DHKP on the attack on Iraq

All revolutionary, democratic, progressive, patriotic anti-imperialist or anti-American forces must make a correct political analysis of the character of the government and of all the ruling forces which are on the rampage in our country and which pass themselves off as "nationalists".

Every error in evaluating them can give rise to mistakes in alignment and in alliances in the struggle for independence and democracy

The role of the oligarchy in Turkey in the military occupation of Iraq and the massacres perpetrated there was shown in the most striking and indisputable way when US Secretary of State Colin Powell came to Ankara. The statement made jointly by Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Powell amounts to a confession: "Turkey is in the coalition and acts alongside the countries which are its partners".
The fact that Abdullah Gul sought to modify his remarks the following day is of no importance. With this statement the situation that already existed in practice was made official.
When one looks at the aggression by America against Iraq as well as its reasons and consequences, it is obvious that this plan is not limited to Iraq. In this case the plan is the American Empire's aim of making the peoples surrender. It is important to identify the place that the people who run our country occupy in the framework of this plan. It is necessary to know and determine where each of them is situated, so as not to fall into errors or shortcomings about "against whom" or "how" one is fighting.
Avoiding this error is an obligation for all those who are preoccupied with questions about the independence and democracy of our country. It is an obligation for all thouse oppose American hegemony.

The AKP is "essential" to the military occupation and carnage.
The AKP (note: Justice and Development Party, which presents itself as an Islamist party) supports the policy of extermination conducted by the American Empire using armed force, supporting it both in thought and in deed. This policy of extermination has already cost the lives of tens, of hundreds of thousands of people and tomorrow it may cost the lives of millions more.
We have heard the hypocritical declarations by the heads of the AKP expressing their "sadness about the Iraqi children who have been killed". BUT they do not utter a word against the American Empire. The AKP and more generally the oligarchy of Turkey have built their future on the crumbs thrown them by the Empire in return for their "assistance" in the plan to conquer Iraq and make it submit. That is what they are doing in relation to the aggression against Iraq.
In diverting public opinion with the controversy about "the parliamentary motion - was it voted through or not", the AKP was already serving America. At the same time the units of American contra-guerrillas crossed Turkey's territory and entered northern Iraq. The maritime ports and aeroports were already at the disposal of America. Hundreds of heavy lorries transported vehicles and materiel needed for the massacre that America was going to perpetrate. By opening up Turkey's airspace, the partnership was established on a more solid footing. Finally, the partnership was reinforced by the last agreement concluded with Powell, involving all kinds of logistical assistance.
The partnership we are talking about is one of complicity in massacres.
The partnership we are talking about is one of sycophancy towards the Empire.
A crime is being committed in all spheres, political, military, economic.
One of the errors that are committed in judging the government of Turkey's oligarchy is to limit the problem to seeing it, in practice, from the angle of the number of soldiers who have to cross Turkey. What is the essential aspect is that the the AKP POLITICALLY supports the occupation of Iraq by America.
Turkey's oligarchy supported French imperialism against the Algerian people who were fighting for their independence. In the United Nations, Turkey voted against the Algerian people. Can it be said that the oligarchy is innocent because it did not supply arms or logistical assistance to the French? All the more reason to say that the supply of arms would have been a more minor crime than what was being committed in the political sphere.
Today the two pillars of power, the AKP and the General Staff, have chosen the camp of America. On the political and military plane they are at the service of the American Empire. The attitude of the AKP and the General Staff certainly has a political and military aspect but certainly not a HUMAN one. They are using the term "human", solely to cover up the military occupation and massacres in Iraq.

