Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) organized a panel discussion on the issue of Palestine in Ankara<\/b><\/p>\n
The opening speech of the panel discussion, which was held in Ankara on December 4, was delivered by TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Okuyan started his speech by saluting the Palestinian resistance and said, “The Palestinian issue is not a religious issue or a conflict between two religions. Contrary to popular belief, the Palestinian issue is not a war of civilizations or a kind of national conflict. Yes, it has a national reflection, yes there is a religious confrontation in the field, but for communists, for Marxists, it is a class issue.<\/p>\n We cannot be enemies to an ethnic group, a people. We do not ignore the contributions of Jews to science and humanity. But today being Jewish has turned into a weapon for capital. There are Palestinian rich. There is also the Palestinian bourgeoisie. They live in other countries. But when you look at Gaza and Palestine today, you see the laborers resisting. We can say that the Gazans, who are working like slaves in Israel, are resisting.<\/p>\n In the final analysis, the state of Israel is a state that has been driven into the Middle East like a stake against national uprisings and socialist movements. Jews may have suffered a lot in the past. But today Israel is on a mission to carry out the operations of the imperialists in the Middle East. Moreover, Israel’s operations are not limited to the Middle East. Today, it has its fingers in many parts of the world, from Cyprus to the Caucasus. It is a state backed by the international rich.<\/p>\n So how did Hamas emerge today? Or how did the organizations resisting in the Middle East suddenly rely on Islamist identities? There is no vacuum in politics. Over time, there would have been many reactions to the problems of the people living in Palestine. But many mistakes were also made in history. Palestinian progressive, secular organizations were involved in corruption. They made some mistakes against Israel and were ineffective.”<\/p>\n Okuyan stated that TKP was the first in the left in Turkey to declare its support for Palestine without engaging in debates and polemics about Hamas or religious organizations, and that TKP’s stance cleared up confusion on the left.<\/p>\n Okuyan spoke on the subject as follows:<\/p>\n “Communists gave a good test in the world. The Communist Party of Israel did not hesitate at all. It said, ‘The source of the problem is the Netanyahu government’. Or the communists in Palestine did not say, ‘This resistance belongs to Hamas, it is none of our business’. The Lebanese Communist Party passed a similar test.\u201d<\/p>\n