(Yürüyüş issue 73, July 1, 2018)
THE BASICS OF NEO-COLONIALISM ARE THE CONCLUSION OF “BILATERAL AGREEMENTS”
THE CANCELLATION OF BILATERAL AGREEMENTS CAN BE ACHIEVED THROUGH REVOLUTION!
NO SYSTEM PARTY CAN BREAK TIES TO IMPERIALISM
THE ONLY ROAD IS REVOLUTION – THE ONLY LIBERATION IS SOCIALISM!
The only road is revolution! The only liberation is socialism! This is not a wish. This is the reality. A historical, political necessity.
We once again are living through the reality and necessity of this.
Early elections were resorted to in order to solve imperialism and the oligarchy’s crisis. The system parties went out onto the electoral arena in front of the TV cameras. On the one hand they made the most unprecedented promises, while on the other they presented themselves to the people as so populist and nationalist and their opponents as pro-Western and pro-American.
As in every election period the system parties in government and opposition make all sorts of promises to the people and continually deceive them.
The aim is to keep the people inside the system. To conceal their collaborationist, anti-people faces. The aim is to legitimise the exploitative capitalist system.
The aim is to eliminate revolution and revolutionism. REVOLUTION is among their greatest fears!
We say that there is no solution from parliament, elections or system parties. We say the only road is revolution and the only liberation is socialism.
Why?
Because our country is a neo-colony of imperialism.
And as in all no-colonies, imperialism has become an internal factor through dozens of military, political and economic agreements and this is a determining factor of the system.
Imperialism aims to our country and our peoples as corrupt, degraded and devoid of values as it is itself.
In this case it is not just the promises of the system parties but the system parties themselves that are nothing but a deception in the democracy game, with their elections and parliaments.
“Bilateral agreements” are documents that show this.
For about 70 years we have been a neo-colony of imperialism. All system parties are collaborators and partners in these colonial relations. Parliament is the name of an institution that signs betrayal agreements with imperialism that legitimise collaboration.
Parties change, leaders change; but the fate of the country does not change. Because these parties and their leaders are not about the fate of our peoples or changing the future of the country. No system party thinks for a moment of ripping up the bilateral agreements, the documents of betrayal. Because they have put their own signatures to them. These parties and their leaders think of American imperialism before they think of our peoples. They seek approval from financial circles first. They seek only to deceive the people.
“American imperialism wants to destroy revolution and whatever belongs to human beings and the people. Imperialism has no values. Its sole values are its own interests. There is no massacre, no immorality it will not commit in order to pursue those interests. Exploitation, occupations, enslaving of peoples, these are laws of nature for it. These are necessary characteristics. We cannot forget this truth or allow others to forget it. We have to make this reality clear to others. Because this reality is one imposed upon the whole world in the form of occupations, massacres, disrespect for the peoples, and the destruction of countries. This is the naked truth, today the same as yesterday. Nothing has changed. There is imperialism and there are the peoples that resist. The peoples have no other road than to resist. If there is no resistance imperialism will very easily achieve what it wants and gain the surrender of all the people in the world. No people can permit this. Those who claim to act for the people and allow this are undoubtedly collaborators and American servants.” (Dursun Karatas, 2008 New Year message)
We will resist with our own parliaments, our own organisations, values and ideology.
Our fate is in our own hands. The imperialists and the collaborators have stolen our future from us, we will save our country from them.
Uncle, in the words above that are unforgettable, has signalled a reality we cannot allow others to forget. This reality is nothing other than the reality of neo-colonialism. We must tell our peoples how America got hold of our country, we must tell them what independence and democracy are.
Steps Towards Neo-Colonialism; Bilateral Agreements, “Aid”, Debt And Credit
Since the 1940s, the imperialists we chased out the door have come back in through the chimney with lies like “aid” and “bilateral agreements”. In a short time the peoples of Turkey would see this as something undesirable. It is enough to look at the clauses of the agreements to see that the conditions for the aid fixed by these American policies were aimed at bringing about the surrender of Turkey. And the imperialist bosses did not conceal their aims at any time.
