While a de facto state of emergency continues in the capital city of Turkey due to the upcoming NATO summit, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) marched to Kızılay Square, centre of Ankara, with the slogan “Down with imperialism, down with NATO!”
Last month, Turkey entered a new phase in the talks between the government and the PKK: the government calls this “Terror-Free Turkey”, while most people simply call it the new “peace process”. The parliament passed a “framework law” that grants partial amnesty to members of the Kurdish armed movement. The government provided little public information about either the drafting of the law or its contents before pushing it through the parliament, prompting controversy. Soon afterwards, another story hit the headlines: leaked transcripts purportedly from various meetings involving Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK leader who remains in prison on İmralı Island.
The publication of the transcripts unsettled the parties to a process they had kept out of the public eye from the outset, and Abdullah Ă–calan himself eventually denied their authenticity. Even so, when we look at everything that has reached the press so far, along with public statements and the policies now taking shape, the ideas set out in those transcripts bore a striking resemblance to the increasingly clear direction and ideological framework of the process itself.
In this article, which was published in the September issue of TKP’s monthly journal Ortaklaşa, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) Kemal Okuyan examines the political alignments and debates emerging around the process. He also returns to its now largely clear ideological and political substance, what it means for Turkey’s future, and the position and struggle of communists in relation to it.
As Communist Party of Turkey's (TKP) members and friends came together across the country to mark the Party’s 106th anniversary, major events were held in Ankara, İzmir and İstanbul.
AKEL of Cyprus is marking the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of Cyprus (CPC) with an extensive programme of political, cultural, historical and educational activities. The CPC was founded on 15 August 1926, while AKEL itself was established in April 1941 as its legal successor. AKEL describes the centenary as a milestone marking the beginning of the party’s second century of activity.
KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoubas called for a strengthening of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and a “popular counterattack” against the policies of the New Democracy government, capitalism, the EU and NATO.
The following article entitled "What needs to be done now?" and written by Patrick Köbele, leader of the German Communist Party was published in Unzere Zeit, the organ of the Party.
AKEL stated that it supports the protest organized by the Cyprus Peace Council and other anti-war organizations on the occasion of the visit of the President of Israel Herzog's to Cyprus, following the invitation of President Christodoulides.