The CC of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) responded to the visits with military implications by authorities from Greece and Turkey to the Imia/Kardak islets on Aegean Sea.
ICP, 2 February 2017
On 29th of January Turkey’s Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar and some army commanders visited Imia/Kardak Rocks at the Aegean Sea with a military boat. On the following day Greek Minister of Defence Panos Kammenos took a helicopter trip over the same location.
Those uninhabited islets off the Turkish coast that nearly had triggered a war between Turkey and Greece in 1996.
The Communist Parties of Greece and Turkey responds to these attempts which try to resurrect the crisis at the Aegean Sea. Communist Party of Greece (KKE) released a statement calling for a "Common struggle of the workers in Greece and Turkey against bourgeois classes". (See the news on ICP).
Following KKE, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) released a statement responding to the visits with military implications by authorities from Greece and Turkey.
The statement of TKP is as follows:
Aegean Sea will be an arena of fraternity and solidarity under working class rule
The bourgeois politicians of Turkey and Greece are trying to turn the Imia/Kardak Rocks in Aegean see into an international crisis topic between the two countries once more, like they did 21 years ago.
A few days ago, probably as a reprisal to the rejection of a request for the extraction of eight Turkish soldiers who had appealed to the Greek government for asylum after the 15 July coup attempt, Turkey’s Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar and army commanders visited Imia/Kardak Rocks with a military boat. Right after that, Greek Minister of Defense Panos Kammenos visited Imia/Kardak by air.
We know that the bourgeoisie of both countries try to take the attention of working people to Turkish/Greek tension and provoke issues whenever they have hard time within their countries. In addition, the bourgeoisie of both countries cultivate expansionist tendencies when appropriate. The membership of Turkey and Greece to NATO and their relation to the tactics of imperialism over the Aegean Sea do not pose an obstacle against those nationalist provocation.
However, the working class of Turkey and Greece is determined to fail this game and turn the Aegean Sea into a fraternity and collaboration sea by cleansing it from imperialist powers under socialist rule.
Central Committee
Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)