p Dear Comrades,

p In the first place, allow me, in the name of all Turkish Communists, warmly to greet the representatives of the fraternal Parties taking part in our Meeting.

p It was with tremendous interest that we listened to the historic speech of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Comrade Brezhnev. This speech contains a Marxist-Leninist analysis of the international situation that has necessitated the convening of the Meeting, and elucidates ways of strengthening our unity in the anti-imperialist struggle. We fully and wholly support the views stated in this speech, which is of exceptional importance for our movement.

p The world events since the meetings of 1957 and 1960 have fully borne out the propositions of the Moscow Declaration and Statement. Our Party will continue to guide itself by the fundamental principles of these documents.

p These events have proved beyond doubt that as long as imperialism exists there remains the danger of a world war. But they have shown also that in our epoch the imperialist war plans can be foiled and war averted. On more than one occasion have we witnessed the imperialists’ attempts to plunge mankind into the abyss of a world war, but each time they have been stalled on the brink.

p Imperialism is doomed by history, but it is exerting every effort to prolong its existence. Its aggressiveness increases as the anti-imperialist forces develop. But there are factors that prevent the unleashing of a world war by imperialism— growth of the forces opposing it; the increasing economic, political and military might of the socialist world system and in the first place the Soviet Union; the mounting struggle of the international working class; the spread of the national liberation movements and, last but not least, the unshakable adherence of the socialist states to the policy of peaceful coexistence.

p Compelled to abandon the idea of unleashing a world war, the imperialists continue, however, to threaten world peace by kindling local wars, pursuing a policy of aggression, armaments race and systematic war preparations. Realising that unity of the forces opposing it is its invincible enemy, it employs all. means to weaken this unity, to exploit and deepen the disagreements existing in various contingents of the world revolutionary movement.

p Constantly inciting anti-Sovietism and anti-communism, the imperialists are trying hard to isolate Turkey and its people from their great neighbour, the Soviet Union, and the other socialist states, and set our country in opposition to them. But facts expose the mendacity of this policy. The brutal war started by the US imperialists in Vietnam has revealed their real aims, it has demonstrated the imperialists’ aggressive predatory intentions in respect to our country as well. All this, and also assistance from the socialist camp and above all the Soviet Union to the peoples fighting for national liberation, and especially the tremendous help to the Vietnamese people in their valiant fight have intensified the movement of Turkish patriots against imperialism, US imperialism in the first place.

p Our people know that the imperialists headed by US imperialism stand behind the Israeli aggression against our Arab neighbours, and that it was US imperialism that started the fire of war that is still smouldering in the Middle East. But again, they also know that the Soviet Union and other socialist countries stand by the Arab peoples defending their land and their national independence. Today the imperialists cannot conceal from our people any longer the aggressive plans of NATO and the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean.

p Turkey belongs to those countries which are at once victims and instruments of imperialist policy. In the last ten years our people have stepped up the fight against imperialism and its local partners in order to end this state of things. The international events of recent years have greatly stimulated the development of this struggle.

p Turkey’s more than 20-year close collaboration with aggressive imperialist powers and particularly the United States, its participation in NATO has deeply arTected the economic, social and political life of the country and negatively influenced all the classes and strata of the people with the exception of a handful of big capitalists and landowners. That is the main cause of the protracted economic, social and political crises in the country. The coup of I960 was one of the consequences of these crises, but it failed to justify the cherished hopes of the people.

p As a result of agreements with the imperialists and so-called aid our country is subjected to exploitation, becoming ruined and losing its economic and political independence. Imperialist monopolies have seized or established control over key positions in the national economy. They restrict the development of the national industry. Our industry and agriculture have no chance against foreign competition. The constantly increasing, military expenditures swallow up the lion’s share of the national income. The burden of continuously growing state indebtedness, especially foreign debts, has become so onerous that not only the present but even the Coming generation will be unable to get rid of it. Taxes have risen to a level where the people cannot pay them in full. Misery has reached unbelievable proportions. The impoverished working people of town and countryside are leaving their homeland for other countries. Unemployment has become a real calamity. Already 750,000 people have applied to the Employment Bureau in the hope of finding jobs in West European countries.

p The brunt of the disastrous situation into which our country has been driven 623 by the policy of armament and war preparation is shouldered by the toiling masses, especially the working class. The cost of living has skyrocketed and continues to rise. The real wages are diminishing.

