Wednesday, February 6, 2019

KKE: "The people of Turkey and Greece have nothing to divide, must fight against NATO"

On  the occasion of the meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued a statement. The following is an unofficial translation of the statement: 

"Since the Tsipras-Erdogan meeting, like previous relevant meetings, consists part of the broader imperialist plans and competitions in the region, where the bourgeois classes of both countries participate, there can be no positive developments for the people.

Even more, while the Turkish provocation in the Aegean and Cyprus has been recently intensified and the Turkish side has tried to open issues, such as the ones of the "islands", the supposed "Turkish minority" in Thrace, the fight against "terrorism". Especially for this last issue, questions arise regarding what the collaboration between the two countries will contain.

The Confidence-building measures, which have been mentioned, consist a well-known practice, tested many times in the past and do not prescribe anything positive neither for the (Greek and Turkish) people nor for the sovereign rights of the country. 

And that does not change, even if some business partnerships and trades between the two countries move forward, something that will only benefit sectors of the capital. 

At the same time, both (leaders) noticed their dedication to the maintenance of the reactionary EU-Turkey Agreement on the Refugee-Immigration issue, which has led to the entrapment of immigrants and refugees in Greece who are living in terrible conditions, as well as to the double entrapment in the islands.

The people of Turkey and Greece have nothing to divide and they have interest to assert living in peace and fighting for their own future. The KKE addresses the people of the two countries, the people of the region, and calls them to strengthen solidarity and the struggle against the imperialist NATO plans and interventions, against the rotten capitalist system which generates only crises, unemployment, poverty, wars and refugees."