To the Central Committee & Membership of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)
To the Turkish working class
Dear comrades:
We, like progressive minded people everywhere, are transfixed by the struggle taking place right now on the streets of Istanbul, Ankara and many other cities and towns in your country.
We salute the outstanding role your party has been playing in opposing the sharply reactionary tendencies of the regime of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the clericalist Justice and Development Party, AKP. These tendencies have shown themselves not just in the repressive and neo-liberal policies of the AKP government internally but also in its increasingly rightist international policies, especially with respect to the Syria crisis and the expansive role of NATO, an organization whose dissolution is long overdue.
In addition, the AKP government has fueled the flames of sectarianism within Turkey and throughout the Middle East, to the benefit of imperialism.
We were very angered to see the repression that the government unleashed against peaceful protesters who objected to the commercialization and destruction of the Taksim-Gezi Park in Istanbul from May 28 on, and particularly by attacks on the offices of your party in Ankara, injuries and arrests of your members, and the destruction of your Nazim Hikmet Culture Center.
When the servants of a reactionary state are reduced to methods such as the destruction of a cultural center named for one of the 20th century’s most beloved poets, one knows that they are grasping at straws and are losing confidence in their own ability to impose their views on the masses. The road may still be long and beset with difficulties, but important steps have been taking by you.
We are confident that with its determination and unity, your party and the Turkish working class will triumph over the reactionaries. We note the important moves of labor unions in your country to use strike action to oppose the Erdogan regime’s policies.
We, for our part, are raising the issue with the U.S. people and with our political representatives, asking for solidarity and support for your just struggle.
PHOTO: TKP Facebook Page