In a statement (read here in Turkish), the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), stresses out:
THIS IS THE PHOTO YOU CREATED — BE PROUD OF IT!
"The imperialist program implemented in Syria through the interventions of the United States first and foremost, along with the United Kingdom, Israel, and Turkey, has brought the country to the brink of a new phase of destruction and catastrophe. The advance of jihadist forces, particularly HTS, has targeted Kurdish neighborhoods and civilian settlements in Aleppo, further deepening the humanitarian crisis unfolding across the country.
We have repeatedly stated that it is neither possible nor intended that the jihadist HTS regime — utterly devoid of legitimacy — should establish real sovereignty over the country. Al Jolani, who was installed by imperialist powers in the aftermath of the counter-revolution, has no right to decide how any community living in Syria should live, nor to intervene in their lives or speak on their behalf. For this reason, HTS’s intervention in Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo is illegitimate and unacceptable.
Nevertheless, those who hypocritically beat the drums of war while deliberately ignoring Jolani’s identity and the jihadist–collaborationist line he represents are also, indirectly, lending support to the imperialist trap into which Turkey is being gradually drawn.
Today, all actors on the Syrian battlefield have effectively accepted the regional plan imposed by imperialism. The conflicts that have emerged are not the result of a head-on confrontation between opposing fronts, but rather the product of bargaining over how an already agreed framework is to be steered in different directions. From HTS to the SDF, from Turkey to the Gulf states, all actors place the approval and backing of U.S. imperialism above all else.
The outcome of this jointly executed transformation is clear: the de facto destruction of Syria and the rendering of all communities living there defenseless. Every regional actor involved in this process is now attempting to shield itself from the consequences of the final form this destruction will take — consequences that will inevitably strike them as well.
At the same time, within this plan, Israel’s expansionist policy in the region is treated as beyond discussion. The encirclement of Iran and the complete transformation of the region into a U.S.–Israeli operational base is the central objective. The region — Syria above all — will be transformed into a reservoir of cheap labor, with free zones opening the way for the unrestricted movement of capital. The aim is to reduce Syria to a fragmented, dependent, and politically null entity. The winner is already clear.
As Turkish capital seeks to expand further in a country permanently destabilized by hunger, poverty, war, and total exposure to foreign intervention, Turkey itself will become increasingly fragile and open to intervention. The AKP government’s assumption of guardianship over jihadist HTS — while step by step serving the plans of the U.S. and Israel and presenting Syria’s destruction as a “success” — constitutes a grave danger for Turkey.
To those who take pride in this photograph they have collectively produced in Syria, let us remind them of what is missing from the frame:
The liberation of both Syria and Turkey will only be possible when the people rise up and reject this war of partition. No people’s destiny can be confined to the image of destruction you have jointly created — and it never will."
