The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) released a statement on Oct. 9 regarding the escalating crisis between Turkey and the U.S. following the mutual travel and visa restrictions upon the arrest of a U.S. consulate employee last week in İstanbul. The TKP reveals that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) under the lead of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan cannot wage a struggle against the U.S. imperialism due to its long-time links to imperialist countries.
The statement stressed long-established close ties between imperialist countries and Erdoğan's ruling AKP party. 'Erdoğan does not possess the credentials to fight the US,' said the TKP, slamming both the standpoints attributing some anti-imperialist features to Erdoğan and others anticipating 'democracy' from the Western imperialists. The statement has made a call to the people of Turkey not to take a side in the tension between the US and Erdoğan, and fight a real fight against both inner and foreign exploiters.
In the statement, the communist party pointed out past 15 years of close ties between the sides and expounded the causes of the recently escalating tension between Erdoğan's AKP and Western powers:
"...tensions emerged due to the AKP government's exaggerating Turkey's regional possibilities and failing to meet the expectations of the United States and some other imperialist countries, have reached to the point where it would disrupt relations between Erdoğan and the western countries, and eventually the United States, in order to create a more useful power for itself, stood behind the coup attempt."
Reminding the long history of imperialism in "using political actors in other countries and then throwing them into a corner," the statement said Erdoğan was using all opportunities to avoid ending up so, including his most recent approach to Russia in spite of the US and Germany. "The trend is that the US and Germany will continue to siege Erdoğan; Erdoğan, on the other hand, seems that he will use the nationalism card more and will try to overcome the approaching economic collapse with a social support mobilized around authoritarianism" forecast the statement.
TKP made a call to the people of Turkey to not to take sides in this tension, underlining that the interests of working class people never coincide with those of the US imperialism "unlike Erdoğan and his team." Communists called to raise the voice "more than ever to the NATO, the US bases and the bilateral and secret agreements with the United States. We must throw up the 'freedom' and 'democracy' flummery of the arrogant imperialists" while concentrating on fighting against reactionary and pro-capitalist AKP, which would try to "clean its dirty hands with an anti-US show."
The statement warned against AKP's and big Turkish capitalists' possible attempt to put the burden of problematic Turkish economy on people's back, reminding that it was them who put the country's economy under "under the control of international monopolies" in the first place. In what follows, the TKP stressed that the real independency and sovereignty of a people depends on overthrowing the bourgeoisie. Anti-imperialism is not possible without anti-capitalism, underlined the statement, inviting people of Turke "to the ranks for the real salvation."