One of the leading people in the American monopolies, N. Rockefeller, had said, “The countries we want to draw into our military pacts must be attracted through wide and intelligent use of AID.”
In the 1950s the head of the World Bank, Eugene R. Blok said the following about foreign aid:
“a) Aid to foreign countries secures satisfactory and direct markets for American finances and services.
b) Aid to foreign countries accelerates the development of overseas markets for American companies.
c) Aid to foreign countries directs the countries that benefit from it towards the system of free enterprise, from which American firms can also develop.”
“Foreign aid (according to the then US president John F. Kennedy) is a method to ensure that the USA continues to maintain control in the world environment over numerous countries that would otherwise certainly collapse or go over the Communist bloc.”
The imperialists moved forward along this road; the collaborators opened their arms wide to the imperialists. On February 23, 1945 the TC (Republic of Turkey) government signed an agreement with the US government. This agreement benefited from the March 11, 1941 law on “Loans And Rents.” USA imperialism certainly benefited from it. This agreement was also one of the first steps into neo-colonial status.
The second paragraph on Turkey’s obligations runs as follows:
“The TC government will ensure for the USA as a duty in the paragraphs services, facilities and knowledge. The ‘facilities’ referred to in the paragraphs are Turkey’s airspace, harbours and roads of use to Americans, this would have great significance for the Americans’ bases and installations…” (Haydar Tunckanat, “The Internal Content Of Bilateral Agreements”, p.24)
American imperialism would achieve new privileges and concessions from this agreement.
The collaborationists were not satisfied by the agreement. It would not be true to call this an agreement. In reality what was called an “agreement” would pull our country ever deeper into the swamp of collaboration, our natural resources would be plundered and dependence and exploitation deepened.
The Agreement on February 27, 1946 between the USA and the Government of Turkey and the No. 4882 Law on Accepting a 10 Million Dollar Credit was one of the first bilateral agreements following the Second Imperialist War.
It was called credit but that was not what it was. This was a credit opened to buy war-surplus material. Instead of money, this was war-surplus material was handed over. American imperialism imposed a great many conditions on money in relation to this material.
The “agreements” in question were never limited to the subject, every “agreement” was essentially designed so USA imperialism could get to the point of being an internal factor in our country, politically, economically, militarily and culturally.
An example of this was the Agreement between Turkey and the US government on “Founding An Education Commission”, signed on March 27, 1949.
With this agreement the USA established a new body under the name of United States Education Commission in Turkey. Of the eight members of the commission, four were Americans, four were from Turkey. And the honorary chair of the commission was the US Ambassador to Turkey. The chair would have a casting vote in the event of a tie on the commission. The commission was entirely responsible for its behaviour to the US Secretary of State, that was where its budget was determined and if it desired, every decision by the commission could be reviewed and changed.
This commission would work according to American laws, the Americans on duty there would, in the event of a new development, act according to new instructions from the State Department. (…) In a supposedly mutual agreement with Turkey, an independent state, an American Education Commission would be established in Turkey’s capital and the Turkish Government had no powers of oversight over the work of the this commission.” (op. cit. pages 49-51)
That was another side of the education agreement – promising students would be sent to American universities and colleges and worked on doctoral theses. The imperialists sent some of these bright elements ripe for collaboration to the IMF, World Bank, NATO and American aid foundations, or to US companies and various other imperialist foundations, while others were sent back to their countries. Their mission was to be a servant bureaucracy for imperialism. This was prepared for them and ensured they rose to the highest levels in the state. They were totally Americanised, Suleyman Demirel, Turgut Ozal for example…
The most important purpose of the education for these institutions was to serve imperialism and be under its control. This is the reason for our decades of struggle against the pro-American education system.
