change his denominational character and his ideological preferences. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a bourgeois politician, he is an enemy of working class, he is a counter revolutionist and he is not different than the coup plotters who want to topple him.

6. The coup attempt, regarding the powers behind, the methods which were used and ideological fundamentals, are not holding any point for the interest of the people. The opinion, that the country would have got out of difficulties if the coup have been successful is groundless. It is obvious, what an pro-American, hostile to the people coup would mean.

7. It is also nonsense to present the suppression of the coupe as a victory for the people and/or celebrate it is a democracy fest trailing AKP. This is an approach which does not question the legality of the AKP regime and ignore the class fundamentals of the things going on in the country.

8. The argument claiming that Erdoğan gained more power after this coup attempt is true to a certain extent. Without doubt, Erdoğan got a chance to inflict a heavy blow to the Gülen Community; showed himself as a victim one more time, consolidated his crowds and tested the power of some organisations associated with him. However he ended up with a seriously damaged state apparatus and he also had to face that there is not any safe bureaucracy anymore because of the transitory of the integral cliques.

9. Under these circumstances Erdoğan may totally prefer to stick his own sources within the two critical body of the state apparatus, Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and Judiciary, and prefer to purge not only the Gülen community members but also some Kemalist constituents who used to be in alliance with him. There are serious difficulties to stick totally own sources in TSK and Judiciary even if it is relatively easier in some other parts of the bureaucracy. Erdoğan can not make this move -which means to decelerate clearly an Islamic state- real without avoiding to involve into final and absolute revenge on the both political and social levels. On the other hand Erdoğan doesn’t have any other way out to consolidate his own crowds.

10. It is possible that Erdoğan will go into the effort of mending the relations with USA and reducing the internal tension after the short period of terror and intimidation, there are already some signals showing he is getting ready for those steps. Also the expectations of CHP and HDP are in this direction. The difficulty of this option is Erdoğan will not be able to continue and do politics without tension and opening a space for his radical elements. Parliament opposition does not actually have any problem with Erdoğan and AKP.

11. In each situation there is a dissolution and multi dimensional crisis regarding the hegemony of the capital. It's not this dissolution but the unorganised state of the working class, which is actually dangerous.

12. Another danger is the opinion, which has become popular after the coup attempt, saying Erdoğan is undefeatable. Scary scenarios are coming along with this opinion and a panic environment is being created with the speculative news which some parts of them are not real. AKP government has always been dangerous and it is clear that they are even more dangerous now. Additionally the panic environment which is created, makes the aggression of AKP legitimate. However neither AKP and Erdoğan are powerful as they claim nor Turkey is a country which could be ended or blackened in a minute. For example, during and after the “celebration”moments the number of the AKP followers were few on the streets in spite of all the calls for celebrations. The right position is, to be aware of the danger but not cause a panic, and on the contrary try to evaluate this dissolution from the point of working classes.

13. AKP and the fundamentalist threat must not be underrated at all. The period started with the sentence “secularism is not in danger” carried the country to the edge of abyss. There is a mission for the better organised and more effective opposition of the people against that considerable threat. This mission can not be performed by creating panic after all these woolgathering years. It is not acceptable that the system opposition is crowning its past carelessness by creating a panic.

14. Under these conditions the major power of AKP and Erdoğan stays to be his opponents in the political system. The politics of the system formed all its policy based on normalising, transforming, convincing AKP. It is remarkable and worrying the attitude of some politicians who claims that they are the “left” wing in the parliament.

15. Experiences during and after the 15th July exposed how cruel can be the factions in the government. We all watched how the coup plotters can make their ways cruel. Then, we saw the barbarism been staged by the government. All these can not be handled by the approach of “let them kill each other”. Unknown number of citizens have been killed and private soldiers who don't have any idea what is going on have been lynched. People will bring the account of all these lawless actions,lynch, torture towards suspects and surrended privates and the rulers of those two factions cooperated together for years but fighting each other now will answer the public together.

16. It is not correct to explain all these cruelties with “strength”. On the contrary there is dissolution, fear and confusion on the side of the government. Spreading fear can only be passed by strong, solid and consistent steps but not with the unplanned silly actions. And this dissolution can be turn into an opportunity for the people.

17. As we always emphasize, Turkey can only be out of woods by struggle of the working class together against the class hegemony presented by dark powers but not with the dance of dark powers. We refuse all kind of analysis and positioning ignoring this reality. It is obvious that Communists will not give credit to quackery of the victory of democratic powers and cunning sayings as all become together against Erdoğan. There are some creating panic with saying “followers of sharia will cut our heads off” among the people saying the victory of democratic powers, and even this can show the dimension of confusion. We tell again, we would never become together with the representatives of the capitalist class, USA and NATO supported coups or agents of colorful revolutions. This doesnt make us weak, the thing making us weak is the unorganised state of the working class and them following fake solutions.