p All that has furthered growth of the class consciousness of the workers. The few democratic rights won after the 1960 coup enabled them to voice their discontent. The Turkish workers went over to an organised, open and active struggle for greater economic and political rights. The growing scope and intensity of workers’ actions compelled the bourgeoisie, which formerly even denied the existence of a working class, to grant it the right to strike, though limited, and the right to collective bargaining. A legal Workers’ Party was founded. Despite all kinds of pressure and provocation from the reactionary circles, it sent 15 deputies to parliament after the 1965 general election. The working class has come to play an important role in the political and social life of the country. Its struggle has assumed an acute character:

p 1. The strike movement is directed today primarily against the imperialist monopolies, their local collaborators and the US and NATO military establishments in the country. Despite the brutality of the US and Turkish police, the recent strikes of workers employed at NATO installations lasted 47 days and ended victoriously several days ago.

p 2. Workers’ actions against imperialism and reaction are organised in most cases jointly with youth and student organisations and supported by other progressive organisations and the people generally.

p 3. While pressing for their demands during strikes, manifestations and meetings, the workers also often defend the interests of the peasantry, their natural ally. The posters with which they come to meetings and manifestations read: "Land to Peasants!", "Factories to Workers!", "Long Live Independent Turkey!", "Down with Imperialist America!", "Workers, Peasants, Youth, Keep Together!”.

p Aided by US monopolies, the bourgeoisie uses most refined methods to arrest the growth of the workers’ movement. It infiltrates working-class organisations with people with an alien ideology who are given special training in the United States and in Turkey itself and who find a favourable field of activity among the less conscientious strata flowing into the ranks of the working class.

p Besides, taking advantage of disagreements in the world communist movement, there have again appeared police agents, provocateurs and liquidationists— both those who in their time penetrated into the working-class movement but were later exposed and driven out of public and political organisations, and thoee who have never been able to find their way into them. Seizing on the old fable of the Turkish police that the Communist Party’s illegal activity is "high treason", they have stepped up their activities of late, directing them not only against the Communist Party but against other public and political organisations playing .a leading role in the anti-imperialist struggle, and especially against the legal Workers’ Party. But all these elements alien to the working class cannot prevent the growth of the working-class movement and the consolidation of the revolutionary trade unions.

p In recent years the class struggle has been mounting on a mass scale also in 624 the countryside. In some villages landless peasants and farm labourers organise joint marches to cities to demand a land reform. There are cases of peasants jointly tilling land taken from big landowners by force. This has been the cause of frequent clashes between the peasants, on the one hand, and big landowners’ mercenaries and government troops, on the other.

p The energetic actions of the working class have roused the toilers of town and countryside, the petty bourgeoisie, the middle strata, the progressiveminded intelligentsia and the patriotic youth in a struggle for the independence of our country, against imperialism and its local agents, against the foreign military bases in Turkey and the aggressive Atlantic pact organisation. They are playing now the principal role in uniting all these forces in the fight against imperialism and reaction. The intensification of the working-class struggles has imparted a particularly great vigour to the youth movement and enhanced the political activity of students. The most important thing is that the university youth, who are among the front-rank fighters against imperialism, for national independence, democracy and social progress, have realised that they can achieve genuine victory only in close alliance and co-operation with the workingclass movement, and have begun to prove this by deeds.

p Our students are also fighting resolutely against the present backward educational system which conforms with the colonialist designs of the US and West German imperialists. These days police and gendarme units have been conducting bloody reprisals against the students who, backing up their demand for an educational reform, occupied the buildings of all the universities and other higher schools of the country.

p Present-day conditions in Turkey impart a specific character to the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, expressed in the fact that, on the one hand, a part of the national bourgeoisie in some respects sides with the anti-imperialist struggle of the people and on the other, contradictions are growing sharper between the various strata of the bourgeoisie itself: between the petty bourgeoisie which wants to break out of the control of the imperialist monopolies, and the big bourgeoisie which collaborates with them and facilitates the spread of their influence in the country and which has turned Turkey into an instrument of the aggressive policy of the imperialist states.

p This state of things brings the proletariat and the advanced section of the national bourgeoisie together in the fight against the imperialist monopolies and their local partners and stimulates their co-operation in the attainment of certain goals—a factor which our Party has taken into consideration in its slogan for the establishment of-a National Democratic Front against imperialism and reaction. The first steps towards implementing this slogan have been made. Trade unions representing 350,000 people and various public organisations joined forces in the Union of Struggle Against Imperialism set up last year to fight the foreign monopolies, the big capitalists and landowners collaborating with them, and reaction.