Today, The Process That Put An End To Our Agriculture And Livestock Has Its Basis In “Bilateral Agreements” Of The 1950s
“Between 1950 and 1953 in Turkey, good weather conditions increased the amount of land available for agriculture. The Korean War created favourable economic conditions and it could be counted as one of the world’s breadbaskets, while there was propaganda that it was one of the countries that made the best use of American aid.
But the honeymoon did not last. The Korean War ended and the world returned to more normal conditions. Turkey reached the limits of its expansion of agriculture and weather conditions were less favourable, reducing agricultural output. Worsening economic conditions, belt-tightening and growing foreign debt, and Turkey which had been the subject of propaganda about how well it used American aid was from 1955 forced to put its signature to agreements with tough conditions requiring it to buy American agricultural produce. These agreements stood in the way of Turkey developing its agriculture and it was the aim every year to open up Turkey more and more as a market for American agricultural products.” (op. cit, pages 58-59)
Heavy exploitation and surrender were not limited to this agreement, of course. Here was a new agreement:
On November 12, 1956 an agreement was concluded on agricultural aid between the Republic of Turkey and the US government… And there was a supplementary agreement to it on January 25, 1957.
“With this agreement of November 12, 1956 under the name of aid the US government would give wheat, barley, corn, frozen meat, canned goods, beef, tallow, soya oil, more than it needed, conveyed to Turkey by American ships in return for 43.6 million dollars which included transportation fees, all under binding conditions.” (op. cit., page 67)
As in all agreements, this agreement was one-sided. Everything was in favour of American imperialism and against Turkey. Such that the government of Turkey could not put forward conditions that might be considered normal. What kinds of collaboration and chains of dependency are these?
“While making a decision to ban the use of domestically produced olive oil and soap, in its place the DP (Democratic Party) government purchased pork tallow from America, and for the sake of the American market Turkey’s olive oil manufacturers were condemned to hunger and poverty.” (op. cit. page 70)
While banning our domestic produce to open our markets to American produce, they were also exempt from every kind of import tax. Collaborationists used their own hands to drive nails into the coffins of their own producers.
In an agreement of January 20, 1958 and an American government note numbered 1755, dependence of agriculture on imperialism was confirmed.
“In the agreement on November 12, 1956, it was accepted that the USA would be able to control export of Turkey’s agricultural products. These notes were published in the Resmi Gazete (Turkish government’s official gazette) were an official announcement that control of Turkey’s foreign trade had passed to a foreign state. (…) Up to August 1, 1958 Turkey will not export wheat as America wishes. Because during this time these markets are to be accustomed to America’s wheat sales. If Turkey does not conform to this condition, America will use its own wheat to take serious precautions in time to reckon with the wheat Turkey exports. If Turkey does not heed the ban, American wheat will be financed to the extent that that wheat is exported and a fine levied by America through hard currency and Turkey’s compliance with these conditions is announced in the official gazette.” (op. cit. 79-80)
Following this “note”, another note is added: “An agreement dated February 21, 1963 on the development of agricultural trade,” a bilateral agreement worth 161 million dollars:
“As a part of the agreement on agricultural products, in its first section Turkey’s export of olive oil between November 1, 1962 and October 31, 1963, a twelve-month period, is to be limited to 10,000 tonnes. If in this period Turkey exceeds the permitted amount of olive oil exports, Turkey will be punished by means of having to buy the same amount of vegetable oil from America. When Turkey’s production of olive oil grows, and is exported, affecting the exports of America’s vegetable oil, in order to protect American production, Turkey is to buy vegetable oil from America through hard currency in the exact same amount that it exceeds the 10,000 tonnes figure in exports. According to Turkey not having this power, and being unable to sell its surplus olive oil, prices will fall, producers are harmed or unable to sell their produce and are impoverished and end up going to the cities or to Germany as workers, or cutting down their olive trees and turning the branches into firewood for winter, sowing other crops in their olive groves.” (op. cit. pages 83-84)
Today agriculture and livestock have reached the point of exhaustion. Turkey, a country of agriculture and livestock, now imports almost everything. Certainly in this situation even straw for animal feed is being imported.