18. It needed to be understood one more time that how the enmity of “organising” created a gap at the people's side, where the Gülen Community gangs which placed into the government, the interest groups, the triggers and even the mafia have been very well organised in the country. If we go further, we can say that everybody who are side with the humanitarian ideals, a classless society without exploitation must work together on the common minded, sustainable organisation. It is called as being an enemy to the people not doing it, legalising the carelessness and laziness. It is the necessity to organise, improve, and empower the class organisation which is free from the religious sects, fundamentalism, capital and imperialist centers. The ones who blessed the people's not politicised reactions, unorganised masses, and the ones who aimed aimlessness and formlessness together with the expression of “Gezi pluralism” must have been learnt their lesson.

19. It is the only aim of the Communist Party to become an independent revolutionary organization which can change the balances in the country, can spoil the game in such coup nights or reactionist lynch campaigns. And our ultimate call for our working people is to trust their own power, move all together and take the initiative by stopping to follow this nightmare.

Central Committee Communist Party

#Turkey #CommunistPartyOfTurkey #Asia

Chicago, IL – Chicago-based anti-war leader Joe Iosbaker is speaking out against the latest U.S./Turkey attacks on Syria and the Kurds. “What does it mean that the U.S. and its NATO junior partner, Turkey, are creating a ‘Safe Zone’ along the Turkey-Syria border? The first result is that dozens of Turkish fighter planes are engaging in attacks against the Kurdistan Workers Party in Syria as well as in Iraq. In Turkey, they’re cracking down on Kurds and the left, with hundreds of arrests.”

“And what of U.S. aims in Syria with this so-called Safe Zone? U.S. air strikes against the ‘Islamic State’ will increase, no doubt. They’ll drive them out of this area, and then turn it over to a more compliant puppet army,” continued Iosbaker.

Speaking on the aims of this widening war, Iosbaker stated, “The real purpose to the U.S. attacks on the so called Islamic State is the overthrow of the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. The plan for this Safe Zone is to turn it into the first ‘No Fly Zone’ over Syria. No Fly Zones are a tool in the imperialist arsenal, as we saw when the U.S. and NATO imposed the No Fly Zone on Libya in 2011. U.S. objectives haven’t changed in the Middle East: it wants to impose the Wall Street agenda on the people there.”

#ChicagoIL #JoeIosbaker #turkey #Kurds #Asia

Chicago, IL – 100 Syrians gathered here, April 5, in front of the Turkish consulate to demand “Turkey, NATO, hands off Syria!” The group also called out their love for their homeland in Arabic, chanting “Tahya Suria!” Long live Syria!

The incident that caused this international day of protest in places with Syrian and Armenian immigrant communities is an attack on the village of Kessab in northwestern Syria. Kessab is a mainly Armenian Christian community, which was attacked by the Turkish-backed terrorist group Al Nusra Front in late March. Thousands have fled Kessab, and the fear of a repeat of the Armenian genocide has caused even Armenian American Kim Kardashian to speak out.

Mark Ahmad of the Syrian American Forum addressed the protest. “We want Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey to stop supporting and sending the terrorists to attack our motherland. Every one of you must inform your neighbors and coworkers and contact their legislators with the message that our U.S. policy should not support repeated aggression against Syria by the government of Turkey.”

Joe Iosbaker of the Anti-war Committee-Chicago addressed the crowd. “We have to oppose the U.S. and its junior partners in NATO, which include Turkey; the U.S. puppets in the Gulf States; and of course Israel, the main provocateur and biggest cheerleader for war in Syria.” Iosbaker also called for the Syrians to support the Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh, who is facing charges by the U.S. Attorney in Detroit for her work in the Palestinian community in Chicago.

#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #JoeIosbaker #turkey #Syria #AntiWarCommitteeChicago #SyrianAmericanForum #RasmeaOdeh #AlNusraFront #KimKardashian #MiddleEast

A statement from Syria’s military says that the helicopter mistakenly strayed a small way across the border, was given immediate orders to return, and as it was heading back, was shot down. The statement also noted that the hasty reaction on the part of Turkey is evidence that they are escalating the tension on the border between the two countries.

For its part, Turkey has played an important role in helping the U.S. and other Western countries in their efforts to destroy Syria’s government. Turkey is a key transit point for combatants and war material for the brutal Syrian rebels. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has set up a large operation inside Turkey to arm and train the Syrian opposition.

Given recent threats by the U.S. to launch military strikes against Syria – and despite the massive opposition domestically and internationally which resulted in the Obama administration pausing its attack plans – it’s likely that Washington will continue to seek pretexts to expand the war with Syria.

#Syria #USImperialism #turkey #chemicalWeapons #destroyers #MiddleEast

As we go to press, the manufacture of provocations designed to justify open imperialist intervention against independent Syria is reaching fever pitch.

Foreign Secretary William Hague plumbed new depths of murderous hypocrisy when, after Britain and France had bullied and cajoled the other 25 members of the EU into lifting their arms embargo on Syria, so they could openly supply weapons to the counter-revolutionary terrorists, he declared that this escalation of imperialist aggression was necessary to force the Syrian government to accept a negotiated political settlement.

Hague’s statement that supplying yet more arms to the rebels was solely for the purpose of persuading Damascus to attend the proposed Geneva conference ignores the blindingly obvious – that Damascus has already accepted, indeed welcomed, this proposal, whilst the rebels, to date, are refusing to participate.