p The anti-imperialist movement in our country is assuming increasingly sharper forms. The visit paid to Istanbul last February by the US 6th Fleet triggered off the anger and hatred which our people harboured for US imperialism. The Turkish people, forced to pay dearly for the various US-imposed 625 agreements and military pacts, rose in protest against the visit, of this fleet, a symbol of the people’s suffering. The mass demonstrations of workers and young people, held for several days in all big cities, developed into bloody clashes with fascist detachments and police units. At present mass anti-US manifestations are taking place in Ankara, in the face of police brutalities.

p Seeking to suppress the anti-imperialist movement directed chiefly against US imperialism, circles associated with the United States and NATO are mobilising the most outspoken nationalists and reactionaries and training, in special camps, fascist-type storm troops and commando units which they employ against workers’ and youth organisations. But nothing can stop the struggle of the working class, the progressive youth and other peace-loving forces for the just cause of our people. The advanced sectibn of our people is aware of the grave danger to which Turkey is exposed by being tied to the United States and NATO, by the military bases and depots of atomic warheads on its territory. The imperialist powers’ encroachments on the national independence of Turkey are directly connected with the rule of the big bourgeoisie and landlords in our country.

p On the initiative of the CIA and with direct help from foreign monopolies and big capitalists and landowners, "societies for anti-communist struggle" have been set up almost everywhere in the country. The field of anti-communist activity has expanded, because all anti-imperialist, progressive and peace actions are qualified by the reactionaries as communist. The actions of the anti-communists have assumed an aggressive and ruthless character. Fascist detachments have gone into action.

p But the more conscious masses already see that the imperialists and their local satellites, using the smokescreen of mythical "Soviet menace" and " communist danger", are encroaching upon the independence of Turkey.

p Comrades, we think that those who do not realise the revolutionary character of the peace policy and the principle of peaceful coexistence consistently adhered to by the Soviet Union and other socialist states, would do well to make a thorough study of the present developments in Turkey. This policy has rendered ineffective the propaganda of the aggressive imperialist circles and their Turkish accomplices and considerably reduced the sphere of their influence. It has helped our people to realise the actual state of things in the country, accelerated the development of the working-class, anti-imperialist and democratic movements and intensified their activity. Such is the truth.

p The Turkish Communists know that the prime condition for victory in the struggle against imperialism and reaction launched by our people is unity of all the anti-imperialist forces under the leadership of the working class, and they are doing their utmost, in conditions of clandestinity, to fulfil their historic mission.

p Comrades, one of the main reasons why we vigorously supported, five years ago, the proposal for convening a Meeting and actively joined in its preparation is that the development of the struggle in our country is intrinsically bound up with world developments, and we feel an urgent need for a new common programme of action and for guidance of this action. The Main Document of our Meeting, resulting from a generalisation of the experience of the 626 international anti-imperialist struggle and giving a Marxist-Leninist appraisal of the new social and political phenomena, constitutes such a guide to action and is of exceptional importance to us. We fully approve this Document, all sections of which are organically interconnected, and are ready to sign it.

p We are nearing the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the brilliant leader and teacher of the proletariat of the whole world. The Communist Party of Turkey, loyal to his lofty ideas and principles, regards it as its duty of honour to mark this great date and is preparing for it jointly with all the fraternal Parties.

p Comrades, at a time when the imperialist circles, bent on weakening their chief adversary, the socialist system, are taking recourse to all kinds of subversion, trying to suppress the international communist and working-class movement, stepping up activities against the independence of the peoples and intensifying the arms race and war preparations, Mao and his clique have redoubled their efforts to split the socialist system, the communist movement and the movements for national liberation—all that in pursuance of what are essentially the same aims as those of the imperialists. They have intensified the campaign of lies and slander against the Party of Lenin, the fraternal Parties that share the Leninist principles, and the world communist movement. More, they have committed an armed attack on the world’s first socialist state, the Soviet Union. There is no need to look for more glaring examples of sewice to imperialism,

p T-hose who now hold the destiny of China in their hands have turned the GPC jiito an instrument of military dictatorship against Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, an instrument of pressure on the working class. The present CPC leaders’ unbridled striving for hegemony is leading them to a policy of great-power chauvinism. Abandoning the construction of socialism in China, for which the Chinese people have fought for many years, they have adopted the slogan of the German nazis, "guns instead of butter", rewordiag it in a Chinese manner: "to thoroughly prepare for war and hunger”.

p Maoism is synonymous with anti-Sovietism, factionalism in the communist movement, and militarism.

p However, despite all the provocations of the Maoists, we trust in the common sense of the great Chinese people. We believe that the Chinese Communists will sooner or later find a possibility to return to the correct road indicated by Marx and Lenin, and will occupy a worthy place in the world communist movement.

Long live the unity of the world communist movement!