In our country as agriculture and livestock are being finished off, the basics of a policy of making everything dependent on abroad were laid with these agreements and notes of the 1950s.
The aim is an obvious one, neo-colonialism is the basic reason for this. For the imperialists to find a solution to their declining markets they deepen and broaden their involvement in the markets of neo-colonial countries, they up the roots in these countries and turn them into markets for their own produce.
It Is A Lie That Imperialist Credits Are Needed To Develop The Country!
Imperialist Credits Are Economic And Political Concessions To Strengthen The Chains Of Dependency!
The government of the Republic of Turkey signed a Credit Agreement on May 31, 1968 with the USA. This is a striking example of how credit agreements on conditions were used to drag Turkey into economic, financial and political dependency. The agreement was for an amount of 30.5 million dollars and some conditions were tied to this debt for Turkey.
Arrangements were made for instalments and payments systems for interest on credits, and however much they might want to liberate themselves from the debt, it was not possible to escape the interest. This is what it means: once the debt is taken on, you cannot free yourself from it, on the contrary more debt is taken on and you are forced to pay interest.
It is possible to see that all the conditions of the imperialist agreements are contrary to the constitution of the country and its laws. But since this would prevent imperialist exploitation, legal changes are introduced to overcome such disharmony.
So with every such new law, big words are used as if to announce that they are of great benefit to the people. In reality they are to smooth the path for imperialist exploitation, get rid of obstacles and bring onto the agenda limitless freedom to exploit on the part of private enterprise.
Thus we can very confidently say that imperialist bilateral agreements take precedence over all Turkey’s laws. For example the imperialist aid organisation AID and other imperialist foundations have had precedence over Turkey’s elected governments and institutions.
And it is not just us saying this, the agreements concluded with imperialists are quite open about it. This can be shown in practice.
This is an example: “To exploit Turkey economically, America depends on private enterprise that it controls. For this reason making bilateral agreements accepted that encourage private enterprise and the establishment of new foundations that are not national and which create jurisdictions that impose dependency, and put them into practice. The reasons for the development of private enterprise in Turkey connected to and supported from abroad are concealed in this paragraph. According to this agreement, for a period of 40 years Turkish governments cannot in any way interfere with this company and on the pretext of its benefit to the public, this firm which is 73% private capital cannot be nationalised.” (op. cit. pages 107-108)
Relations Of Dependency Consolidated With Military Agreements, Regional Pacts And “Military Aid”
“The British government at the start of 1947 ‘said it would not be able to continue financial aid to the Greek government which was resisting Communist attacks based in Yugoslavia’ and notified America wanting it to aid the Greeks and in the meantime also Turkey. President Truman responded with the Truman Doctrine, announced in Congress on March 12, 1947. After this a law was passed in the American Congress, “authorising military and economic aid to Turkey which is under the same danger of Communism as the Greeks”. The agreement was dated July 12, 1947, framed in conformity with this law, and was considered the beginning of the first military aid agreement by America after the war.
Part of the beginning of the agreement: for the Turkish government to protect the freedom and independence of Turkey, it has requested aid in writing from the United States. If it did not spell out who Turkey’s freedom and independence had to be protected from, a summary can be contained in the Truman Doctrine and the law on aid contained in it, saying it was to be used to counter the Communist threat and danger and any other use was banned.” (op. cit. page 194)
After this, all military “aid” and “agreements” were designed to impose the American system, tie Turkey to America militarily and secure economic and political dependency as well.
Such that the Turkish army in its uniforms, organisation, weaponry, manners, training, marching step etc. bit by bit would become Americanised. Even the forks and spoons of the army had the US stamp on them. Even the underwear was American. Turkish army generals and officer were trained by US sergeants.
