Turkey Will Not Surrender to Imperialism or Enforced Monarchy
STATEMENT OF SOL PARTY – TURKEY
Turkey, particularly Ankara, is currently under a NATO blockade. With hundreds of people detained and arrested, and under de facto state of emergency restrictions, Turkey is being forced to surrender to the darkness of the US and NATO.
The political Islamist regime is once again demonstrating its complete and profound allegiance to the US and NATO. Having lost its social support, it seeks to maintain its rule – which it is attempting to sustain through repression and tyranny – by surrendering Turkey’s fate to Trump’s America and NATO’s new war doctrine.
Shaped by the US and the imperialists’ ‘Greater Middle East’ policies, the political Islamist regime is now attempting to position Turkey within the new war concept referred to as ‘NATO 3.0’. This entails turning Turkey’s territory, from the Black Sea to the south, into a military front lined with new NATO bases, alongside the imposition of a US-backed monarchy.
We will never surrender to imperialism or to attempts to enforce a monarchy upon our country within this new war doctrine.
Together with all the democratic, patriotic and anti-imperialist forces in our country, and alongside the oppressed working people, we will defend our country’s future and its honour; we will certainly break this siege.
1. Decaying US imperialism, its hegemony crumbling, is acting with boundless lawlessness.
As set out in the US National Security Strategy document, it is confirmed that the US will not cease to be an aggressive power and will use its devastating military might without restraint. In fact, the message is clear: the whole of the Americas and the Western Hemisphere are within my sphere of influence. The abduction of the President of Venezuela, the war waged against Iran, and the threats directed at Latin America – particularly Cuba – are, at the same time, the death knell of the US Empire.
2. NATO has been a war organisation from the very beginning.
It launched its direct military interventions in Bosnia and, by bombing Belgrade, led to the collapse of Yugoslavia. Subsequently, NATO has not hesitated to use its power, either directly or indirectly, in Africa, Western and Central Asia.
3. NATO has positioned itself directly against communism, socialism and anti-imperialist national liberation movements.
In our country, counter-guerrilla and fascist organisations have been shaped under the direct control of the US-CIA and NATO. The footprints of the US and NATO can be seen throughout all these dark chapters – from the 12 March and 12 September military-fascist coups to Susurluk, from Maraş to Sivas, and from massacres to political assassinations.
Even today, a mobilisation is being carried out under US guidance for military strategies targeting Russia, China, Cuba and similar countries, which are viewed as a threat to the Atlantic system. Turkey’s separation from the progressive legacy of the Republic at the hands of the AKP and its transformation into a political Islamist one-man regime, as well as the regime change plan currently being advanced along the ‘strong leadership–monarchy’ axis, are not independent of imperialist policies.
4. The fundamental cause of the war in Ukraine and the fear of war in Eastern Europe is NATO’s failure to fulfil its post-Cold War commitments.
The accession of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to the organisation, followed by the Baltic states, and NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders are the root causes of this process. The ‘NATO 3.0’ concept is also an extension of the new American war policy developed against China, ranging from the encirclement of Russia to the reorganisation of Europe on a new military footing, and from the military build-up in the Asia-Pacific axis to the lines extending into the Middle East.
5. One of the most significant outcomes of this war policy is the increase in military spending worldwide.
Budget deficits are growing. As in the US, social spending is being cut. Ultimately, it is the major arms companies that stand to profit from this process. The allocation of resources to armaments means a reduction in funds that would otherwise be directed towards infrastructure, public services, the green transition, and healthcare and pension expenditure for increasingly ageing populations.
6. Turkey is being driven towards disaster under the AKP, in line with this war doctrine.
The multinational headquarters that NATO is to establish in Adana not only reflects NATO’s intention to expand beyond its actual scope into the Middle East, the Caucasus and North Africa, but also draws Turkey into a new security relationship through the threat of intervention in these regions. The naval command to be established in Istanbul also carries the risk of drawing Turkey into tensions with Black Sea countries and jeopardising the safeguards of the Montreux Straits Convention. Although NATO is presented as a security asset for Turkey, in reality it constitutes one of the most significant threats.
7. Turkey has been converted into a country that allocates enormous resources to armaments.
With military expenditure of 30 billion dollars in 2025, Turkey has become the 18th country in the world to spend the most on armaments. There are over 3,000 defence and aerospace companies in Turkey. A significant proportion of these are engaged in a race to secure a share of defence contracts through close ties to the government.
8. Donald Trump is insisting that NATO member states allocate 5 per cent of their GDP to defence, i.e. military spending.
Whilst NATO member states in Europe have committed to increasing their defence spending to a certain extent, they are reluctant to increase the number of troops they would deploy to the front line. They are attempting to shift this burden onto Turkey, as if to confirm George Soros’s earlier remark that ‘Turkey’s best export is its army’.
9. The practice known as ‘geo-economics’ – the seizure or control of natural and economic resources through the use of military force – is gaining ground.
Trump openly admits that he desires Venezuela’s and Iran’s oil, as well as Greenland’s rare earth elements; he states this quite explicitly.
10. Turkey is under the covert occupation of US imperialism and NATO. The most concrete indicator of this is the current one-man regime, which is in a state of complete military, political and economic dependence.
The struggle for a democratic and independent Turkey is a struggle against imperialism and the one-man regime that is its extension. We will unite and intensify this struggle throughout the country.
