On January 2, 2020, the military mandate for Libya was approved by the majority of votes in Turkey’s Parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), from the ruling AKP and the nationalist MHP despite opposition by the CHP, IYI Party, HDP, the Felicity Party and the Democratic Party. On Saturday, a motion was presented to Parliament to extend the mandate.
Speaking to Evrensel, Labour Party (EMEP) Chair Ercüment Akdeniz said “Siding with imperialist conflicts in the Mediteranean and Libya does not benefit the people of Libya, nor the people of Turkey.”
“THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BLOODSHED AND SUFFERING”
“The bourgeois states that provoked the Libyan civil war in order to expand their sphere of influence and market share in North Africa and the Mediterranean are responsible for the bloodshed and suffering as well as the internal conflict," Akdeniz said.
“For this reason, our party has been against foreign interventions from the very beginning and opposed to the dispatching of troops by embracing the principle that ‘Libya’s fate should be determined by the peoples of Libya’.”
Stating that AKP’s foreign policy has not brought stability to Libya, Akdeniz added “The blaze and destruction faced in Libya has worsened, imperialist wars have spread to the Mediterranean, and the recent incident of Turkish ships being searched by a German warship has given way to the creation of a new crisis.
“AKP's Neo-Ottoman foreign policy in Syria, the Caucasus, the Mediterranean and North Africa is dragging Turkey into a cycle of war.”
“CRIMINALISING IMMIGRATION IS UNACCEPTABLE”
Akdeniz said that it was astonishing that the Turkish government was criminalising mass migration, including from Libya, while using it as grounds for sending in troops.
“This cannot be considered humane or conscientious,” he added. “Moreover, as reflected in the reports of Amnesty International; The Libyan National Reconciliation Government forces, which are supported by Turkey, are also implicated in crimes of smuggling migrants and demanding ransoms.”
“CONSENTING TO WAR MEANS DIMINISHING PEOPLE’S BREAD AND BUTTER”
“It is not possible for workers and labourers, who are forced to choose between dying from Covid-19 and dying of starvation in the grip of the economic crisis and pandemic, to have anything to gain from war policies,” said Akdeniz.
“Every approval given to war and to the mandate for military presence will return in the form of weapon expenditures in the 2021 budget. And this means the diminishing of people’s bread and butter, with workers picking up the bill for the war.
“Therefore, our party defends peace in the Mediterranean and Africa against the war policies that have been exacerbated by the imperialists, and calls on the people to stand against imperialism and to defend peace and unity.”
Nuray Sancar
Yusuf Karadaş
Aydin Çubukçu