Essentially US training was seen as a “success” for Turkey and the number of military personnel who were trained there increased. For imperialist interests, Turkey took part in the Korean War, and when it was taken into NATO its dependency was also established in the military sphere. Together with entering NATO, bilateral and very partial agreements were also concluded. Command of the Turkish army was to a large extent given over to NATO from then on.
“Radar and intelligence facilities established in Turkey in the name of NATO as well as logistical facilities like fuel pipelines and fuel depots, bases and airfields meant that the Turkish armed forces were under complete control and occupation, the facilities were run by Turks. Up to the present NATO has spent three billion Turkish lira on constructing and establishing these bases. In Turkey the in spending approximately three billion lira.” (op. cit. pages 200-201)
The imperialists push the cost of the protection of their own interests onto the colonised country.
“According to the ‘agreement on putting into effect the treaty on the status of NATO forces American military aid personnel in Turkey’, the Turkish government may not control the entry and exit of American military personnel into Turkey.
According to the June 23, 1954 agreement on military facilities, the Turkish government will ensure suitable places for the establishment of bases and facilities for Americans. The price of appropriation will be met from Turkey’s budget. (…) This agreement meant the American air, ground and naval forces had permission to use Turkish soil.” (op. cit. page 309)
Not just soil, Turkey’s military facilities etc. were also at the service of the Americans.
“Under the military facilities agreement of June 23, 1954, the necessary permission is given for the soil of Turkey to be used by American forces in peace and war and under the name of defence facilities, the establishing in peacetime of bases, locations and facilities on Turkish soil and the occupation of them by American military and civilian personnel and the necessary security precautions by them is accepted.” (op. cit. page 319)
The agreement tied the hands of Turkey. There was no option but to do whatever the USA said. It was also not a question of collaborators and traitors to the homeland even sending the Americans a critical note. The collaborator Celal Bayar said, “The Americans get whatever they are given and do whatever they wish.” They were as enthusiastic about it as this.
Regional pacts also played an important role in military dependency. The Baghdad Pact was one of these. Imperialist countries like the USA and Britain encouraged a regional military pact to maintain control of Middle East petrol. This was why a mutual Turkish-Iraqi agreement on cooperation was signed on February 24, 1955.
“This treaty was open to members of the Arab League and in connection with the security and peace of the region any other state could also join. Britain would also be able to join the pact though its name was not written; but the state of Israel could not join as it was not recognised by states. This also shows that the Turkish government was a vehicle. The essential aim was for it to protect the interests of the USA and Britain.” (op. cit. page 164)
This kind of military pact is presented as protecting the interests of the country. The truth is different. Such regional military agreements turned the colonised countries in question into bases for imperialism and are a statement that they are ground forces for the interests of imperialism (for the security of Middle East petrol). The “cooperation agreement” between Turkey and the USA was such an agreement. This agreement put Turkey under a heavy obligation to enter conflict with ends that could not be foreseen.
American imperialism attacked Lebanon. In order to send US Marines to Lebanon, Balikesir and Adana airfields were used. To do this the American neither sought permission from the General staff (of Turkey) nor bothered to inform it.
The Foundations Of Neo-Colonialism Were Laid Down In The 1950s – Imperialism Has Sought To Put Down Its Own Political, Economic, Military, Cultural And Social Structure In Order To Dominate
Before the “aid” and “credit” the imperialists first sent experts and delegations to our country. It was necessary for them to know how to apply imperialist policies to our country. They spread to all state institutions. They were more competent than state officials were.
Supposedly they would develop our country, introduce modern practices and carry out research so as to train technical personnel. And they did.
