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Emek Party Calls for Anti-NATO Summit Struggle at "Three Saplings" Commemoration

Emek Party Calls for Anti-NATO Summit Struggle at "Three Saplings" Commemoration

From Cumhuriyet · (10h ago) Turkish Critical tone

Translated from Turkish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • The Emek Party (EMEP) organized an event in Izmir to commemorate "Three Saplings" (Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan, and Hüseyin İnan), calling for resistance against the upcoming NATO summit in Turkey.
  • EMEP Chairman Seyit Aslan criticized the government for hosting the summit and spending public funds on infrastructure for "imperialist" forces.
  • Aslan urged a struggle against NATO, emphasizing its role as a war organization, and called for the release of political prisoners and the return of elected officials to their posts.

In a powerful display of dissent, the Emek Party (EMEP) in Izmir has organized a commemoration event for the "Three Saplings" – iconic figures of Turkey's revolutionary past – using the occasion to galvanize opposition against the upcoming NATO summit. EMEP Chairman Seyit Aslan drew a stark parallel between the historical resistance against the U.S. Sixth Fleet and the current government's perceived subservience to imperialist powers.

The collaborators in Turkey today are competing to host American soldiers and imperialist forces in Turkey.

— Seyit AslanEMEP Chairman, criticizing the government's stance on hosting the NATO summit.

Aslan vehemently criticized the Turkish government's preparations for the NATO summit, accusing it of prioritizing the needs of "imperialist barbarians" over the welfare of its own citizens. He highlighted the significant public expenditure on new airports and roads to accommodate NATO forces, framing it as a betrayal of the labor and resources of Turkish workers and farmers. The party's message is clear: Turkey should not be a venue for war planning, and its resources should not be diverted to serve foreign military interests.

We need to explain to the public what NATO is.

— Seyit AslanEMEP Chairman, emphasizing the need to raise awareness about NATO's role.

The EMEP's call extends beyond mere protest; it is a demand for fundamental change. Aslan urged the public to understand NATO's true nature as a "war organization" and to actively resist its presence in Turkey. Furthermore, the party reiterated its solidarity with striking workers and called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including prominent Kurdish leaders like Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, and the reinstatement of democratically elected officials. The EMEP positions itself as a vanguard against what it terms the "palace regime," advocating for a broader struggle to dismantle it and establish a society based on peace, equality, and democracy.

We are against the spending of the hard-earned money of the workers and laborers on war.

— Seyit AslanEMEP Chairman, protesting increased military spending.
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Originally published by Cumhuriyet in Turkish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.