Understand neo-colonialism so that you are not fooled!
Henceforth the US authorities just as much as those of the oligarchy are admitting that they belong to the camp which is for military occupations and massacres. The use of our airspace by planes which massacre the Iraqi people is enough to illustrate this assertion. Those who have sought since the 1950s to deck the parliament with an authority it never had and never will have, must revise their analysis of the political structure of Turkey.
Turkey is a neo-colonial country. Its economy, its administration and its parliament are formed according to this character. In a neo-colonial country, no collaborationist government is going to adopt a firm attitude opposing imperialism. It may be that there will be temporary contradictions but in no way does that change the character of the dependency that ties this country to imperialism. The form of government that is dominant in neo-colonies is fascism: the administration of such a country may have the aspect of a "relative democracy" or the aspect of a military junta. But that changes nothing about its fascist essence.
Those who do not understand neo-colonialism describe the system they live in as "a democracy with its good and bad sides". They always believe that the successive governments and parliaments are sovereign.
The praises addressed to the Grand National Assembly (Turkey's parliament) by both left-wing and right-wing circles because it "rejected the motion" authorising the transit of US soldiers via Turkey is the consequence of this mistake.
Parliament is "charged" with legalising the directives of the National Security Council (MGK) and the IMF. The parliament can even be totally "ignored". Fascism involves domination by the executive branch. One has to see the state parliament is in by looking at the support given to the American aggression against Iraq. Its role in the system is so insignificant that it is not even necessary for it to publish "information" concerning the "dossiers on negotiations" with the United States.
Democracy in Turkey is a facade. That means that the parliament is also a facade. When Mahir Cayan described this system about 30 years ago, he called it a "Filipino-type democracy". It is a system in which the parliament and the democracy are cosmetic and may be suspended by military coups.
Derived from this example, Mahir defines the function of the regime as follows:
"The oligarchy connects the reasons for popular discontent with the deficiencies of the Erim cabinet in order to overthrow it and replace it with a new government team.
The gears continue to turn; juntas succeed one after the other. Some are presented as "Ataturkists" or as "secular", others as "reformers". Each time patriotic intellectuals have hopes and each time they realise that they have been deceived, they await a new ‘progressive' impulse"... This is the vicious circle in a country which is under occupation by imperialism. In our country too, these gears will continue to turn uintil they are broken."
In fact, among the broad masses and especially among certain parties and milieus which ascribe certain roles to themselves, which of them has not had such "hopes"?
The last "hope" is the AKP.
This party was "different from the parties that existed before".
For those who said it was different, did they need to see thousands die in Iraq to understand that there was nothing different about it?
Neo-colonialism is a method of administration which came about particularly after the second imperialist war of partition (World War II) and which developed when imperialism concluded that overt military occupation gave rise to wars of national liberation and revolutions and that the socialist system was becoming a growing force on the world scale which prevented it from acting in total peace and quiet.
The neo-colonies appear to be independent. But in reality their economies, politics, armies and cultures are attached to an umbilical cord through the medium of bilateral treaties. In short, imperialism has passed from being in "overt occupation" to a being a "secret occupation".
Today, imperialism uses neo-colonial methods but more and more it resorts to overt military occupying forces as in the time of the second imperialist crisis in order to reinforce its rule, to make colonised countries into open markets for the profit of imperialist monopolies through bilateral treaties but also to remove any pockets of resistance that there are in these countries. Revealing examples are the operation in the Balkans, the occupation of Afghanistan and finally the aggression against Iraq. Under the threat of overt military occupation, the secret occupation of the neo-colonial countries progresses and deepens, economically and politically. Today one sees what imperialist globalisation means for the peoples. All theories about imperialism changing its nature have become bankrupt.
Understanding imperialism and neo-colonialism allows us to understand current events. Understanding neo-colonialism means pursuing a correct form of combat against imperialism and the collaborationist governments.

The American Empire and the "pacifists"
Whatever the good intentions motivating them, the "pacifists" who present themselves as being "against all forms of war" are doing a favour to America and especially to the collaborationist government of our country.
They have not understood the character of the government which is on the rampage in our country. For this reason they have given one guarantee after another to imperialism and the oligarchy in hoping that the party which has just come to power would turn its back on imperialism. They have not understood the character of the regime. They thought that the parliament was the "supreme decision-making body". That is only true in the case of democracies. They have not understood the ties of dependence which bind our country. Their political light-mindedness is such that they truly believe that a party which is there to keep the established order functioning could possibly break its ties of dependence.
They have not understood the true character of imperialism. That is why they believed that the crowds and the opposition massed in the streets could prevent imperialism from behaving like imperialism. They did not base their struggle on the postulate that so long as imperialism exists there will be wars against the peoples.
The aggression by the USA against Iraq as well as the collaboration of the AKP government show how far their dissident conceptions rest on rotten foundations.
They must give way to the evidence that in the case of a war that is not abstract, it is not possible to speak about peace in the abstract. The sources of these wars are economic, social and political. Without drying up the sources of war, the struggle against war remains an abstract concept. What is correct and necessary is to struggle against the imperialist governments and their collaborators, that is to say, to take on those injustices which give rise to wars.
Those who continue to daydream and talk about democracy, who sermonise about changing the world through "pacifist" actions must look the reality of the world and our country in the eye, a reality drenched in blood and burned by fire. If they do not face up to this they will continue to drift in their dream world, remote from the reality.

