AKEL message to the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Turkey

 

Dear comrades,

AKEL addresses a warm comradely greeting to the Communist Party of Turkey, to the members and friends of the CPT who are struggling for democracy, the rights of the working class, peace and socialism. AKEL wishes every success in the deliberations of your 13th Congress, which is convening in conditions where the working people are called upon to confront the pandemic’s socio-economic consequences and all the deadlocks of modern capitalism.

The 100th anniversary of the foundation of the CPT reminds us of the course of the communist movement of your country; a course full of struggles and sacrifices.

We know and are following closely the CPT’s struggles and actions today against the AKP-MHP government’s policies, its struggles for working people’s rights, against the religious fundamentalism that is dismantling the secular state, against the anti-democratic persecutions and the government party’s reactionary plans for the country’s internal situation and its war adventures in Syria and the wider region. We know that the CPT operates and struggles in very adverse socio-political conditions. Nevertheless, your pioneering actions, the significant increase in the number of Party members, the upward course recorded in local self-government election results are elements that create hopes and optimism for the future of your struggle for social change, for an independent, secular, peaceful and socialist state. AKEL expresses its support and solidarity with your struggle.

As we have stated many times in the past, nothing divides the peoples of our countries. The common enemy of our peoples – as well as of the two communities of Cyprus – is imperialism, NATO and nationalism-chauvinism. In the period that our neighborhood is going through, the forces of peace and progress in our countries are called upon to raise their voice against the possibility of a hot episode with the power of gunboats, against the creation of fait accompli, against nationalism-chauvinism. The problems should be solved on the basis of International Law and the UN Law of the Sea, with respect for the sovereignty of every state, the right of our peoples to live peacefully and with sovereignly in their homeland.

AKEL particularly appreciates the anti-imperialist internationalist stand of Turkish communists in the problem of the occupation and division of our homeland. We appreciate the solidarity of the CPT towards the struggle of Cyprus for the liberation and reunification of our homeland, so that the Cypriot people – Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – can live united, free and masters in their own homeland, without foreign guardians and guarantors, without occupying troops and barbed wires of division. For Cyprus to be a bridge of peace and friendship of the peoples of the region and not a bridgehead of NATO.

Today, the situation as it is evolving in and around Cyprus is provoking great concern. The colonalisation of the occupied northern part of Cyprus and the systematic effort seeking the economic, political and cultural assimilation of the Turkish Cypriot community by Turkey constitute a daily deepening of the occupation and the de facto division of Cyprus. In addition, the Turkish government’s announcements of for the opening and colonalisation the fenced-off city of Famagusta will represent a gross violation of the Resolutions of the UN Security Council which explicitly prohibit this and, at the same time, will severely damage the efforts to solve the Cyprus problem and the reunification of our island. At the same time, the illegal drilling by the Turkish state oil company TRAO inside the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus is threatening the whole situation of the region.

These facts render the need for an agreed solution to the Cyprus problem imperative, a solution which will provide for the end of Turkey’s occupation, the abolition of foreign guarantees, the demilitarization of Cyprus and the reunification of our island and people through the transformation of the Republic of Cyprus into a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with a single sovereignty, a single citizenship and a single international personality, with political equality of the two communities, as defined in the relevant UN Resolutions. For AKEL, the prevention of partition, the liberation and reunification of Cyprus and its people constitute an essential precondition in the struggle of the whole of the working class and working people of Cyprus for a peaceful and socialist future. At the same time, however, the solution of the Cyprus problem can contribute towards the solution of pending problems in the region, towards improving Greek-Turkish relations, to peace and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean. The solidarity of the CPT and the international communist and workers movement as a whole with our struggle is extremely important in today’s conditions.

AKEL will continue to work for the strengthening of the relations between our Parties at a bilateral, as well as multilateral level such as within the framework of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties. The joint action of Communist and Workers’ Parties is imperative today in the face of the big challenges humanity faces, war, fascism, the nuclear threat, the environmental catastrophe and the general decay of the capitalist system.

We address a greeting to the communists of Turkey with the belief that the setbacks and “winters of history” that the world is currently going through are temporary. The wheel of history will always move forward and humanity will eventually take the step forward. Socialism is the future of the peoples.

Long live the friendship between AKEL-CTP.

Long live peace and socialism.