Hunger strike of Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis 11-18/3: Solidarity with political prisoners in Greece and Turkey
On the 13th of March, Mitsotakis will meet Erdogan. The Mitsotakis government, exactly 2 years ago, on the 19th of March, imprisoned 11 revolutionaries from Turkey as a trade-off for closing the turkish borders to migrants. The 11 fighters were convicted by a greek court solely on the basis of the european list on «terrorism», to a total of 333 years in prison. In the last meeting of Tsipras with Erdogan, on the 4th of December 2017, the greek government gave as a gift to the turkish fascist regime the imprisonment of 9 fighters who were tortured during their arrest and who were released 18 months later. The greek and turkish state are good collaborators against people’s revolutionary struggle. The greek and turkish state are partners on the first line of NATO’s imperialism. Turkish military rule is the cutting edge of NATO terrorism in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In this context it represents the intermediate patron of jihadist fascism. The colonial activity of turkish fascism in Iraq and Syria mediates for the imperialist policy of the USA and for the counter-revolutionary collaboration of all imperialist powers. The invasion of turkish fascism in Afrin, which imposed an ethnic cleansing occupation, with murders, abductions and rapes, was carried out with the blessings of the greek «ecumenical» patriarch. In the mountains of the Iraqi Kurdistan since the beginnings of 2021, the turkish army is deploying chemical weapons in its desperate attempt to uproot the bases of the Kurdish guerrilla struggle. But its NATO allies, who, every time they want to invade a territory and to change the regime they wave the flag of «democracy» and «discover» chemical and nuclear weapons, pretend not to see, and continue to arm fascism and to persecute and imprison fighters.
The greek state is an outpost of the NATO military rule in the east border region of european capitalism. The domination of american military rule and of central european capital in the greek territory is deepening year by year. But the collaboration of the greek and turkish state in the NATO counter-revolution is neither temporary nor unprecedented. In 1998, the greek government delivered Abdullah Ocalan to turkish and american agents, following NATO’s mobilization against Syria. The leader of the Kurdish Movement for Freedom has been in isolation prison ever since, while other Kurdish and Turkish revolutionaries have a price over their heads by the US State Department. In the prisons of the turkish regime today, hunger strikes are taking place, one after another, against the years-long isolation, the murderous incarceration of seriously ill political prisoners without medical treatment and the show trials without right to defense. But the greek state continues to hold Turkish and Kurdish fighters hostage.
On the 13th of March, the heads of the greek and turkish bourgeoisie will meet to haggle on their shares from the profits of the imperialist, monopolist exploitation of energy resources and flows in the east Mediterranean. They have just taken an active lead in the NATO participation in the war for ukrainian territories. On the same day, greek and turkish nationalism will be shouting about the «enemy turk» and the «enemy greek».
Greeks, Turks and migrant exploited peoples, there is nothing to divide us. We will not fight for the bosses.
Let’s construct a common revolutionary front on both sides of the greek-turkish borders.
Let’s blockade the war antagonism and nationalism.
Let’s make the greek-turkish region unwelcoming for NATO military rule.
Let’s overthrow their common counter-revolutionary policy.
Let’s support revolutionary struggle in the turkish region.
Let’s defend the greek territory as a place of hospitality and friendship with the persecuted Kurdish peoples, the persecuted turkish revolutionary movement and the uprooted migrants.
Freedom to the 11 fighters from Turkey who are held hostage by the greek state
Against the trade games of the bosses, common struggle of the people.
We do not forget that in a similar meeting as the one that will take place on the 13th of March, the last greek government attacked the turkish movement.
We do not forget Muhammad Gulzar from Pakistan and Muhammad al Arab from Syria, who were shot and killed by greek cops in Evros on the 4th of March 2020, in the counter-revolutionary and anti-migration dealings between the guards of the imperialist border region with the support of the european union.
Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis
11th of March 2022
Via Athens Indymedia