The General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL Andros Kyprianou sent a letter to the First Secretary of the C.C. of the Communist Party of Turkey, Kemal Okuyan on the occasion of the 12th Congress of CPT held on 27-28th May in Istanbul. The main part of the letter follows below.
“AKEL sends a warm comradely greeting to the leadership and members of the Communist Party of Turkey and wishes every success in the deliberations of its 12th Congress. We salute the heroic struggle of Turkish Communists who, in adverse conditions, are struggling for democratic freedoms and human rights, the rights of the working people of Turkey, for peace and socialism.
The CPT’s 12th Congress is convening in an extremely complex international environment determined by the global capitalist crisis, hotbeds of conflicts in various corners of the world, the intensification of geopolitical and energy conflicts in the world and the upsurge in imperialist aggression in the Eastern Mediterranean. At the same time, the CPT is confronted with the Erdogan government which, on the one hand, is escalating its authoritarianism and oppression of the labour movement and progressive forces of your country while, on the other hand, it is mounting its aggression against neighbouring Syria and Iraq. This is why we are looking forward with great interest to the results of your Congress, which, we are sure, will make the CPT stronger.
We know that nothing separates the peoples of our countries; that the enemy of our peoples – as well of the two communities of Cyprus – is imperialism, NATO and nationalism-chauvinism, which also provoked the Cyprus problem. AKEL fully appreciates the consistent solidarity of the CPT towards our struggle against the 43-year-old occupation of our country by the Turkish army that is keeping our island and people divided.
Turkey’s insistence on sovereign rights over our island and the doctrine that there are “two peoples” and two “sovereign states” on the island are the main reason why the Cyprus problem remains unresolved.
Particularly worrying is Turkey’s attempt at the economic integration and cultural absorption of the Turkish Cypriot community, as well as the continued colonialization of the occupied territories of the northern part of our island.
In addition, the recent threats and provocations inside the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus pose serious dangers to security and peace.
These facts render an agreed solution to the Cyprus problem imperative; a solution which will provide for the termination of the Turkish occupation, the abolition of foreign guarantees, the demilitarization of Cyprus and the reunification of our island and people through the transformation of the Republic of Cyprus into a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with a single sovereignty, a single citizenship, a single international personality, as well as political equality of the two communities, as defined in the relevant UN resolutions.
For AKEL, the prevention of partition, the liberation and reunification of Cyprus and its people are a prerequisite for the struggle of the entire working class and working people of Cyprus for a peaceful and socialist future. The solidarity of the international communist movement in this struggle is invaluable.
AKEL seeks to maintain and strengthen our relations both at a bilateral level and at the level of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties. We believe that the joint action of the CP’s and strengthening of the international anti-imperialist organizations (WFDY, WIDF, WPC, and WFTU) is both feasible and imperative in the current international context. Resistance to the plans to divide Syria, solidarity with the peoples of struggling Palestine and socialist Cuba, the struggle for the de-nuclearization of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, the confrontation with anti-communism, historical revisionism, and the fascism-communism equation are only some of the areas for joint action on the part of the Communist and Workers Parties of the world.
The 100th anniversary of the October Revolution finds the peoples of the world in the barbarity of capitalism which generates crises, wars, the threat to the environment, refugees and fascism. Socialism was and remains necessary and timely. It is the only way out for humanity and peoples. With the momentum of the History of the world revolutionary movement, with the ideology of Marxism-Leninism and Internationalism as our weapon, with faith in the socialist tomorrow of the world, we continue the struggle to “make darkness into light”.
With these thoughts, we greet the 12th Congress of the CPT and through you we send a message of struggle, solidarity, peace and friendship to the working people of Turkey.
Long live the friendship between AKEL-CPT.
Long live peace and socialism.”