America's aggression in Iraq and Kurdish nationalism
It is necessary to note that all erroneous and absurd political attitudes do not arise only from "misconceptions about the character of imperialism and the collaborationist governments". So a great many of the conciliatory or complicit attitudes toward imperialism are not adopted out of ignorance but are a political choice.
It is a matter of conscious choice, for at least some of those who present themselves as pacifists. They are afraid to confront imperialism and collaborationist governments because that involves risks and makes sacrifices necessary. That is why they take refuge in the harbour of "pacifism".
Pacifism is not a political ideal. It is the name for those who want to protect their political status quo.
The most abject, the most bloody and the most cowardly of the forms of collaboration are those of the Kurdish nationalists directed by the Talabani-Barzani duo in the north of Iraq.
Henceforth it is not possible to speak of a "nationalist movement" anong the Kurdish pesh mergas who operate as veritable assassins and murderers in the pay of America. The Barzani-Talabani leadership no longer has a nationalist character. This leadership has chosen to become soldiers of America.
First, this political line will not bring liberty and democracy to the Kurdish people. Secondly they will be cursed by the peoples of the Middle East.
Moreover we must add that the Kurdish nationalism of KADEK (formerly PKK) is not in the place it should be. Instead of openly rejecting American aggression, KADEK is taking a position which exposes it to compromise and collaboration. This attitude will bring neither benefit to the Kurdish people nor will it contribute to the struggle of the peoples for a free and democratic world.
Today a nationalism which does not possess a revolutionary content and orientation in its struggle and does not take up a resolute and consistent anti-imperialist attitude is a nationalism which will sooner or later return to the bosom of imperialism. To reduce the question of independence and national rights to a language, a television and a flag is an attitude that opens the way to neo-colonialism. Being a nationalist fighter means opposing imperialism and the collaborationist governments which negate any kind of national will.
A mind which can think of "deriving profit" from the murder of the Iraqi people cannot be nationalist and cannot claim to struggle for the people. Those who defend conceptions which reject the common struggle of the peoples are subordinate to imperialism. It is henceforth indisputable that solving all national questions depends on a common struggle of the peoples against imperialism. Those who do not put their trust in the peoples can only put their trust in imperialism.

The AKP and the Kurdish question
As in all domains, the AKP pursues a policy of oppression and denial with regard to the Kurds. This government is at least as chauvinist, negationist, assimilationist and destroying as the governments that came before it. Moreover, it is here that the source of the disagreement lies between the USA and the AKP with regard to the aggression against Iraq. The USA considered that a massacre of Kurdish forces by the oligarchy (of Turkey) did not fit in with its own invasion plans.
The AKP has not done a single thing for the national rights and freedoms of the Kurdish people, on the contrary, it has even stepped up repression, terror and penalties against Kurdish nationalists and progressives, it wanted to export its atrocities to the north of Iraq and is still looking for an opportunity to put such plans into effect.

The AKP and the F-Type prisons
The AKP came to power announcing "changes". However, the AKP took over managing the repression in the prisons and is doing so zealously. In the F-Type prisons and the other prisons where political prisoners are detained, the AKP has maintained repressive and terrorist measures without making the slightest improvement.
The Death Fast resistance which started under the previous government continues with the same self-sacrifice under the repression by the AKP government. Today the AKP is directly responsible for the death of nine prisoners. This government is responsible for continuing a prison sell regime, for prison solitary confinement and for the suicides that result from that.
Through lies and demagogy, the AKP is following the heritage of the fascist government. The AKP minister of justice tried to popularise the idea that neither the Death Fast nor individual prison cells exist. Then he vainly ratified the "law on forcible medical intervention". The AKP gained absolutely nothing from all these methods. Moreover, it will not achieve anything from this repression.
The revolutionary prisoners will not allow the AKP oppressors to enjoy a "victory". If they persist in their oppression, the resistance will continue to defeat them.

