Category: EEDYE: Greek Committee for International Peace and Detente
Despotic and despicable decision by the SYRIZA government forbids demonstrations during Obama visit in Athens!

Monday, November 14, 2016

Despotic and despicable decision by the SYRIZA government forbids demonstrations during Obama visit in Athens!

https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2016/11/despotic-and-despicable-decision-by.html
With a despicable decision which reminds authoritarian establishments, the Greek Police have banned demonstrations in Athens on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of security preparations for a visit to the Greek capital by outgoing US President Barack Obama. 
The despotic decision by the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government was slammed by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) which issued the following statement / Source: 902.gr, Translation: In Defense of Communism.
 
“With a despicable and despotic decision by the Police, the SYRIZA-ANEL government essentialy forbids any demonstration against the visit of the U.S. President Barack Obama, thus following the policy of the previous New Democracy-PASOK governments which SYRIZA, being in the opposition then, was denouncing.
Once more it is proved that the slogans about “democracy” are empty, when the governments implement reactionary, antipeople policies, either they concern the labour-popular rights or the participation of our country in dangerous war planms, such as the ones of USA-NATO-EU, which are evolving in our region. After all, for all these the President of the USA comes to Greece.
 
The Greek people and the youth must condemn and answer to the governmental authoritarianism and the policy which dictates him, by participating in a mass way in the demonstration of EEDYE, PAME and other organisations of the labour-popular movement and the youth, on Tuesday 15 November, at 6.30pm in Omonia Square.”
“Neither land nor water to the murderers of the people”- Statement by the KKE about President Obama’s visit in Greece

Saturday, November 12, 2016

“Neither land nor water to the murderers of the people”- Statement by the KKE about President Obama’s visit in Greece

https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2016/11/neither-land-nor-water-to-murderers-of.html
Regarding the upcoming visit of the U.S. President Barack Obama in Greece on Tuesday 15 November, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece issued the following statement.
Source: 902.gr,
“Neither land nor water to the murderers of the people”.
The KKE calls the working people, the youth, all Greek people to give a militant “welcome” to the outgoing President of the USA, Barack Obama, who visits our country in a period when the offensive plans of NATO-US-EU are intensified, with Greece’s active participation and with huge dangers for the Greek and other people of the region. They (the people) must participate massively to the demonstrations organised by the EEDYE*, PAME and the other bodies of the popular-labour movement, of the youth.
The SYRIZA-ANEL government is exposed to the Greek people, not only because it strews “red carpets” and prepares to welcome the leader of an imperialist power, which is responsible for wars, interventions, deaths of civilians and successive wages of refugees, but also because it mocks by saying that Obama’s visit will benefit the Greek people, such as, for example, an american intervention regarding the settlement of the Greek debt.
The reality is complete different. The visit of the President of the United States in Greece has as its focal point the further participation of our country to the dangerous plans of the imperialists in the broader region, from Syria, Iraq and Libya to the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, within the framework of the antagonism with other imperialist powers, having as an epicenter the control of the control of the wealth resources, markets and routes of strategic importance.
The sharpening of the inter-imperialist contradictions and rivalries is also manifested with the war which is underway in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and can cause a real holocaust of the people of Europe and generally. The aggressive imperialist policy of the USA will continue under the new President Donald Trump, despite the tactical differences. As it would continue if Hillary Clinton had been elected in the presidency.
The SYRIZA-ANEL government, with great eagerness and with the agreement of New Democracy and all the other parties, has supported until now all the NATO decisions which consist an escalation of the antagonism with Russia and refer to a situation of war preparation. The government supported the decisions of the NATO Foreign Ministers Summit, offers Greek islands for the establishment of NATO bases, has legitimized NATO’s presence in the Aegean under the pretext of confronting the refugee flows. While, at the same time, it conceals (the fact) that the de facto partition of Cyprus is promoted through a new “Annan Plan”.
The Euro-atlantic orientation of the SYRIZA-ANEL government is camouflaged under the slogan of the “multidimensional foreign policy” as well as from the fact that the government tries to play the role of the mediator between rival imperialist centers (US-EU-Russia), thus serving the aim of the Greek capital to upgrade its position in the region.
From these developments, only new dangers can arise for the Greek people and the sovereign rights of the country. For that reason, the people must be in militant readiness and vigilance. (The people) have now a rich experience, in order not to believe that the participation of Greece in the imperialist organisations and plans supposedly consists a factor of stability and peace. At a time when these organisations are responsible for the wars, the refugee flows, the support to the murderers of the “Islamic State”, the redrawing of borders as well as for the fostering of the Turkish provocation and aggression.
The position which actually says that all the above are justified if there is a U.S intervention of the debt relief issue, which will pave the way for the economy’s recovery, is an unacceptable and dangerous position which must be rejected by the Greek people.
This position hides that the debt issue is also connected directly with the antagonisms between powerful capitalist centers (mainly USA-Germany) which refer to the situation in the Eurozone, on the basis of the difficulties that capitalist recovery encounters. A rivalry which, of course, does not contest at all the antipeople measures, the restructures which are promoted against the people.
The visit of Obama, during the anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising against the military dictatorship imposed with the support of the U.S. and NATO, consists a provocation for the people and the youth. As an opposition, years ago, SYRIZA was deleting the “U.S-led” characterization before the word “Junta”, while now, as a government it thanks the U.S. for their intervention on the debt issue and the negotiation for the 3rd memorandum.
The most outrageous issue is that the SYRIZA-ANEL government, under the mantle of the “left” tries to acquit and legitimize the U.S. policy, being lascivious against the historical memory and collective conciousness of the Greek people.
Now, more than ever,  a labour-popular mobilization and international solidarity is needed against the imperialist plans and the intervention of Greece, against the system which creates crises, wars, poverty and refugees:
– For the closure of all NATO bases in Greece.
– To get NATO out of the Aegean.
– For the return of the Greek military forces from NATO and EU missions.
– For the disengagement of Greece from NATO and EU, from all  the imperialist organisations.
– Solidarity to the victims of the wars, in order to create humane spaces for temporary accommodation and secure move to the destination countries.
– To abolish all antilabour-antipeople laws of the memorandums, to recover the large economic losses of the popular strata, to pave the way for the development in favor of the people, with unilateral debt deletion, socialization of the wealth produced by the people, with the working class, the people in power.
People must not shed their blood for the interests and the antagonisms of the imperialists”.
 