Direct and deadly zionist aggression has already violated both Syrian and Lebanese sovereignty, and the bomb blasts in a Turkish border town, engineered by unknown hands, are being worked up into an excuse for all-out war.

Yet so great are the dangers foreseen in Washington in committing openly and definitively to such a course that disabling splits are opening up within the imperialist camp over the next step.

The fact that the continuing efforts on the part both of Damascus and of Moscow to stay the hand of aggression and convene a peace conference without preconditions have not yet been dismissed out of hand by the West may be ascribed in part to a cynical calculation – just playing for time whilst the warmongers complete their preparations. However, a glance at the balance of forces on the ground makes it clear enough why some cannier imperialist opinion might urge a step backwards from the brink.

Rebel reverses

With every day that passes, it becomes clearer that the legitimate government of Syria, loyally defended not only by the armed forces but also by the overwhelming majority of Syrians, is not about to be toppled by the squabbling rebel factions to whom imperialism had entrusted the task.

Even some honest bourgeois journalists cannot but recognise this inconvenient reality. Alex Thomson, a foreign correspondent for Channel Four, blogged on 5 May that

“[I]n the central areas of the country, President Assad’s forces have made some notable strategic gains against the various rebel forces. Alongside that, fighters from Hizbollah, coming in from Lebanon in the west to these central areas of fighting, have made a real impact on the ground ...

“On 24 April, for instance, the Syrian Army seized Otaiba, which is just east of Damascus, after the usual sustained barrage. This punched a hole in the rebel supply lines via which they had been taking much of their fight to the northern, eastern and southern areas around the capital.

“Across Damascus, other gains too: rebels more or less now pushed out to the far side of the city ring-road zone in most areas. This again is a significant reversal of fortunes on the ground. Just two days later the army took their fight to Jobar, a key northeastern suburb of Damascus and one of the few areas in rebel hands inside the ring-road zone.

“If they can push the rebels from here then almost all of the gains the rebel forces have made around the Damascus suburbs will have been neutralised.”

On the rebel side, everything is chaos and dismay. On the ground, rival bands of jihadis, bankrolled and armed by different wings of the Gulf sheikh mafia, alternately squabble over the war booty and alienate the population by displays of sectarian thuggery. In turn, they have nothing but contempt for the so-called ‘transitional government’ that Washington, Paris and London hope to parachute into power.

The New York Times told us some time ago how “Fahed al-Masri, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army’s unified command, questioned how a government could function when it controlled little territory or money yet would be held responsible for the fate of more than one million Syrian refugees and several times that number displaced inside the country.

“‘Welcome, government,’ Mr Masri said sardonically.”(‘Syrian rebels pick US citizen to lead interim government’ by Anne Barnard, 18 March 2013)

The previous head of the so-called ‘Syrian National Coalition’, Moaz al-Khatib, got the elbow because he had the temerity to call for peace negotiations without preconditions. In his place now struts Ghassan Hitto, a Syrian Kurd whose previous 30 years living in Texas have apparently taught him all he needs to know in order to serve imperialism as a quisling ‘prime minister’.

This ludicrous audition over who to pick to play the pirate king was embarrassing in the extreme, coming as it did at the moment when the Arab League was waiting to see who would fill the seat left vacant when the real Syrian state was suspended last year. Still clinging to the hope that Khatib might change his mind, Arab League spokesman al-Thani expressed the pious wish that “things will get corrected ... it’s important for him not to lose this moment”!

Fat chance: Kerry had already waved him goodbye: “The notion he might resign has been expressed on many an occasion and is not a surprise. The opposition is more than one person.”

New pretender Hitto instantly distanced himself from al-Khatib’s brief flirtation with the idea of talks without preconditions. Yet the Guardian lamented that the latest aspirant to the throne “has made little progress” in “unifiying civilian and military wings of the revolution”, noting that“Rebel groups inside Syria take few instructions from the political body and have little direct contact with its leaders.”(‘Moaz al-Khatib’s resignation plunges Syrian opposition into chaos’ by Martin Chulov, 24 March 2013)

Indeed, some of the leaders of the ‘Free Syrian Army’ terrorists have in turn refused to recognise Hitto’s appointment!

Teetering on the brink

Though imperialism has been driven ever closer to the brink of outright hostilities, every new provocation designed to bounce public opinion into supporting yet another criminal war seems to have another purpose as well: to nerve up doubting elements actually within imperialist ruling circles to cast caution to the wind and wade into the swamp. The ballyhoo around chemical weapons is a case in point.

The unsubstantiated claims that the Syrian army was ‘using chemical weapons against its own people’ were manufactured with the obvious intention of justifying in advance another installment of imperialist aggression. Yet as well as hoping to pile pressure on Syria, this scaremongering appeared also to be piling pressure on the White House itself, whose occupant had just a few months earlier waxed so eloquent about the “red line” that would be crossed were President Assad to resort to the use of chemical weapons.