From 1945 to 1954 they made very broad political, economic, financial, military and social preparations. They researched everything – our country’s laws, dynamics, ethnic, social and cultural structure, its political currents, religious structure, how the state mechanism worked and everything that came to mind. They collected information. They obtained all the secrets of state institutions. They gained information that was not even in the possession of state officials. This research went on for about 10 years. They prepared reports. They took steps in these 10 years. These preceded the steps they would take later and they evaluated the results they had achieved.
They also drew conclusions from their observations of the way our country and peoples reacted to being experimented upon by imperialist politics.
In this 10-year period at the same time there was also a process of preparing a “climate” for the practices of neo-colonialism.
Those who stood up to imperialist policies were intimidated through state means, pushed into the background, bribed or eliminated in order to create a collaborationist spirit for America. Whereas collaborators were ensured a bright future.
In particular, the situation after 1950 has historical importance for our country. Experts trained by US imperialism personally in our country carried out “investigations, research, collection of information, selection of people and training, organising, friendship and aid and with a protecting and powerful state propaganda they acted to establish themselves in Turkey” and this was a process of preparation.
“Bilateral agreements”, “aid”, “credits” in every area created conditions of deep dependency, putting an end to Turkey’ sovereignty, turning it into a no-colony, and after this imperialism began an internal factor.
The attack of imperialism have continued from that day to this. Numerous debts and credits under the name of “agreements” and “aid” packages create unbreakable bonds with imperialism in all areas, on the economic, political, social, cultural and military level.
No System Party Tied To Colonialism Can Stick To Its Promises And No System Party Has Any Such Aim – They Are Willing Servants Of Imperialism
One after the other, from the AKP to the CHP,MHP, Iyi (Good) Party, Saadet (Prosperity) Party, Vatan Party and HDP, on the election trail they make one promise after another.
Having put their signature to countless agreements with the imperialists, when it came to promises to the imperialists AKP fascism was this time left in the shade by the CHP.
The AKP for Ramadan and Eid promised 1,000 lira gratuities to every retired person. And it took a number of election decisions. According to the decisions made, fines, taxes and Premium debts would be restructured. There would be amnesties on stocks. The debts of the retired going back to their places of employment would be cancelled. The monthly old-age pension would be raised from 266 TL to 500. 12 to 13 million documents would be issued to allow construction. About 500,000 place for students would be found. There would also be premium support for the young between 18 and 29 to enter the workplace.
The system party the CHP tried to make its claims:
The miniumum wage would be raised to 2,200 TL; all sub-contracted workers would be made permanent staff; through the practice of available family insurance, social aid would be doubled; seasonal agricultural workers would be given social security by the state; farmers would be sold fuel oil for 2.50TL; forest workers would receive insurance premiums; to remove inequality among the retired an Adjustment Law would be introduced; and a promise was made to eliminate 80% of interest on credit card and consumer card debt.
The Iyi Party was also not backward;
“Iyi Party chair Meral Aksener promised to eliminate debt in the event of taking office. Aksener said, ‘Without losing any time we will establish a social solidarity fund. We have given this fund the name Turkey Solidarity Fund. From April 30, 2018 we will buy up the debts to banks or consumer finance companies that are being legally pursued for consumer credit, credit card and deposit accounts in relation to 4.5 million of our citizens,’ she said. Aksener also said that this debt forgiveness and reduction would amount to 8 billion TL from the 2018 budget.” (Source: Haberturk)
The CHP Presidential candidate Muharrem Ince said at the hustings: “Why was the decision taken to hold early elections? Crisis, the threshold of economic crisis. Erdogan cannot overcome this economic crisis. Why do I say so? Because he is fighting the whole world. Fresh blood is needed. If we stick with Erdogan the dollar will reach 8-10 lira.”
Economic crisis is the general crisis of this system. We say this is a national crisis. The general name of this is social, political and economic crisis and our country’s relations of dependency with imperialism are part of a continual national crisis, we say.
