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