Now though, with Syria’s national defenses holding up so well, the rebels in disarray and the US’s other pressing business in the Pacific claiming the president’s attention (while the resistance forces in Afghanistan and Iraq have given a strong lesson about what Uncle Sam can expect if US boots touch the ground in serious numbers), the ‘red line’ bravado appears to be somewhat subdued.

In a White House press briefing on 6 May, Jay Carney tied himself up in knots trying to cover Obama’s retreat, waffling that “What the president made clear is that it was a red line, and that it was unacceptable, and that it would change his calculus ... What he never did – and it is simplistic to do so – is to say that ‘If X happens, Y will happen’. He has never said what reaction he would take.”

So that’s clear then.

When the human rights investigating team at the UN, led by Carla Del Ponte, produced a dossier that not only failed to substantiate the allegations against President Assad but even included evidence that dared to suggest that the rebels had slaughtered dozens of people with sarin nerve gas attacks in Aleppo and elsewhere, there might almost have been audible from the White House a sigh of relief.

Whilst John Kerry still kept trying to milk the lie that there existed “strong evidence” of President Assad having used chemical weapons, this was flatly contradicted not alone by UN officials but also by US administration sources. British prime minister David Cameron’s pathetic insistence on flogging the same dead horse long after its death certificate had been signed may have been intended as just another brown-nosing token of fealty to the Special Relationship. Instead, it just underscored the warmongers’ embarrassing inability to agree on a line and stick to it.

Zionist attack burns Obama’s bridges?

With or without a green light from the White House, the Israeli jets that twice violated Lebanese airspace to attack Syria’s defenses and inflict death and destruction on her capital city were indeed an “act of war” which “opened the door to all possibilities”, as the Syrian government correctly noted.

In the raids that took place between 2 and 4 May, Damascus International Airport was hit, as were a number of other locations in and near the capital. A doctor at the city’s Tishreen Military Hospital reported the death of at least 100 soldiers, with dozens more wounded. Residential areas were also bombed, driving citizens to take refuge in their basements.

A government statement carried on Syrian TV correctly identified the attack as “an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups, which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army”. We might add that it was also an attempt to force the hand of those within the imperialist camp itself who might be having second or third thoughts about stepping over the brink.

By such a flagrant attack on the sovereignty of both Syria and her Lebanese neighbour, Tel Aviv perhaps hopes to end all thoughts of retreat by pre-emptively burning the bridges.

Turkish provocation backfires

Washington’s recent efforts to reconcile Israel and Turkey, even persuading Netanyahu to apologise to Erdogan for the IDF’s murder of nine Turkish peace activists on board the Marmi Marvara, were driven by an urgent need to get Tel Aviv and Ankara into a warmongering alliance against Syria.

Turkey has long played a major role in facilitating the subversion of its neighbour: opening up safe havens on the border for terrorist forces from which cross-border attacks can be mounted, and assisting with the arming and protection of those forces. Ankara’s shallow ‘anti-zionist’ posture, adopted solely to placate public opinion at home, has, to a great extent, been quietly shelved, enabling Israel and Turkey to work together once again against their common enemy.

Sure enough, a week after the Israeli attacks, a new provocation was launched by Turkey. On 11 May, twin car bombs exploded in Reyhanli, a Turkish border town in the province of Hatay, killing 51, injuring dozens more and inflicting widespread damage on buildings in the vicinity. The victims included both Turks and Syrians.

Almost before the smoke had cleared, and well before any serious investigation could even have begun, Ankara was pointing the finger at Damascus and saying it would take “all retaliatory measures necessary”. Yet the allegation flies in the face of the most basic common sense. With the rebels on the run and peace talks in the offing, what conceivable advantage could Damascus hope to secure by such an attack?

The only possible beneficiaries would be those who want to see the talks fail; those who would like to bounce the world into another war. The chairman of the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s Duma got it right: “In the terrorist attack in Turkey, Syria was accused again – as it is always blamed for everything. Someone wants to disrupt the peace conference and to push ahead with the use of military force.”

It is well known that the car bomb is a favourite weapon of the jihadists, and their feelings about the prospect of talks going ahead with Damascus are also no secret.

Ankara’s complicity with terror

Western press reports convey the impression that the Turkish border neatly separates the ‘civil war’ of Syria from the peaceable ‘refugee camps’ in Turkey which provide simple humanitarian relief for Syrians uprooted by the conflict. This simplistic fairy tale fits in nicely with the idea of fratricidal strife in Syria threatening to ‘spill over’ into peaceful Turkey!

In reality, it is not Syria that destabilises Turkey but Turkey which, by offering a safe haven and free passage to terrorists, is actively destabilising Syria. The West-backed rebellion has long since transformed the whole border area between the two countries into a war zone, making life hell for Turks and Syrians alike.

Whilst doubtless many of the 200,000 Syrians on the Turkish side are helpless civilian victims caught up in the conflict, others are, with full encouragement from Ankara and the West, using this region as a base area from which to launch attacks against Syria. They certainly do not draw the line at using refugee populations as human shields for their subversion.

None of this does much to win the hearts and minds of the local Turkish inhabitants.

