Contribution of the Communist Party of Turkey

Peace will only come with the struggle of the working masses

In his opening speech of the Munich Security Conference, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has s that the world's rules-based order no longer existed. This is a fact that is being emphasised by different centres of the capitalist world. The order that prevailed from after the Second World War until the demise of the Soviet Union was based on a correlation of imperialist powers and the actual existing socialist system. After the demise the so-called rules were defıned by the capitalists, but the old order of countries were mostly maintained. Now we are entering another phase, in which  this order is being demolished by imperialism itself and the rules are being redefined. Today, the so-called international law is far from protecting the world from future calamities as long as the active struggle of the working class does not force bourgeois leaders to rely on it.

As we witness in the Middle East, imperialism intends to blur or obscure borders, weaken state structures and create transformed states in place of nation states. These new type of states will be much more amorphous and fragile, so that they will be much more easily manipulated by international capital. Imperialists do not want stability or peace. What they want is to deepen the problems and to maintain them at a managable point.

Apparently, the economic and political rivalry between the United States and China will be the determinant for a possible general war in the near future. The lack of a real alternative political pole, as the former Warsaw Pact represented in the former century, today strengthens the possibility of the mobilisation of nuclear weapons in such a global carnage between imperialist powers. In the second half of the twentieth century, the international balance of powers between socialism and capitalism led to a considerable legal statute, which has been eroding since.

There are still doubts about whether 2026 will be the year the war in Ukraine ends. In its fourth year, the war in Ukraine has been the perfect place for the bourgeois governments destocking old military equipment and testing new warfare technologies, benefitted by all the sides included in the war. Several EU states also deeply benefited from the slaughter of more than half a million people, according to some estimates, to militarise their countries. While the rapidly growing demand for military preparations stimulated many economic sectors, the discourse of “security” helped many governments divert or suppress popular demands. On energy and trade, many EU politicians readily compromised on the needs of their own people. Meanwhile, some bourgeois governments, like the one in Ankara, tried to find a grey line that would help them negotiate between Russia and NATO forces, not for the supreme idea of peace but for the agenda of their own bourgeoisie.

In Palestine, it is probable that the implementation of the so-called Trump plan triggers other wars instead of bringing a lasting peace to Gaza. The future of the already-fragile ceasefire, which is not respected at all by the Israeli forces, is tied to critical political questions, such as possible armed conflicts within Lebanon and Syria, the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, and the short-term agendas of corrupt and warmongering politicians. In a context of uncertainty, diplomats are more interested in unfeasible million-dollar projects than in the urgent needs of the peoples.

The so-called Peace Plan for Gaza is nothing but a plan for the exploitation of the Palestinian land. It is a first step for the creation of free zones in which imperialist forces will have absolute authority and establish a system, in which labour will be cheap; which is something imperialism is yearning for. The so-called Board of Peace will be the authority that will implement this policy, against the will of the Palestinian people.

In Turkey, the term “peace” nowadays refers to the disclosed negotiations between Erdoğan’s coalition and the Kurdish nationalist movement, which they named “the process of peace and brotherhood for a Turkey free of terrorism.” Lacking any deliberate political programme until now, the process is born into a context where the actors in the Middle East have been dragged into the Israeli-US plan against their other political rivals, especially Iran and the former Syrian regime.

Although the Kurdish issue must be confronted within the broader struggle against exploitation and imperialism, in the name of equality, secularism, independence, and the defense of the Republic; what is happening is exactly the opposite. Nothing good can come from the merger of Kurdish elites—who rose from tribal chieftaincies into ownership of powerful conglomerates—with Turkish capitalists who plunder the country! Today’s process—designed around the needs of the capitalist class, shaped in interaction with regional maneuvers driven by the US, the UK, and Israel, and guided by a fundamentally reactionary outlook—cannot produce a healthy outcome, no matter its course. 

As the revolutionary vanguard of the working class of Turkey, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) is putting forward basic demands in order to achieve peace and real security of the working people. In this regard, TKP has always demanded Turkey’s immediate exit from NATO. Communists in Turkey are organising petition campaigns and days-long marches against NATO bases in Turkey, raising alarms regarding the presence of nuclear weapons in US military bases within the country, and carrying out demonstrations protesting imperialist aggressions targeting peoples around the world. TKP is criticising the growing direct or indirect involvement of Turkey in armed conflicts in the greater region including Syria, North Africa, Sudan, Somalia, Caucasia, and Ukraine. The Turkish drones flying over bloody battlefields or Turkish armies positioned outside the borders of Turkey may represent the interests of the bourgeoisie but they all risk the security of the working class of Turkey. TKP opposes imperialist aggressions as well as imperialist peace plans since genuine peace can be delivered among governments representing the working class of their countries.

Everyone claims to desire peace. But there are always those who profit from war. Enormous corporations that reap vast fortunes from production and trade of arms inevitably seek more conflict and greater tension. As the barbaric capitalism system generates crises and fuels competition, the frictions between countries sharpen. Capitalist states, hungry for a larger share of resources at both regional and international levels, resort to armed force under one pretext or another. Nationalist passions and religious beliefs are exploited to drive poor people into killing other poor people of different nations—while the real victors are once again the capitalists. Governments cornered at home may also turn to war as a tool of political survival. In short, the word “peace” in the mouths of those who rob, oppress, and trample on justice—those who think not of society or country but only of their own gain—cannot be taken seriously.

Bourgeois politicians may present their country's involvement in warfare as a crucial stage that transcends party politics. But their effort relies on an old lie that conceals the sacrifice of the proletarian masses for the interests of capitalists. No war can be separated from class struggles. The ongoing slaughters today all confirm this truth.