Even one vote would have meant something
31.03.2023
KEMAL OKUYAN
Turkey and Greece became a member of NATO on the same date, February 18, 1952. Allegedly, democracy would flourish in both countries, freedoms would be secured and peace would be established in the Aegean.
After NATO membership, political murders, widespread torture, mass arrests, coups, coups d’états and fascism never stopped in the two countries. The two “allies” came to the brink of war several times and actually clashed in Cyprus.
Revolutionaries and communists in Turkey and Greece have always considered it as their duty to stand against NATO. In both countries, the people had been deceived with lies about NATO, and the patriotic revolutionists of both countries were making a great effort to show the true face of NATO and to expose it.
Because NATO was the military alliance of the imperialist world order.
Because NATO was the organization of international monopolies.
Because NATO was hostile to the working people.
Because NATO would carry out coups, plan massacres, occupy countries and wage wars.
NATO was not an insignificant detail, but the very center of the fight for bread, freedom and equality.
Last year, Greece voted for Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO. For a new country to join NATO, all existing members had to approve it.
The Greek parliament gave the green light to NATO expansion. Among those who voted yes there was Syriza, the party of the “handsome leftist” Tsipras. The Communist Party of Greece, which defends the honor of the country and the people at every turn in Greece, of course voted against it and organized protests all over the country.
Then it was the turn of the Turkish Grand National Assembly to approve it. On the evening of March 30, when Finland’s NATO membership was voted on, there were only 276 deputies in the Parliament.
They all voted yes.
AKP, MHP, İYİP; they are the Turkish right… The right is always pro-NATO in this country. They sometimes throw a fit, but at critical moments they do not cause any difficulties.
I look at the speeches made before the vote, and they are a joke.
AKP talked about terrorism again. Yet it is NATO that is the most powerful and dangerous terrorist organization in the world. And they said “welcome” to Finland! With the “pride” of being one of the hosts of this bloody organization for years!
IYIP representative Kamil Erozan, on the other hand, was outspoken. “If we were the applicant today, they would not let us into NATO because of the state of our democracy,” he said. He officially declared NATO as the “notary of democracy”.
The MHP is already known.
As for the Republican People’s Party (CHP)… “We would have liked to see Sweden here,” he expressed his regrets. Sweden should not be offended… In other words, the CHP said “Yes but Not Enough”.
As can be seen, the People and the Nation*, hand in hand, approved NATO’s enlargement.
And then there are those who did not vote.
Those who did not show up undoubtedly have more important things to do. HDP came but did not participate in the vote. They are against all military agreements. Normally they would say no. But Finland had legitimate security concerns and they could not oppose it.
We are asked, “Why do you stand apart, why don’t you ally with the HDP?” Here is one of the reasons. For example, we do not stand side by side with those who do not stand against NATO.
Some may not care about these things, their minds may have become tired from calculating the parliamentary arithmetic and they may have become unable to follow the country and the world.
We do not do that.
We do not give up our struggle against imperialism, our goal of an independent and sovereign country, our defense of secularism and our will to establish an order where the humans do not exploit the humans.
If the NATO vote resulted in 276 yes votes against zero no votes, the patriots of this country have a duty on their shoulders to wipe this shame off.
*ed. note: Referral to the People’s Alliance and Nation Alliance