Some reports talk of Syrians being beaten up and Syrian businesses attacked by vengeful Turks in the aftermath of the bombing. However, when about a hundred Reyhanli residents responded to the outrage by coming out on the street, it was to the Turkish foreign ministry that they marched and Erdogan’s head for which they called, blaming him for a policy towards Syria which had brought such horrors in its train. Another spontaneous march in Ankara similarly attacked Erdogan for dragging Turkey into war.

Between the world wars, the region of Hatay in which Reyhanli is situated was part of Syria, and many Syrians were living there long before the present crisis – including a substantial minority of alawites. Whilst there are fewer alawites in Reyhanli itself, the region as a whole has distinguished itself by its opposition to Ankara’s support for the rebellion.

Perhaps another motive for the outrage could have been to bounce local opinion into supporting open war against Syria. If so, it has miserably failed. Staff at a media office for a Syrian rebel group located down the street from the site of the first explosion were to be observed hurriedly drawing and locking their shutters, fearful of being correctly identified as enemies of peace in the region.

As for Erdogan, stripped of his phony anti-zionist demagogy and caught red-handed trying to pitch his country into a counter-revolutionary war at the bidding of Uncle Sam and his loathsome brethren in Britain and France, the future does not look rosy.

Syria stands firm

By spreading lies about chemical weapons, launching air strikes against Damascus and engineering provocations on the Syria/Turkey border, imperialism perhaps hopes to bounce Syria into confronting all its enemies at the same time; into reacting to aggression in a fashion and on a timescale convenient to the West.

The New York Times wept crocodile tears recently over what it supposed to be the Syrian president’s dilemma. “He could retaliate against Israel and risk conflict with the region’s strongest military — an option analysts called unlikely. Or he could refrain, in which case he risks appearing further weakened and hypocritical to supporters and opponents alike, many of whom are united in their antipathy for Israel.”

To back up this dubious speculation, the paper quotes one ‘Basil’ (no second name), a resident living near a military research centre that was attacked, as asking “Why does the regime attack the rebels with Scuds and warplanes while it takes no action on the Israeli raids?” (‘Syria blames Israel for fiery attack in Damascus’, 5 May 2013)

However much it may frustrate the West to see Syria choose which of her enemies to fight and in which order (meanwhile refusing to be deflected from her support for the peace conference proposed by Russia), it is going to have to live with the fact that the vast majority of Syrians continue to support their president, their constitution and their country – the more so, the more open the aggression with which she is threatened.

The Syrian masses are well able to distinguish between patriots and rebels; between those who resist zionism and those who collaborate with it; between those who fight for the independence and sovereignty of Syria and those who act as the paid flunkeys of imperialism.

The sly assertion slipped in by the New York Times that “supporters and opponents alike ... are united in their antipathy for Israel”was given the lie even within the same article, when we were told that within hours of Israel’s blitz of the nation’s capital city, “the rebel Damascus Military Council declared that it would try to capitalise. The council issued a statement calling on all fighters in the area to work together, put aside rivalries and mount focused attacks on government forces.”

Further, we were informed that “Some rebels and activists say they consider Mr Assad a far higher-priority target than Israel, though they still oppose it. The main exile Syrian opposition coalition walked that line carefully in a statement issued after the bombings, blaming the government for allowing attacks by ‘external occupying forces’.”

The reader must judge for himself what credence should be given to this kind of ‘opposition’ to zionism.

Peace conference in the balance

As this is being written, the fate of the proposed peace conference hangs in the balance. The lack of seriousness betrayed by the West is underlined by the refusal to include in the peace process not only the expatriate imperialist stooges of the Syrian National Coalition but also the National Coordinating Body, whose presence at talks Russia has proposed.

Unlike the SNC, the NCB represents those forces within the country which, whilst opposed to the current government, are also opposed to the armed uprising and to foreign intervention, and would be prepared to enter talks. Again, Washington’s insistence on excluding Iran – or even Saudi Arabia – from talks erects a further stumbling block to genuine negotiations.

And if the West is in earnest about making a peace conference, why did it choose this moment to gee up Qatar into drafting a UN resolution slandering the Syrian government and condemning its legitimate military efforts in defence of Syrian independence? As Syria’s UN ambasador, Bashar Ja’afari, told the General Assembly, Qatar’s resolution of 14 May “is running against the current, especially in the light of the latest Russian-American rapprochement, which the Syrian government welcomed”.

Russia and China opposed this mischief-making resolution, as did Iran, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Nicaragua, the DPRK and Belarus – as well, of course, as Syria itself. Many other countries that had gone along with a similar resolution last August abstained, including South Africa and Indonesia.

Whilst a combination of threats and promises served to secure 107 votes in favour of the resolution, this had shrunk significantly from last summer’s 133 votes. Meanwhile, the abstentions had climbed from 31 to 59, whilst others simply absented themselves from the vote altogether. None of this is calculated to bring cheer to imperialist hearts.

Whichever way imperialism decides to jump, the Syrian people and leadership have, over two long and hard years of battling subversion exported from the West, served as an inspiration to all those engaged in the growing axis of resistance against imperialism. They have many times over earned the right to call upon the working masses of the world to show their solidarity.

