Hundreds of TKP members gathered in central Ankara at the time and place previously announced by the party, despite extraordinary security measures that had effectively placed parts of the capital under a de facto state of emergency. As demonstrators marched toward Kızılay Square chanting anti-NATO and anti-imperialist slogans, police intervened and detained more than 100 participants.
Following the Ankara protest, thousands of people joined simultaneous anti-NATO marches organized by TKP in İstanbul, İzmir, Adana, Samsun and Çanakkale, calling for Turkey to exit NATO and for the closure of foreign military bases in the country.
Addressing the rally in İstanbul after a march from Taksim to Dolmabahçe, TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan said the party would continue its struggle against NATO beyond the summit itself.
“We have gathered here to protest a bloody, militarist organization built on occupation, coups and massacres,” Okuyan said. He argued that, for days before the summit, communists, working class patriots and anti-imperialist militants across Turkey had been subjected to detentions and intimidation to ensure that NATO leaders could meet without opposition.
Referring to the Ankara demonstration, Okuyan said that, despite the restrictions imposed on the capital, “thousands of communists challenged NATO in the center of Ankara exactly as we had promised.” He added that hundreds of participants had been detained during the police operation.
Okuyan also reminded the historic 1968 protests against the arrival of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in İstanbul, when revolutionary students drove American sailors into the sea. “Just as those who confronted the Sixth Fleet decades ago upheld this country’s dignity and commitment to independence, today’s revolutionaries across Turkey are carrying forward the same struggle,” he said.
He condemned the AKP government for rolling out the red carpet for NATO leaders while the U.S.-backed genocide in Palestine continues and U.S. and Israeli aggression against Iran threatens to drag the region into a wider war. Okuyan said TKP would closely follow every decision taken at the summit and continue mobilizing against NATO after the meeting. He called for “an independent, sovereign, free and socialist Turkey” and repeated the party’s demand: “Seize the bases, NATO out.”
Beyond Ankara and İstanbul, anti-NATO demonstrations were also held in İzmir, Samsun, Adana and Çanakkale. In İzmir, TKP Central Committee member Senem Doruk İnam said the party would not allow Turkey to be turned into “a playground for a bloody terrorist organization,” describing the struggle against NATO as “a matter of national dignity and sovereignty.” In Çanakkale, Central Committee member Savaş Sarı told demonstrators that opposition to NATO was inseparable from the struggle for an independent Turkey. Similar calls for Turkey’s withdrawal from NATO and the closure of foreign military bases were voiced at rallies by TKP across the country.
In a statement regarding the attack on a rally organised by the Communist Party of Turkey to protest against the NATO summit in Ankara, the Press Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) points out:
“The KKE strongly condemns the police attack and general repression unleashed by the Turkish government against yesterday's rally organised by the Communist Party of Turkey in Ankara, which expressed opposition to the NATO Summit and its imperialist plans hostile to the peoples.
We denounce the ban on rallies and all forms of protest imposed in the Turkish capital, which has been turned into a fortress to protect the NATO summit.
The KKE expresses its unwavering solidarity with the Communist Party of Turkey and the protesters, and demands the immediate release of the 120 people arrested.
Hands off the Turkish communists and the Communist Party of Turkey!”
tkp.org.tr / inter.kke.gr