Don’t Forget; one spark can light a fire Everywhere is Resistance, everywhere is Taxim!

TURKEY | 11 – 06 – 2013 | In the last days the center of Istanbul has witnessed one of the most important and significant resistances in its history. Last week hundreds and thousands of people gathered to demonstrate against the governments project of building a big shopping mall at Taxim square-which is considered the heart of Istanbul- the Gezi park remains one of the last green-natural places that are left. But what started as a normal demonstration turned into an uprising of the people. The police forces used brutal violence against the demonstrators.  The resistance that started in Istanbul became a resistance all over the country. In every single province and region the masses yell their dissatisfaction towards the Turkish state.

Without a doubt the ruling classes in Turkey represented by the AKP government for the last 11 years claimed on several occasions that they make steps to “solve” the Kurdish question or they talked about “democratization” inside the country. But we know that the only thing which has increased in the recent years is the oppression, repression and attacks towards the masses in general and against revolutionaries, democrats and opponents in particular. Concrete examples of these repressive policies are the Roboski massacre, workers who lost their lives due to the unsafe working places for example the dock workers or textile and construction workers, attacks against the youth at the universities etc.

In the last 2-3 years the force and power of the growing mass movements in Europe and Latin America but particularly in the Middle-East and North-Africa, from Mubarak, to Kaddafi, from Bin Ali to Assad they all thought they are indestroyable; but we witnessed that the masses are out of patience towards the regimes and we witnessed significant uprisings.

The AKP government brutally attacked the demonstrations and protests on May 1^st, May 6^th (May 6^th is the commemoration day when the three revolutionary leaders Denis Gezmis, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin Inan were executed by the Turkish state on May 6sth 1972), May 18^th (the commemoration of the killing of communist leader Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, May 18^th 1973) and the Gezi Park protests with gas bombs. The state declared the Martial Law and attacked many protests all over the country.  Also who protested against the Reyhanli bombings (on May 11^th a bomb exploded in the province Reyhanli, an area close to the Syrian border) where more than 100 people lost their lives were attacked.

The Turkish state tries to muffle the voices of the masses with more repression and aggression, but the state surely knows that even with all it tear gas, bombs and bullets, and thousands of injured and three dead, and thousand arrested people it is (the state)  witnessing  that the number of people participating in the resistance is increasing.

There are parties who try to make profit out of this outburst of rage, CHP (Peoples Republican Party), IP (Workers Party) and TGB and other fascist-chauvinist parties. Their aim is to pacify the resistance and take the lead. These parties are the ones that instigate the chauvinist approaches towards the Kurdish nation, and only talk about an anti-AKP oust but not about the realities of the country in general. They want to keep the resistance inside the borders and don’t want the revolutionaries and communists to be the leaders of this resistance. From the beginning on they have been trying to negate the voices from millions of people.

 The Murderer State Will Have To Answer For Its Crimes!

Since May 31^st the state has arrested thousands of people, it attacked the broad masses with real and rubber bullets; the state police forces also used gas bomb capsules as weapon.  With TOMA`s (Riot Control Vehicles), helicopters, sticks and tear gas they brutally suppressed the people.

On June 2 SODAP member (Socialist Solidarity Platform) Ahmet Ayvalitas was killed in the May 1^st District, where there were many protests and occupations in various areas. The state police forces closing down many important roads, as a result of this, a car hit Ahmet Ayvalitas at the TEM (Trans European Motor Way) and the general traffic was closed. In the region Antakya 22 year old Abdullah Cömert was shot. The state called these incidents as “3-5 ravagers making trouble” further the state said, “It is already difficult enough to have the other 50 % of our masses to remain patient”. With such statements the government is rewarding the civil fascist groups and openly tries to threaten the masses.

In areas like Ankara (state-capitol), Izmir, Adana and Antakya the police attacks protesters on a permanent non-stop basis. In Ankara Ethem Sarisülük was injured by real bullets and a member of the youth organization Emek Genligi Mutlu Cosar has been injured through a capsule of a gas bomb. The situation of both is very critical.

Even if the first spark was lightened at the Gezi park to protest against the project of building a shopping mall, the issue is not the destruction of two or three trees anymore, it has become a movement against poverty, exploitation and oppression that the people have to face and this movement has merged as a result of these policies. This movement which is spreading all over the streets has reminded the oppressed but also the oppressors “on the wave that`s coming from the bottom”. The great significance of this is that we once more witness that one “stone” of the people in the world when the masses organize and resist; is stronger against the gas, tear bombs and bullets of the ruling classes. It is very clear that this wave is only the beginning.

It is time now to strengthen the common slogan of the millions resisting against the attacks of the fascist state “shoulder on shoulder against fascism”, it is time to become one barricade. It is time to turn every city and every street of the country into a place of action and strengthen the resistance.

Let`s Amplify The Rebellion!

From Newspaper ‘Özgür Gelecek’