Support for Syria in her hour of need is not a private affair, but a duty that concerns all those oppressed and exploited by imperialism.

Victory to the Syrian nation and its leader President Assad!

No co-operation with imperialist war crimes!

#Syria #Israel #USImperialism #antiimperialism #turkey #chemicalWeapons #FreeSyrianArmy #MiddleEast

The Choice for the Working Class will certainly be created

1. For days now Turkey is witnessing a genuine popular movement. The actions and protests, which have started in Istanbul and spread all over Turkey have a massive, legitimate and historic character. The most important of all is the striking change in the mood of people. The fear and apathy has been overcome and people gained self-confidence.

2. The Communist Party of Turkey has been part of the popular movement beginning from the first day and mobilized all its forces, tried to embolden the proletarian and revolutionary character of the movement, endeavored to pervade a mature attitude of discipline, organized numerous actions and demonstrations. In this process, the police forces carried out a heavy assault on our party headquarters in Ankara. All over Turkey, several party members have been injured and arrested. There have been some attempts of abduction of our party cadres. But the attempts of provocations against our party defeated.

3. Our emphasis on the role of the TKP does not aim to underestimate the spontaneous nature of the movement or contribution of the other political actors. On the contrary, the TKP stressed that this movement has an aspect that is beyond the impact of any political actor or any kind of political opportunism.

4. The call of the masses for the government to resign is an absolute truth of this movement. Although it is obvious that a leftist alternative cannot be built ‘right now’, this demand should be expressed loudly. This option for the working people can be generated only through benefitting from the energy that came out at this historical moment. The TKP will focus on this and expose the real meaning of alternatives like “the formation of a national government”, which will most likely be put forward to deceive the working masses into thinking that the crisis can be overcome that way.

5. Without a doubt, the holders of political power will try to calm the people down, institute control and even attempt to use the situation to their advantage. They can have temporary achievements. Even in that case the popular movement would not be wasted. The TKP is ready for a period of stubborn but intense struggle.

6. In order to act in concert, different branches of the socialist movement sharing similar goals and concerns need to evaluate the rise of this popular movement immediately. The TKP, without interrupting its daily missions and activities, is going to act responsibly regarding this issue and endeavor for the creation of a common ground in line with the urgent demands below.

7. In order to nullify the plans of the government to classify and divide the popular movement as legitimate and illegitimate, all forces need to avoid the steps that might cause damage to the legitimacy of the movement. It is the political power that attacks. The people should defend themselves as well astheir rightful action but never fall into the provocation trap of the government.

8. While the masses are chanting the slogan “government, resign”, the negotiations limited to the future of the Taksim-Gezi Park are meaningless. The government pretends not to understand the fact that the old balances has been upset fundamentally and cannot be restored. Everybody knows that the popular movement is not the product of susceptibility towards the trees in the Gezi Park. The anger of the people is over the urban transformation projects, the terror of the market, open direct interventions in different lifestyles, the Americanism and the subordination to the US, the reactionary policies, the enmity towards the Syrian people. The AKP cannot deceive the people with a discourse of “we will plant more trees than the ones that we will chop down.”

9. While rolling up our sleeves in order to create an alternative of the working people, the movement needs to lean on certain concrete demands. These demands are valid in the in the case of the resignation of the government or of Erdogan:

a) The government must announce that the projects that involve the demolishment of the Gezi Park and of the Ataturk Cultural Center are terminated.

b) Those who were taken in custody during the resistance must be released and all charges against them must be dropped immediately.

c) All officials whose crimes against the people are proven by the reports of the commissions that are formed by the Union of Bar Associations and local bar associations must be relieved of their duties.

d) The attempts that hinder the right of the people to get true news on the developments must be stopped.

e) All prohibitions regarding meetings, demonstrations and marches must be repealed.

f) All de facto or de jure obstacles that lock the political participation of the people, including the 10 per cent election threshold and the anti-democratic articles of the ‘law on political parties’, must be abolished.

g) All initiatives that attempt to impose a monotype life style to all people must be stopped.

10. These urgent demands will in no case affect our right and duty to continue the opposition against the political power. The People's reaction to the government must be reinforced, and efforts must be concentrated to bring about a real alternative in the political scene.

11. The star and the crescent Turkish flag that was intended to be used to provide a shield for reactionary and chauvinist attacks against laborers, leftists, Kurdish people after the fascist military coup of September 12, 1980, has now been grasped by the People from the hands of fascism, and given to the honorable hands of DenizGezmiş and his comrades, as a flag in the hands of patriotic people.

12. The People's movement, ever since the beginning, has persistently let down the sinister strategy to play one community against another in Turkey. This attitude must carefully be maintained, leaving no room for chauvinism or vulgar nationalism.

13. Appealing to our Kurdish brothers and sisters, we had already declared that “There can be no peace agreement with AKP”. There can be no deal with a political power to which its own People have turned their back, and the true face of which has been revealed. Kurdish politics must give up “cherishing hopes of proceeding further with AKP”, and become a strong constituent of a united, patriotic and enlightened laborer People's movement.

