Greece-Egypt EEZ agreement: KKE expresses "deep concern" over regional developments

In a joint press conference held in Cairo on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministers of Egypt and Greece, Sameh Shoukry and Nikos Dendias, announced that the two countries signed an agreement on setting up an exclusive economic zone (EEZ). 

The Greek-Egyptian agreement comes in a period of increased tension between the governments of Turkey and Greece over gas fields in Eastern Mediterranean. The situation has been particularly tense after Turkey issued an illegal NAVTEX on July 21st, blocking an extended area south east of the Greek island of Kastelorizo in order to carry out seismic surveys. You can read here a joint declaration of the Communist Parties of Greece and Turkey (KKE and TKP) on the latest dangerous developments.

Greek and Turkish Communists: No to a military confrontation for the interests of the bourgeois classes and imperialist alliances!

In a joint statement, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) express their deep concern over the latest dangerous developments in the relations between the two countries and declare once again that the people of Greece and Turkey have the right to live in peace and shape their future, against capitalist exploitation and tensions created by the interests of the bourgeois classes and the imperialist alliances.

You can read below the statement in English, Greek and Turkish language.

Turkey needs a strong communist party: The 13th Congress of TKP to be held on August 9th

In a statement addressed to the fraternal Communist and Workers' Parties, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) informs that the 13th Party Congress will be held on August 9th, 2020. 

More specifically, the TKP points out:

"The 13th Congress of TKP will take place under conditions of the pandemic, and more importantly, at a time when the "parasitism and decay" of imperialism/capitalism, referring to the great analysis of Lenin, have become apparent in front of wide masses, in almost every country.

Turkey-Greece tensions: The USA-EU stance adds fuel to Turkish government's aggression

Tensions in Eastern Mediterranean are, once again, at high level after the NAVTEX issued by Turkey on Tuesday, with which Ankara blocks the maritime zone south-east of the Greek island of Kastellorizo in order to carry out seismic surveys. 

From its side, the Greek government filed a protest demarche to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and raised the issue with the EU, NATO and the United Nations. 

“Today’s announcement of Turkish surveys in a section of the Greek continental shelf through a new illegal NAVTEX constitutes an escalation of tension in our region”, the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement issued on Tuesday. 

Hagia Sophia: The EU-NATO policy stimulates Turkey's provocation and aggression

The European Parliament group of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) condemned on Monday the decision of Tayyip Erdogan's government to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque. 

As 902 portal reports, in an urgent question submitted to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, KKE MEP Kostas Papadakis points out:

Hagia Sophia: Turkish and Greek communists condemn its conversion into a mosque

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's decision to sign a decree which converts Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, a World Heritage Monument, into a mosque has provoked negative reactions. 

In a statement issued today, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) condemns the decision, stating that the conflict is not between Christianity and Islam, but between reactionalism and secularism. TKP also calls the world's communists to denounce Erdogan's decision and the bourgeois reactionary mindset behind it, which obscures the future of Turkey’s working class. 

EastMed pipeline and the position of the KKE

THE POSITION OF THE KKE ON EAST-MED PIPELINE

The ruling right-wing party New Democracy, together with the "left" party SYRIZA, the Social Democratic Party KINAL/PASOK and the far-right party Hellenic Solution, aligning with the dirty plans of the USA - NATO - EU - Israel and having their eye on the "upgrade" of the bourgeoisie of Greece, voted on 15/05/20 in the Plenary Session of the Parliament the agreement for the gas pipeline "East Med" with concise procedures.

Turkish musician Ibrahim Gökcek, member of Grup Yorum band, dies in hospital

Turkish music band Grup Yorum have announced that their bass guitarist Ibrahim Gökcek has died at the hospital where he was treated.

After Grup Yorum applied to the Governor's Office of Istanbul to hold a concert, Ibrahim Gökcek had decided to end his death fast on the 323rd day and he was taken to a hospital in an ambulance on May 5.

Gökcek was 40 years old. His wife Sultan Gökcek, whom he married five years ago, is still arrested in Istanbul's Silivri Prison.

Turkey and Covid-19: Interview of TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan in "Rizospastis"

In an interview with the daily newspaper of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) "Rizospastis", the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) Kemal Okuyan commented on the Covid-19 pandemic, its effects on working-class and TKP's initiatives to protect the health and rights of the workers. Okuyan noted that they have built solidarity networks organized by the district organizations of TKP:

— What is the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey? How does the TKP judge the measures of the Erdogan government and the positions of other bourgeois parties?

Armenian Genocide 1914-1923: Statement by the Communist Party of Armenia

On the occasion of the 105th anniversary since the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, the Communist Party of Armenia issued the following statement:

Acknowledging,recognising and taking responsibility for the Genocide! Taking the necessary steps to move forward!

24th April 1915 marks the date upon which the Ottoman authorities in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) began the roundup, arrest and forced deportation of leading Armenian figures from the city in what is widely regarded the beginning of a campaign of genocide against the then Ottoman Empire’s minority Armenian community…  A campaign that was allowed to continue largely without restraint over the following several years, the reverberations of which are still keenly felt over a century later.

Turkey: While Erdogan cares about capitalists' profits, TKP communists say "people first!"

The response of Tayyip Erdogan's AKP government to the COVID-19 pandemic has  primarily focused on the safeguarding of big businesses and monopolies' profitability, criminally neglecting the health and security of the working people. 