* (EEDYE: Greek Committee for International Peace and Detente).
Erdogan shuts down the Peace Association of Turkey- Solidarity with the Turkish people and Barış Derneği!

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Erdogan shuts down the Peace Association of Turkey- Solidarity with the Turkish people and Barış Derneği!

Police raid to the Peace Association of Turkey.

 
As the AKP government urges to take the advantage of the state of emergency that was declared following the coup attempt on 15th July, statutory decrees are being put into action in order to impose anti-democratic decisions to increase the political oppression.
 
A new statutory decree that has been approved by the parliament requires 370 associations and non-governmental organisations in 40 cities to be unlawfully shut down under the pretext of “relations with terrorist groups that are harmful to the national security”, including leftist organisations such as the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD).
The Peace Association of Turkey (Barış Derneği) is one of the organisations that are affected by the decision.
 
Last night, the police raided the association headquarters in Istanbul and threatened to forcibly enter by “breaking the door down unless the association administration opens”. It was revealed that the official notice on the Peace Association instructs the officers to seize the associations’s legal books, records, computers, and memory sticks.
 
The police then locked up and sealed the association headquarters since they failed to open the door.
As a member of the World Peace Council, the Peace Association of Turkey struggles for a world where everyone can live in peace on the basis of equality and freedom. The association works in coordination with other peace associations of the world against fascist, war-monger, chauvinist, militarist and imperialist propaganda.
 
* * * 
Statement of the President of the Peace Association of Turkey
12 November 2016
Struggle for peace is not subject to a government decision
The activities of the Peace Association of Turkey were suspended for 3 months. The decision taken by the Turkish Ministry of Interior for suspending the activities of many organisations is another example of lawlessness of the government. The ministry does not have such a right. This decision is not even based on a State of Emergency decree. This shows that the arbitrary steps taken by the government are not even tried to be disguised by law. The Peace Association of Turkey will escalate its struggle through political and legal ways against this attack.
 
Peace Association of Turkey being besmirched by being linked with any other organisation does not have any plausibility. The only “connection” of the Peace Association of Turkey is the World Peace Council, which is accredited by the United Nations. The Peace Association is a member of the WPC Executive Committee.
The Peace Association of Turkey is the political successor of the Turkish Peace-lovers Organisation founded in 1950 and the Turkish Peace Association founded in 1972. This tradition started its journey by opposing Turkish troops to be sent to the Korean War and recently opposed the war policies in Syria. It is not possible to stop this struggle with such a lawless decision or in any other way.

We are warning the government. The struggle for peace is not subject to your decisions. We acquire our legitimacy from the longing for peace; we will continue to do so.

We are calling on all peace forces to show their solidarity with the peace-loving people of Turkey and their struggle.
Zuhal Okuyan, President of the Peace Association of Turkey
Aydemir Güler, Secretary of the Peace Association of Turkey.
 
* * * 
THE WORLD PEACE COUNCIL (WPC) CONDEMNS THE DECISION OF THE TURKISH AUTHORITIES.
 
The World Peace Council (WPC) expresses its condemnation to the decision of the Turkish authorities to suspend some hundreds of Social Organisations and Movements for three months under the pretext of investigating them for alleged relations with “terrorist actions”. Amongst them is the Peace Association (Baris Dernegi), which is the historical member of the WPC and of its Exceutive Committee. We denounce the action to shut down the offices of the Peace Associaiton in Istanbul by the police forces yesterday and express our serious concern about the real motives and goals behind this authoritarian and antidemocratic act.
The WPC expresses its solidarity with the people of Turkey, with the peace loving forces and our friends from the Peace Association (Baris Dernegi) with who we share the common struggle for peace in the region. We demand the lifting of the suspension of the Peace Associaition and of the other social organisations.
12th November 2016
WPC Secretariat
* * * 
In a statement issued today, the Greek Committee for International Detente and Peace (EEDYE) condemns the decision of the Turkish government to shut down the Peace Association of Turkey and expresses its full solidarity with the people of Turkey and the Peace Association of the country.