14. Our citizens who have lost their lives through the hands of the police force of the political power, have sacrificed their lives in the name of a just and historical struggle. The People are never going to forget their names, and those who are responsible for their death will pay the price before law.

Central Committee

Communist Party of Turkey

4 June 2013

#Turkey #Imperialism #Syria #CommunistPartyOfTurkey #Asia

Comrade Leila Khaled, in Amed/Diyarbakir for the First Middle East Women’s Conference, offered the following statement of solidarity and encouragement to comrades in Turkey participating in the mass protests taking place in Taksim square:

“On behalf of my people, the Palestinian people, we are always against fascism and oppression, against repression. We are the people living with injustice and the occupation of our land, the longest occupation in history, the Israeli Zionist occupation of Palestine. I call on you: You have to stay in the square, in Taksim, until the government accepts your demands. Don’t leave it. Keep there with your peaceful demonstration, your peaceful strike, sit-in. And I call upon women to join it on a wide scale everywhere, in the squares in different cities, not only in Taksim. Long live the people’s struggle for their rights!”

#Turkey #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #LeilaKhaled #Palestine #MiddleEast

According to a statement from the U.S. European Command, “Approximately 400 U.S. personnel and equipment from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery based at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, will continue to flow into Turkey over the next several days by U.S. military airlift. The troops will man two Patriot batteries supporting NATO’s mission there. Additional equipment will be moved by sea, arriving later this month.” Troops from Germany and the Netherlands are also arriving.

While U.S. war planners state that the Patriot missile system will not be used to establish a no-fly zone over Syria, the U.S. and its allies have frequently manufactured incidents to justify further military action.

#Syria #NATO #USImperialism #turkey #MiddleEast

Thanksgiving is upon us. It is a national holiday with the core idea of trying to make pretty the genocide of native nations and make normal the quest for empire. There is nothing to celebrate in the origins of Thanksgiving.

You can say a lot about the holiday. Nonetheless, the fact is, that despite the capitalists’ best efforts, many of us still have the day off. That makes it a great day to get together with family, friends and comrades and be thankful for another year of surviving and struggling.

While the times have been lean, many people splurge on food for Thanksgiving dinner and if you want to do that, it can be fun. It is also possible to do Thanksgiving dinner for eight people for around $40 if you get a supermarket turkey. A market in my area is offering a turkey for around 58 cents a pound when you buy $25 of groceries.

If you have more to spend, a locally grown, sustainably raised turkey will taste better and not be shot full of artificial brine solution, but this is Thanksgiving and eating home-cooked food wherever you can get the ingredients from is the most important thing.

There are many recipes online for the all of basics of Thanksgiving dinner. Rather than going into recipes, I’d like to share some tips. Remember, recipes, like movements, are not written on stone tablets. Read a recipe through for the techniques and then improvise based on what you have. A stuffing made with dry bread, celery, sage, oregano and garlic is very tasty and much cheaper than one with exotic mushrooms and walnuts.

Buy 2 pounds of turkey per person eating; that way you’ll have leftovers and can make soup the next day from the turkey carcass, carrots, celery and noodles to bring down to your local Occupy.

Make sure your turkey is thawed all the way through before you put it in the oven. You can do that in cold water in the sink.

Roll up your sleeves and get inside the cavity – get the giblets out and rub the turkey down with oil or melted butter and season with salt inside and out.

Don’t stuff the turkey. Bake the stuffing separately using vegetable stock for the liquid – not only is it vegetarian friendly but stuffing in the turkey can make for unpredictable cooking times.

A turkey over 8 or 10 pounds won’t roast in a cake pan. Spring for one of the aluminum roasting pans and aluminum foil from the grocery store if you don’t have a roaster. No roasting rack? Wad up aluminum foil into a rope, lay it in the bottom of the pan and oil it before you set your turkey on top. It’s important to let the juices collect at the bottom of the pan without the bird sitting in them.

When your turkey comes out of the oven let it rest for a good 15 minutes before cutting it.

When the turkey is out of the pan, make gravy from the drippings. Put flour in a smallish jar with some water and shake it hard (Food science moment: always add a solid to a liquid and not the other way around). Make the slurry well ahead and let the flour really absorb the water. It should be the consistency of wheat paste.

Pour the drippings into a sauce pan and add the thickener to the drippings. Boil for 15 minutes to cook the flour.

Prepackaged bread for stuffing can be overpriced. Go by the bakery and get a day old loaf. Tear it in small pieces and dry it out in a 170 degree oven. Just make sure it’s cooled before assembling the stuffing.

The co-op or any store with a bulk section is a great place to go for some ingredients, even if $3 per pound turkey is out of your league. For example, if your recipe calls for a tablespoon of sage, buy a tablespoon of sage rather than a whole jar.

For a quick and cheap veggie stock, note that many co-ops have day old veggie bins. Grab anything but peppers or vegetables from the cabbage family (like broccoli). Simmer them in a pot with water to cover until the vegetables have no flavor to make a quick and cheap veggie stock.