Fundamental rights of healthcare workers have been suspended, while thousands of working men and women (at least 811,000 workers between the ages of 18-20) are forced to work without the basic protection measures. 

KKE: On the death of Grup Yorum member Helin Bölek after 288 days of hunger strike

In a statement published today on 902 portal, the International Relations Section of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) expresses its condolences to the family of Helin Bölek, the 28 year-old member of the Turkish music band Grup Yorum who died on Friday after 288 days of hunger strike.

The KKE condemns the persecutions industry against workers, trade uninionists, party officials, artists, academics and journalists set by Erdogan’s government, which enjoys the tolerance- even encouragement- of the EU, USA and NATO. The Party expresses its solidarity to the people’s struggle and its support to their rights and freedoms. 

Refugee Crisis: Militant intervention by Greek communists in the developments

The following article provides a thorough outline of the position and initiatives of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) regarding the ongoing refugee situation in the borders between Greece and Turkey and the Greek islands: 

Militant intervention by the communists in the developments concerning the Refugee question

By Nikos Sofianos*

Solidarity with Grup Yorum band members — Turkish state's authoritarianism shall not pass!

Ibrahim Gökçek and Helin Bölek have been on hunger strike
for more than 260 days.

In the early morning of Wednesday 11 March, the house of death fasting Grup Yorum band members Ibrahim Gökçek and Helin Bölek in Istanbul, Turkey was raided by police forces. Gökçek, Bölek and three other people were violently detained.

Ibrahim and Helin, who have been on death fast for more than 260 days, were taken without their consent to Ümraniye Training and Research Hospital for enforced medical treatment. 

According to the People’s Law Bureau any involuntary intervention on death fasters consists torture and could cause permanent damage on their bodies, including death.

Greece must not become EU's refugee prison, says KKE MEP Kostas Papadakis

Communist Party (KKE) eurodeputy Kostas Papadakis.

The immense responsibilities of the European Union and NATO in the creation and perpetuation of the refugee situation in the Greek-Turkish borders, as well as the need for the abolition of EU's Dublin Regulation and the EU-Turkey migrant deal, were highlighted by Kostas Papadakis, MEP for the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), during his intervention at the EU Parliament’s plenary in Brussels. 

More specifically Papadakis pointed out the following:

Dimitris Koutsoumbas on refugee crisis: "Dublin Regulation, EU-Turkey deal must be abolished"

The General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas gave an interview to “Real News” newspaper where, among other things, he refered to the ongoing refugee situation in the Greek-Turkish borders. Below you can read the excerpts of his answers:

“There is no greatest depravity than using uprooted, tortured people for your own aspirations, like Erdogan does, who blackmails for more support by the EU and NATO for his intervention in Northern Syria as well as in his other plans. For that reason, the needed protection of the borders can neither target the refugees nor acquitting EU and NATO which uproot people and have led to the entrapment of thousands of refugees in the Aegean islands and in Evros, thus playing Erdogan’s game. And certainly it cannot be utilized for the emboldenment of reactionary, racist voices”.

Greek workers' movement stands in solidarity with refugees — Statement by PAME

In face of the latest developments with the refugee situation in the Greek-Turkish borders and the Aegean islands, the vanguard of Greece's class-oriented labour movement, the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME), issued the following statement:

The trapping of thousands of refugees and immigrants in the Aegean islands and the Greek-Turkish border in Evros, in the most dramatic way, highlights the barbarism of imperialist organizations, the EU and NATO and the active involvement of all Greek governments in these organizations.

Statement of the Political Bureau of the KKE on the refugee crisis in Greek-Turkish borders

On March 3, 2020, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued a statement regarding the refugee situation in the Greek-Turkish borders and the measures announced by the government. You can read previous statements by the KKE about the issue here and here. 

The statement is the following:

The latest developments, with the entrapment of thousands of refugees and immigrants on the Aegean islands and at the Greek-Turkish border in Evros, confirm once again that the EU and NATO policy that the Greek governments have followed and are fervently adhering to now is, on the one hand, responsible for the dissolution of countries and the uprooting of peoples and on the other,  for the entrapment of uprooted peoples on islands and at borders. This policy has paved the way for Erdogan to try to impose his own objectives, using the refugee situation as a vehicle.

KKE slams Greek government: "Demonstrate your strength to EU and NATO, not to refugees"

Greek riot police forces behind the fences at Kastanies
border crossing, 29 February 2020 EPA/EFE.

After a meeting on Sunday chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece’s Government Council on National Security (KYSEA) decided to step up the level of deterrence to the maximum point at the Greek-Turkish borders in Evros. 

The conservative ND government also decided to suspend new asylum applications, while the presence of army units and police forces across Kastanies border gates has been strengthened. Additionally, Athens has requested from EU border agency FRONTEX to provide additional aid in the protection of the borders.

Refugee flows are a result of the interventions by US-NATO-EU and Turkey in Syria — KKE

During the last 48 hours, the tension in the Greek-Turkish borders in Evros has been escalated, with thousands of refugees and migrants gathering at Kastanies/Pazarkule border gate. “We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe”, a senior Turkish official said as a response to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in Idlib Province, Syria. 

At the same time, the Greek government decided yesterday to suspend border crossing at Kastanies, sending additional riot police forces to the area. In a message, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote: “I want to be clear: no illegal entries into Greece will be tolerated”, announcing the increase of border security.