Statement by Communist Party of Türkiye: The struggle against NATO must begin now

July 11, 2023 – Following Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan’s “green light” for Sweden’s accession to NATO within the framework of the imperialist alliance’s Summit in Vilnius, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Türkiye (TKP) issued the following statement.

It is only a matter of time before NATO, the world’s largest terrorist organization, expands to include one more country. We cannot be expected to remain indifferent to Sweden’s membership in NATO. Our interest does not only come from our responsibility to fight against the role of our own government in the oppression of the peoples of other countries.

We cannot remain indifferent, because, whichever geographical region NATO expands into, a stronger NATO with a wider presence in a wider area means, first and foremost, more attacks to intimidate the workers of the member countries; and it heightens the growing threat of war all over the world.

We are not curious about the grounds for Erdoğan’s assurance that Sweden’s membership will be approved by the parliament. We have already said that this is the most counter-revolutionary parliament in the history of Türkiye … We will not be surprised by the outcome.

But we will fulfill our increasing responsibility. We will not allow NATO, which threatens the peoples of the whole world with its existence, to gain legitimacy while NATO expands — and all of the actors in our country’s bourgeois political system pave the way for this expansion by settling into a pro-NATO position.

We will continue to uphold anti-imperialism and opposition to NATO, which have stronger roots in these lands than is believed elsewhere. We will continue to work for the strengthening of this resistance that right-wing forces are trying to take over and do this immediately. The necessity to remove NATO from our country with all its bases and soldiers is as urgent as the need to establish an equal, independent and secular country.

TKP Central Committee