Make your vegetarian friends feel welcome at the table by cooking up ½ cup of any whole grain (brown rice, wheat berries, quinoa) and ½ c. of French lentils (these have a great texture and are worth the extra cost for a holiday meal). Season this mixture with celery, onion and carrots sautéed in a little oil and any herbs you have on hand. Moisten with a little veggie stock and stuff it into a green or red pepper, top with bread crumbs or cheese and bake at the same time you bake the sweet potatoes.

Enjoy your dinner, build your friendships, rest up and get ready to hit the streets.

#UnitedStates #thanksgiving #CooksForACause #cooking #turkey

Western powers and pro-U.S. Arab regimes are trying to bring down the Syrian government.

The Syrian News Agency also reported on an interview with Syria’s Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi, stating, “The Minister held the Qatari, Saudi, Turkish and Israeli intelligence accountable for the terrorist bombing which hit the building of the National Security. He added that Arab and Western governments, intelligence systems and agents are legally, politically and morally responsible for the killing, assassination and sabotage acts taking place in Syria for sending money and arms to the terrorists in it and that they will be punished for their crimes.”

#Syria #MiddleEast #Israel #USImperialism #antiimperialism #turkey #Qatar

Thanksgiving is upon us. It is a national holiday with the core idea of trying to make pretty the genocide of native nations and make normal the quest for empire. There is nothing to celebrate in the origins of Thanksgiving.

You can say a lot about the holiday. Nonetheless, the fact is, that despite the capitalists’ best efforts, many of us still have the day off. That makes it a great day to get together with family, friends and comrades and be thankful for another year of surviving and struggling.

While the times have been lean, many people splurge on food for Thanksgiving dinner and if you want to do that, it can be fun. It is also possible to do Thanksgiving dinner for eight people for around $40 if you get a supermarket turkey. A market in my area is offering a turkey for around 58 cents a pound when you buy $25 of groceries.

If you have more to spend, a locally grown, sustainably raised turkey will taste better and not be shot full of artificial brine solution, but this is Thanksgiving and eating home-cooked food wherever you can get the ingredients from is the most important thing.

There are many recipes online for the all of basics of Thanksgiving dinner. Rather than going into recipes, I’d like to share some tips. Remember, recipes, like movements, are not written on stone tablets. Read a recipe through for the techniques and then improvise based on what you have. A stuffing made with dry bread, celery, sage, oregano and garlic is very tasty and much cheaper than one with exotic mushrooms and walnuts.

Buy 2 pounds of turkey per person eating; that way you’ll have leftovers and can make soup the next day from the turkey carcass, carrots, celery and noodles to bring down to your local Occupy.

Make sure your turkey is thawed all the way through before you put it in the oven. You can do that in cold water in the sink.

Roll up your sleeves and get inside the cavity – get the giblets out and rub the turkey down with oil or melted butter and season with salt inside and out.

Don’t stuff the turkey. Bake the stuffing separately using vegetable stock for the liquid – not only is it vegetarian friendly but stuffing in the turkey can make for unpredictable cooking times.

A turkey over 8 or 10 pounds won’t roast in a cake pan. Spring for one of the aluminum roasting pans and aluminum foil from the grocery store if you don’t have a roaster. No roasting rack? Wad up aluminum foil into a rope, lay it in the bottom of the pan and oil it before you set your turkey on top. It’s important to let the juices collect at the bottom of the pan without the bird sitting in them.

When your turkey comes out of the oven let it rest for a good 15 minutes before cutting it.

When the turkey is out of the pan, make gravy from the drippings. Put flour in a smallish jar with some water and shake it hard (Food science moment: always add a solid to a liquid and not the other way around). Make the slurry well ahead and let the flour really absorb the water. It should be the consistency of wheat paste.

Pour the drippings into a sauce pan and add the thickener to the drippings. Boil for 15 minutes to cook the flour.

Prepackaged bread for stuffing can be overpriced. Go by the bakery and get a day old loaf. Tear it in small pieces and dry it out in a 170 degree oven. Just make sure it’s cooled before assembling the stuffing.

The co-op or any store with a bulk section is a great place to go for some ingredients, even if $3 per pound turkey is out of your league. For example, if your recipe calls for a tablespoon of sage, buy a tablespoon of sage rather than a whole jar.

For a quick and cheap veggie stock, note that many co-ops have day old veggie bins. Grab anything but peppers or vegetables from the cabbage family (like broccoli). Simmer them in a pot with water to cover until the vegetables have no flavor to make a quick and cheap veggie stock.

Make your vegetarian friends feel welcome at the table by cooking up ½ cup of any whole grain (brown rice, wheat berries, quinoa) and ½ c. of French lentils (these have a great texture and are worth the extra cost for a holiday meal). Season this mixture with celery, onion and carrots sautéed in a little oil and any herbs you have on hand. Moisten with a little veggie stock and stuff it into a green or red pepper, top with bread crumbs or cheese and bake at the same time you bake the sweet potatoes.

Enjoy your dinner, build your friendships, rest up and get ready to hit the streets.

#MinneapolisMN #thanksgiving #CooksForACause #cooking #turkey