No system party, AKP, CHP, can overcome or solve this crisis. One crisis ends, another starts. The words the system parties utter about crisis are not about the people’s hunger, poverty, exposure to corrupting influences, unemployment etc.
What they are after is satiating the imperialist and local monopolies. They are after the payment of debts to imperialist monopolies and finance companies. This is their crisis. Their crisis is one of how to silence our peoples. Their crisis is the fight to get a bigger slice of the cake of exploitation for themselves.
So there is nothing to their promises. CHP presidential candidate says, “Our aim is free education.” And he lists:
“ – The Central Bank will be independent,
By giving every kind of support to farmers through ending agricultural imports, fuel oil will be 3 lira. We will lower electricity prices, the state will give medication free for the health of animals.”
Agriculture is finished. He says we will put an end to agricultural imports. We will make the pro-American fascist-reactionary education system free of charge, he says.
“Erdogan is not national, he is not domestic. Because Erdogan has surrendered to the American tobacco companies. My Adiyaman, Malatya brother cannot raise a tobacco crop. There is poison in Adiyaman tobacco, is American tobacco full of vitamins? They have been running this country for 16 years. And this is the difference between them and me – they run the country from Moscow, Brussels or Washington, I will run it from Ankara,” Muharrem Ince says, putting on a show.
True, you have been ruling the state for years from Ankara. From Ankara in the name of American imperialism. This is a feature of neo-colonialism. Henceforth imperialism has no need of its own army, flag, governors etc. It has its own domestic collaborators. The local collaborators run the country on behalf of imperialism. Decisions appear to come from parliament but it is the IMF that makes the decisions, and the World Bank, imperialist finance centres and NATO.
Those who do not know the reality of our country, economically or politically, might evaluate AKP fascism’s “swaggering” and Tayyip’s “Hey America, hey Europe” as something an independent country might do. They even say that AKP fascism has grown in spite of US imperialism and the oligarchy of Turkey.
This is a sign of confused minds. They lack class ideology, and such statements are the results of such people losing any class compass.
From the AKP to the CHP, from the MHP to the Iyi Party, they are all pro-American. Despite all their lying demagogy and swagger, all of them come and go to serve the capitalist system of exploitation and the exploitative type of democracy.
For system parties, opposition to America and anti-Americanism is a demagogy. In place of imperialist exploitation, occupation and tyranny, the struggle for independence and democracy is an inescapable factor. Without the democracy struggle for independence and the people, there can be no anti-Americanism.
With its claims to be patriotic, the Kurdish nationalists are at the same point as the parties that are special to the system. One of the KCK leaders, Cemil Bayik, personally told a reporter from BBC Turkce (Turkish-language TV) how they were trying to keep the people under control. The reporter asked, “What is the part you play in an environment of conflict?” And this was his answer:
“We do not think we have any part in it. If we were in favour of fighting we would not have announced nine cease-fires up to the present. Again, if we were insisting on war, we would not have tried to bring the Kurdish people, the left from Turkey and all opposition forces together under the roof of the HDP and brought them to parliament. We have taken all of Turkey’s problems to parliament. We have put problems on the agenda of parliament and sought solutions. For years Turkey struggled with Kurds and the left but could not get a result somehow. But leader Apo, the PKK, all these forces drew all these forces to parliament for all their illegal talk. All problems were taken to parliament and discussed in parliament and solutions sought.” (BBC Turkce November 30, 2015)
Yesterday fascism was identified with the MHP, today fascism is identified with the AKP. The reformist left has put forward hopes for the elections to the system parliament in the name of “preventing the rise of open fascism”. Today they are tailing the CHP in the name of “preventing the rise of open fascism and seeking conciliation” while also tailing the HDP.
What Front, What Bloc Has Not Been Established By The Reformist, Opportunist Left – Yesterday Peace, Democracy And Labour Front, Today The Election Bloc?
