Workers Fraternity Party of Turkey on Kurdish question

For information purposes only

TURKEY

 

Statement of the Workers Fraternity Party of Turkey

 (October 1, 2014)

 

Amidst the Hell of the Middle East,

We Say NO to the Massacre of the Kurdish People!

 

• NO to the Erdogan government's commitment to the war!

• NO to a buffer zone or a security zone!

• NO to a fly-over ban!

• No to an intervention by the United Nations!

 

- YES to an end to logistical support to the Islamic State!

- YES to arming the people of Kobani and Rojava -- but without any assistance from imperialism!

 

Amidst the hell of the Middle East (especially in Kobani and Rojava), we cannot close our eyes to the massacre of the Kurdish people, who are insufficiently armed, by the Islamic State, or ISIS. This is an outfit that was created from scratch by Western imperialism and that has received all kinds of logistical support from the Turkish government.

 

Though there are a lot of people who are ready to fight alongside the Kurdish people, there are no heavy weapons to fight the Islamic State. This is an entirely one-sided battlefield.

 

The top command of the U.S. Armed Forces was able to dismantle the Saddam Hussein military forces in 15 days; now these same U.S. commanders are telling us that it will take three years to defeat the Islamic State. If this is not a cruel joke, it means that we are faced with a trap.

 

U.S. imperialism -- which for 10 years fomented the war between Saddam's Iraq and Iran -- is now fomenting the war that pits the Islamic State and Turkey against the Kurdish people and Syria. This means the beginning of a great new war in the Middle East.

 

The involvement of the Turkish government in the war must be ratified, as was the case in 2003, by the Turkish parliament.

 

The Turkish people does not have confidence in the AKP government.

 

It will then take a nationwide referendum in Turkey to agree – or not – to engage in this new war. . . .

 

The peace process is a method that has been used for a long time by the Turkish government to deceive the Kurdish people. The statements by the government's spokespersons, beginning with Erdogan, are pure deception. In the back of their minds, they want the YPG ["Units of Protection of the People" linked to the Kurdish PKK – Tr. note.] to fight Bashar El Assad – all in the name of a peace process that does not exist.

 

We -- the IKP, or Workers Fraternity Party – have reiterated for years now that peace domestically is impossible when abroad a bellicose foreign policy is being waged. As the children of the Kurdish people of Kobani are killed by the Islamic State, voices of "concern" are raised by the government. What hypocrisy!

 

On the other hand, it is clear that imperialism will provide some weapons – a limited amount, to be sure -- to the Kurdish people as their goal is to have this war last as long as possible. At the same time, with their no-fly-over zone in the area, they will try to destroy the Syrian State.

 

The peaceful people of Kobani have been forced to fight against the Islamic State, and for this purpose they have been compelled to seek weapons from imperialism. The truth is that the Kurdish people do not have to play this game, which would make them a hostage to imperialism.

 

Those who are the targets of the attacks of imperialism have to help each other. This is why those who are under attack by the combined onslaught of the Western forces, Turkey, the Islamic State, Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- that is to say, the Kurds, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the regime in Syria and the Iranian State tomorrow -- must join forces. The Kurds must retrieve their weapons from those countries and should not allow the international forces, including the United Nations, that is to say, to imperialism, to intervene in the region.

 

All pro-peace forces in Turkey who for years have experienced the absence of peace in Turkey and the Middle East, all the people who oppose the destruction brought by the war -- that is, the poor, workers, the unemployed, the workers' organizations, the trade unions, the political activists, the peace organizations – must join together to oppose the warlike policies of imperialism and its valet – the AKP government of Erdogan.

 

- Peace in Kobani, Peace in Turkey!

 

- Peace in Kobani, Peace in Syria!

 

-- Workers Fraternity Party