Confronted by military occupation, massacres and tyranny,
What are the alternatives for countries and peoples?
In the face of American aggression, what are Europe, China and Russia doing?
Every time there is dissension with the imperialists, certain fringes of the oligarchy love to repeat the statement made by Ismet Inonu (former head of state in Turkey, who succeeded Ataturk after the latter's death in 1938): "when a new world is created, Turkey will take its place in it". Where is this world and with whom is it being created?
Some continue to dream that "another world is possible" because Europe, China and Russia failed to give complete support to the US aggression against Iraq.
They are wrong. The countries cited are imperialist (in the case of China, a country on the way to becoming imperialist). Let nobody ignore this truth.
If these entities are partly opposed to the US aggression against Iraq, it is only by reason of their imperialist calculations. These powers have literally tried to use for their own profit the countries, organisations and even mass movements which nourish the contradictions with the USA with regard to the aggression against Iraq. Those who seek democracy and human rights in Europe should recall that Britain is a protagonist in the massacres perpetrated in Iraq. They must also recall that Britain is one of the pillars of the EU. Those who see Europe as an "unconditional defender of human rights" must give in to the evidence that the contradictions which have arisen between them and the United States have nothing to do with "humanism". It is all part of the calculation of profit and loss over the value of their participation in a similar act of aggression.
It was none other than Germany and France, two countries presented as the most passionate opponents of the war, who told the USA from the beginning of the bombing: "Finish your work as soon as possible". These are the same countries who made available their airspace and airfields to the Americans.
The revolutionaries cannot side with the European Union against the United States. Nor can they side with Russia and China. These countries are not essentially different. Revolutionaries have the duty to remain in the anti-imperialist front. They must attend to building it and mobilising it for combat. The slogan of the anti-globalisation protesters, "another world is possible" can only be made concrete if in this world countries attain independence, democracy and socialism. Such a world can only be created through such a confrontation with imperialism.

We carry the flag of the struggle for an independent and democratic Turkey!
The AKP government is completely collaborationist. By trampling on the popular will this government has shown that it represents neither our country nor our people.
The General Staff are utterly collaborationist. There is nothing national about it and it illustrated it by ranging itself alongside the United States.
Those who aspire to independence and democracy have no other path than the revolutionary struggle. Except for the revolutionaries, nobody is defending the values of independence and democracy in their true sense. While the revolutionaries have sacrificed themselves for independence and democracy for the past 33 years, some forces see independence and democracy as an independence of shreds and patches and a cosmetic democracy.
These forces no longer have hope or confidence. Their minds have been debased by the demagogy of imperialism and the oligarchy concerning globalisation, human rights, a unipolar world, democratisation etc. Those who are affected by this debasement ignore the people and the strength of the people. Those who do not believe in the people finish by believing in collaborationists, in forces inherent in the system and in imperialism itself. Then they start to develop theories borrowed from imperialism and its acolytes. Of course they are deceiving themselves. When they are fooled by the demagogy of democratisation, they are dismayed by the massacre in progress. That is why today they are dumbfounded by the resistance from the Iraqi people.
Both in the world and in our country, the democracy and independence will only triumph through the strength of the people. All ruling classes are stumbling blocks which prevent emancipation and the dawning of any democracy. Imperialism, collaborationist governments and fascism are all forces hostile to independence and democracy.
Those who want independence and democracy must not expect this or that force inside the oligarchy to offer independence and democracy. It is absurd to defend such an idea.
The events of the past three years are enough to prove these claims.
Despite that, all those who advance along the road leading to independence and democracy via an alliance with imperialism, with a force that is inherent in the existing system or with a parliament that is part of this system, are consciously obstacles to revolution.
To defend ourselves and prevent the next massacres by imperialism and fascism, we must organise ourselves as the PEOPLE. It is enough to look at Iraq to see that the peoples of the world cannot put their faith in any "international institution", nor in any imperialist state. The peoples can only be proud of their own organisations and their own peoples.
The massacre continues in Iraq. The massacre continues in the prisons (note: of Turkey).
Our country has been turned into a rear base for invaders who massacre and pillage. We must raise the struggle against the collaborationist authorities of the AKP and more generally against the power of the oligarchy. The greatest blow the revolutionaries of Turkey can strike against American imperialism is to destroy the government of pro-American collaborationists in Turkey.

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)