History has proved the truth of this many times – it is revolution that tears down fascism. It is obvious that liquidation is not a matter of tearing down fascism. Within the capitalist system of exploitation it is a matter of being satisfied with a crumb of democracy. They are trying to make our people satisfied with the crumbs.
The system right and system left use different pretexts come together on the same point. In character, in what they say and the tone they use, they present the parliament of fascism as a solution and at all costs defend the system of American imperialism. They defend the system of neo-colonialism.
“Wherever they are, whatever they want to do, they must answer the question, do they want or do they not want revolution. This is characterised wanting or not wanting to establish a revolutionary government by striking the counter-revolutionary front and making it collapse for the sake of revolution. Liquidationists do not want revolution. They do not want an independent, democratic and socialist country in which the oppressed people are sovereign and the sovereignty of the imperialists and collaborationist monopolies has been torn down. They think they cannot live without the imperialists and the monopolies. For this reason they want the masses to take as their own, though with left-wing phrases, a capitalist system of ‘human rights and democracy’ in which the sovereignty of the imperialists and the monopolies continues, which is called by imperialist countries ‘civilised’ and ‘modern’.” (Dursun Karatas, Selected Works, page 269)
Uncle had said these words 12 years earlier. Liquidationism today is much more advanced. This was already the aim of neo-colonialism. The revolutionary left was to be liquidated, to smooth out the path for exploitation.
The Foundations Of Neo-Colonialism Were Laid With “Bilateral Agreements”, Revolution Can Ensure The Cancellation Of Bilateral Agreements
We revolutionaries make no promises and have not done so. For decades we have said the truth about our country. We say the true liberation of this country is in the truth. We do not confine ourselves to saying it, we fight and we pay the price.
For about 70 years our country has been a neo-colony of the USA. Look what they said to our country: “An end must be put to all anti-democratic regimes and dictatorships in the world, and every nation be able to choose its system of government.”
That is, the imperialists cam to our country with demagogy about democracy, freedom and development. Democracy and freedom was freedom to exploit, within monopolies. They caused our peoples to spit blood. Coups, tortures, disappearances, massacres among our peoples and among the revolutionaries and patriots. Yes, they developed, the imperialist monopolies, the domestic monopolies heaped profit on profit. Billions of dollars of profit were wrung every year out of the backs of our peoples. This meant hunger and poverty for our peoples.
What did the local collaborators say? “Turkey’s health depends on tying its fate to America and Great Britain.” Another said, “We get whatever America gives, we do what it wants.” And another collaborator and traitor to the homeland said, “It is a source of pleasure for the Middle East and Turkey to be an American market.”
And The Point We Have Reached:
This is a country whose economy is run by the debts and credits of the IMF, World Bank and imperialist financial institutions.
It is a country that does not have an independent foreign policy.
It has a fascist government that crushes and murders its people, patriots and revolutionaries while giving every kind of freedom to imperialists and collaborators.
The reality of the people is that they are sinking in the swamp of decay.
A country in which agriculture has come to an end as have water resources and forests.
A country and people whose national honour is trampled underfoot.
There is no democracy for the people. There is no independence. There is imperialist exploitation and the reality of fascism.
All these elections with crumbs of promises and deception and parliamentary lies will not remove any deep problems. And the only solution is revolution, the only liberation socialism.
Revolution is tearing down the old and ripping it apart, putting something new in its place. Our revolution does not resemble “velvet revolutions”, “orange revolutions” or imperialism’s guided and supported “Rojava revolution”.
Our revolution will also not resemble “petit bourgeois revolutions” that drive imperialism out the door while allowing it back in through the chimney.
Our revolution is one that shakes the world, a people’s revolution that will be a source of inspiration to the oppressed peoples of the world. A revolution that has as its goal the construction of socialism.
It is revolution that is strong, not the system. It is revolutionaries that are strong, not imperialism. This reality is the basic reason for crises. The fear of revolution. We will build up the revolution, not the system, and we will make their fears even greater!