Contribution of Communist Party of Turkey

TKP’s Contribution to the ECA Teleconference "On the struggle of the communists against the EU, its war economy and the involvement of bourgeois governments in imperialist wars"

16th February 2025

Dear comrades,

We have gathered today to discuss our priorities and tasks in the struggle against the European Union at a time of growing discussion on war in international politics. As we know, almost all the parties that are part of the European Communist Action are fighting in the member states of this imperialist union. It is clear that there will be differences in the priorities of this struggle depending on the membership status of the countries that we struggle in. Besides, these differences stem not only from this status, but also from the position of each individual country within the union.

Turkey's unique situation in this respect does not change the fact that the struggle against the EU is one of the priorities for the TKP.

There is a very basic strategic reason for this: Despite the room for manoeuvre that the government in Turkey maintains in foreign policy, unless a socialist revolution takes place in Turkey, there is no possibility for Turkish capitalism to structurally break away from the US-NATO-EU axis.

Nevertheless, current necessities of the struggle against EU deserve an up-to-date review, not only in terms of the priorities of the struggle for socialist revolution in our own country, but also in terms of where the world is drifting and the role of the main imperialist European countries and the European Union as a whole as a driving force of this drifting.

In the light of the current developments and the tendencies within the imperialist system, we make the following assessments:

1. During this meeting in the third year of the war in Ukraine, the agreement between the USA and Russia to end the war is on the agenda. Of course, we are not in a position to oppose the ending of an imperialist war that lacks a reason for the working peoples to fight in line with their own historical and actual interests. But the end of this war in the centre of Europe does not herald a period of peace for the peoples in Russia, in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world. As in the imperialist war, so in the imperialist peace, no prosperous period awaits the peoples of the two countries and the world.

2. The rhetoric of war is increasingly characterising European and world politics. All actors in the imperialist system are preparing for a greater war. NATO is pressuring its member states to increase their defence spending to 5%. The EU is giving messages of rapid armament. Leaflets on preparing for war are being distributed to the people in several EU member states.

3. It is not yet possible to draw definite conclusions as to whether the regional conflicts and wars going on in different parts of the world will be carried to another stage and whether the world will once again experience a general war in the well known meaning. However, the level of contradictions and tensions within the imperialist system calls for a new world war. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the hegemony gap that emerged in a very wide territory was filled with a process determined by the USA and based on the reconciliation of different actors within the imperialist system. But the crisis of hegemony within the imperialist system has already dislodged this ‘consensus’ ground. And as the competition for dominance over natural resources, trade routes and energy lines is combined with this hegemony crisis, the result is that the world system needs a new war. Ironically, the only reason why this war has not yet started is the deterrence of nuclear weapons.

4. The myth that the European Union, as an imperialist project, would serve to counterbalance the unrestrained power of the USA and lead to a more peaceful world was shattered long ago. Since then, our world has witnessed numerous US and NATO-led invasions and invasion attempts, changes in the border, overthrown of governments through imperialist interventions. Now, in the second Trump era, which is more than a ‘road accident’ for US capitalism, the European Union is experiencing the results of the opposite case; namely, of being a direct extension of the Atlantic alliance. In spite of the different approaches within the EU towards the war in Ukraine, many
European states have been investing on this war for a long time. And the shift in the US focus on the primary areas of competition contradicts the interests of the European Union and seems to bring new burdens on it. In the context of our struggle, this tension between the US and the EU should be evaluated in terms of opening a door for new opportunities for the working class movement.

5. The EU's “security” concept, which is largely based on the ‘Russian threat’, is an issue that needs to be evaluated by communists, as well. What threatens the security of peoples of Europe today is not the lack of a ‘strong’ leadership, the weakening of the EU's internal cohesion, or the abandonment by the US in the Ukrainian battlefield, but the imperialist system and the policies of the bourgeois governments themselves. Asking and answering the question ‘from whom the real security threat to the people comes and how to protect against it’ by the communists will play an important role in exposing the hypocritical policies of the bourgeois governments. There is a need to strengthen a class perspective in that regard so that the masses do not line up behind the security policies of bourgeois governments. Because discussing the security of the country with a non-class analysis will eventually mean support for the bourgeois governments.

6. It is inevitable that such an increasing emphasis on the concept of “security” in the bourgeois sense, which is a consequence of intra-imperialist system conflict and the uncertainty brought about by the crisis of hegemony, will lead to increased repression and control within each country Examples of this have already begun to erode another myth, the myth of “Western democracies”.

The conditions are more favourable than ever to make the legitimacy of the European Union be questioned, where the member states are warmongering, allocating budgets for armaments rather than basic rights and services, and trying to achieve consolidation of its power by relying on the “security threat”.

7. Although not directly related to our topic today, we would like to underline one of the possible consequences of these the current tendencies within the US-NATO-EU axis. US' prioritisation of competition with China in the international arena and increasing aggression towards it may lead to some illusions in the ranks of the working class movement and to exaggerated and incorrect assessments regarding the character and the position of China. Preventing this illusion with our ideological and political interventions stands before us as another related task in the coming period.

8. The threat of war has gained a different dimension for Turkey with the developments in Palestine, Syria and the rest of the region. We should underline the direct role of European countries besides the US in this picture. The government in Syria fell as a result of an imperialist agreement. The parties of this agreement were the US, Israel and Turkey, as well as the UK primarily and France with a smaller role. Other European countries, especially Germany, have also quickly stepped in to grab a share of this division. European countries have a place in the developments in our region that concern not only the foreign policy but also the inside of Turkey for more than one reason, especially in terms of the the Kurdish question and the future of the jihadist army raised and equipped by Turkey, and this situation requires the TKP to more closely monitor the roles and areas of influence of Britain, France, Germany and others and to bring this to the consciousness of the working people.

9. In this respect, a dual task awaits the TKP in the coming period. We will continue to strengthen the anti-imperialist struggle against the US-NATO-EU and working class patriotism in order not to allow the imperialist plans, of which Turkey is a part, to make Turkey open to imperialist intervention. On the other hand, we will combine our political and ethical stance against the Neo-Ottomanist policies, which are the expression of the growing imperial ambitions and regional claims of Turkish capitalism, with our struggle to overthrow capitalism.

May we all have success in the similar several multidimensional struggle full of new opportunities that ahead of us comrades.