of EEDYE, the Peace Association of Turkey and the Cyprus Peace Council

Mytilini, Lesbos/Greece 22 May 2010

The Peace Committees of our countries address militant greetings and an anti-imperialist message of friendship and solidarity to the peoples of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus as well as of all the Balkans from Mytilini, where we have met within the framework of the event held by the Peace Committee of Lesbos on 22 May 2010 in order to strengthen our peoples’ struggle against NATO’s imperialist plans for the broader region, an event which is included in EEDYE’s campaign against the deployment of Greek troops abroad and in the WPC’s campaign against NATO.          We also salute the militant mobilizations of the working people of Greece and all of Europe against the offensive mounted by capital, the EU and the IMF, which is undermining the working people’s future.

                Together we note that we are living through a period marked by the intensity of imperialist aggressiveness, a flare-up in local wars and the utter violation of the principles and rules of international law established after the peoples’ victory over fascism, with the decisive presence of the Socialist countries.

                After the war in Yugoslavia and with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, NATO, in its role as world policeman, is escalating its operations all over the planet, adopting a plan on “Allied Security in the 21^st Century” and thus leading to the creation of a literally explosive arena which is a threat to the entire world. Within this context and despite the peoples’ opposition and protests, the governments of NATO member countries are preparing to approve NATO’s new doctrine in November 2010 in Portugal, a doctrine which constitutes the most aggressive one ever known to mankind. If this course of events is not reversed, new sizeable crises are bound to break out, accompanied by fresh interventions and wars, more widespread and intense.

                In view of this, we condemn the constantly increasing manipulation of the UN by NATO and the imperialists, who circumvent the principles of the Founding Charter of the UN, which often appears to be two-faced and to have double standards.

                In our region intra-imperialist rivalries and the differences between many states and large monopoly interests are strongly manifested, and thus we consider that the developments harbor huge dangers. The situation in our neighborhood is made more dangerous by the continued presence of NATO and the European Army, by the acceleration of plans to bring the entire Aegean under NATO and make the partitioning of Cyprus definitive, perpetuating the Turkish occupation of the island.

                Imperialism has been showing renewed “interest” in our region, carrying out various types of intervention. The reasons for this interest are both geostrategic and economic. What is being sought is for settlements regarding the Aegean to facilitate NATO’s smooth operation through the establishment of a regime of “Greek-Turkish joint administration” to the detriment of peace and security in the region, and of the interests of the peoples of Greece and Turkey. The objective is for the plans of imperialist General Staff Commands to proceed faster with the “missile defense shield”, to penetrate the broader region and control the oil routes and any possible oil fields in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, to serve imperialist wars and interventions in Afghanistan , the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and elsewhere. For this reason, the imperialists of USA, NATO and EU have recently been intensifying procedures to expand Euro-Atlantic imperialist structures and to accelerate the settling of all issues between Greece and Turkey and in the Aegean, with NATO controlling it completely. This attempt finds strong support from both the Greek and Turkish governments. Erdogan’s recent visit to Athens following Papandreou’s corresponding visit to Istanbul served precisely this objective.

                Our movements’ position remains steadfastly in favor of the peaceful settlement of differences between Greece and Turkey, aspiring for peace, friendship and cooperation between our peoples. We are fighting steadily and unwaveringly against NATO’s plans and every type of joint administration and NATO control over the Aegean, for our countries to leave NATO and to get rid of foreign bases. We do not accept the plans for the “missile defense shield” or any commitments made by our countries to NATO, the USA and the EU as regards Greek-Turkish relations, the Aegean, the Cyprus issue and the broader region of the Balkans.

                We condemn the continued Turkish occupation of part of Cyprus. We express our strong support for and solidarity with the people of Cyprus (Greek-Cypriots and Turkish – Cypriots) and their struggle against the occupation of 37% of the island for the past 36 years as a result of imperialist NATO plans, which led to the coup d’état, engineered by the junta in Athens, and the Turkish invasion in 1974.

                We support the direct negotiations between the two communities for a solution and the reunification of Cyprus and its people. We unreservedly support the effort for a solution based on a bi-zonal, bi-communal Federation with political equality, as provided for in the UN Resolutions on Cyprus, in the High level Agreements reached between the two Communities (1977 and 1979) and in the principles of international law. This would be a solution that would establish one indivisible sovereignty, a single citizenship, a single international entity, with all human rights and basic liberties ensured for all Cypriots. We stress the need for the solution to the Cyprus issue to stem from and be based on the will of the entire Cypriot people. The peace-loving and anti-imperialist forces of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus will do their part to create a “culture of common struggle” between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots and to reinforce the common struggle to make Cyprus a country without foreign bases, independent, united and demilitarized.

                We are fighting against border changes and for the withdrawal of foreign troops, the European Army and NATO from the Balkans. We say “NO” to new US bases and nuclear weapons in the Balkans. We demand the return of all our countries’ troops who are taking part in military missions in other countries. We say “NO” to a mercenary army and to outsized military spending.

                We are standing against the all-out offensive of imperialism with our common action for a mighty anti-imperialist, internationalist movement in our countries, in the Balkans and the southeastern Mediterranean Sea, action that will oppose imperialism and be vanguard in the consolidation of friendship, solidarity and cooperation with all peoples and within the framework of the WPC’s anti-imperialist action.