Dear patriots, our guests from all over Turkey, people of Istanbul, my friends from the struggle, my comrades;

Tomorrow, the jost vulgar representatives of a coward and ruthless class will sit at the table with the imperialists and accept the rising appetite of the international monopolies and the privileges, which are demanded by Bonn, Paris and London.

They can’t do anything else. Their toughness doesn’t go beyond Edirne.

What we have to do is to worsen their image in the eyes of the working class of Turkey.?We will do that.

But who are we?

We are patriots. Some of us are from the communist party. Some of us struggle in the ranks of the Patriotic Front. Our common point is being anti-imperialist and accepting the working class patriotism.

As you know, the patriotism issue is debated a lot. Actually, it is rather the leftists who discuss this patriotism issue. They don’t do anything, and they discuss. Can leftists be patriots, can communists be patriots? Some of them go as far as to say "I am not patriotic; I don’t have to love my country."

These don’t matter. What matters is the opinion of the workers and people. Unfortunately, the vast majority is still under the influence of anti-communist propaganda. They think that communists don’t like their country, and don’t care about their country’s interests.

We are not concerned about the so called leftists, who criticize the actions of the Patriotic Front and TKP, without even giving any kind of struggle against capitalism and imperialism; but about the working masses. Everyday, more and more Turkish and Kurdish workers join the Patriotic Front; we are happy about that. We are on the right track. But there is still a lot to do.

Yes, dear friends, who are we?

Why are communists patriots?

The friends of Erdogan, Baykal, Agar and Bahceli are Bush and Blair…. You know very well who they are and how they behave. They just want to exploit, kill, occupy, establish their hegemony, and colonize. And what about the communists?

Look, 134 years ago, the Prussian army was at the gates of Paris. Paris was a beautiful city then, as it is today, and this city was under the threat of occupation. French capitalists and bourgeois didn’t raise a finger. What did the Parisian workers do?

The famous novelist Ilya Ehrenburg tells us about a construction worker: "Louis Rue built new houses; meanwhile he cared about his son. Then one day, the war broke off; the evil Prussians besieged Paris. As the shells of the Prussian artillery were falling, many of the beautiful Parisian houses, which were built by builders such as Louis Rue, were destroyed. There was no work; when there was no work, there wasn’t any bread either. Then they gave a rifle to Louis. Once Louis got the rifle, he didn’t start singing and chanting for "some bread". Like thousands of other builders, carpenters and blacksmiths, he marched to save Paris, the jost beautiful city, from the Prussians.

This is how the first workers’ state, the Paris Commune came into being. When the French workers were resisting against the occupiers, they also slapped the class of bosses, who were collaborating with the occupiers. The flag of equality and liberty waved in Paris. 70 days later, the invading Prussian army, in collaboration with the French bourgeois, massacred the workers.

You see how much this example resembles today. Communists are labeled as traitors. 134 years ago, it was already clear who the traitor was.

In 1940, France was once again occupied by Germans. And once again, the bourgeoisie of France tried to collaborate with Hitler’s barbarians. The French Communist Party was calling the entire France to resist the occupation. The French bourgeoisie, the Koc, Sabanci of France, and their government declared war against communists instead of defending France.

As the Nazi armies were entering Paris without any obstacles, 35,000 communists were already in jail. Despite that, communists continued to fight against fascism in the very front lines in France. Thousands of communists died for free France. Meanwhile, the French industrialists were producing weapons and airplanes for Germany. Now, who is the traitor?

At the same time, our neighbor, Greece, was occupied by Italians. While the Greek capitalists were welcoming them, the communist took the arms once again. The Italians couldn’t manage the Greek resistance. The Germans came. It was communists, who defended their country against them, as well.

Then, Germany was defeated. This time, the Greek capitalists invited the British. The Greek communists continued to fight against them for independence and freedom.

I am asking again, are the traitors the capitalists and their collaborators or the communists? What is the situation by us? Is there any difference?

In 1921, when the founders of TKP, Mustafa Suphi and his comrades, made a step towards joining the struggle against the occupation of Anatolia, they were massacred by the reactionary ruling class. Why? For the capitalists, it doesn’t matter whether there is occupation, dependency or colonization, as long as the workers are oppressed and the wheels of exploitation continue to function.

Esteemed friends,

We can’t afford any mistakes in these issues. The ones, who don’t have the will to defend their country against imperialism, and doesn’t stress it out honestly and sincerely, cannot be called a communist.

Look, today, there are two kinds of leftists in Iraq.

Some derive their power from the occupiers. They ignore the occupation and say that what matters is stability.

Others, from workers to professors at universities, are waging an armed resistance against the occupation.

Which one is leftist, which one is progressive? Which one is humane?

This is our tradition, my friends. We don’t like occupiers. We struggle against the ones who restrict another people’s liberties and try to establish their hegemony over them.

The reason? It doesn’t matter whether there is occupation, or not…. Foreign powers come to a country to plunder, to get cheap labor, to impose their culture and to make profit. There is a tiny and happy minority who share the same interests with them: The exploiting classes. The ones, who make noise for the European Union. Other than that, hegemony of foreigners is destructive for the working class and the vast majority of the society.

Therefore we are patriots. We are internationalists, as well… We can never accept that any nation is superior to the others.

We stand in the very front line against aggression, militarism, chauvinism and nationalism, as well.

For example? TKP was the first party to acknowledge that Turkey was occupying Cyprus. The administration in the north of Cyprus has nothing to do with the interests of Turkey. In the hands of Greek and Turkish reactionaries, Cyprus has become the toy of imperialists. The salvation of Cyprus will come with joint struggle.

I won’t talk about the Kurdish issue. This issue is not external for the Patriotic Front or TKP. As if we are Turks and then there are also Kurds. We are here like finger and nail, and we represent the common patriotism of Turks, Kurds, Circassians and Laz people.

Dear friends,

We have no chance of cleaning our country from exploiters and parasites without loving our country.

We will do this for the entire humanity. Because we are patriots and internationalists.

Another example: It is very difficult to find another nation, which loves its country as much as the Cubans. But they love people from other nations as well and do anything they can for them. Tens of thousands of physicians work in Latin American countries. They grant scholarships for tens of thousands of students. Just yesterday, we sent two of our young sisters [to Cuba].

We are patriots and internationalists. When the Greek reactionaries were provoked by the imperialists during the World War I, only the Greek communists said "No, we won’t fight against the Turks!"

And we say that we shouldn’t fight in Cyprus, Northern Iraq or Afghanistan … because this only benefits to imperialists, reactionaries and wealthy classes.

Friends, patriots,

Tomorrow, they will sit at the table with the European Union. With the imperialist Europe… The USA and the EU go on with their attacks against Turkey.

Sisters and brothers, these attacks harm the workers. We mentioned that quite often and that’s enough. The EU says "privatize"; Erdogan and his friends put the state’s properties on sale. The EU demands low wages…. The AKP government says "very well." The EU wants land; the government simplifies the selling of land to foreigners even further by passing new laws. The EU asks for soldiers, our rulers get crazy from joy…. Even worse, the EU wants the sovereignty; the government says "Yes Sir".

The imperialists already acquired a lot. Therefore, our struggle will continue retrospectively, as well. In the name of the working class of Turkey, we will get back what we gave. We won’t be member of the EU. We have no doubt about it. We won’t be EU member, but we will be a trouble for the imperialist EU.

Our message to imperialist Germany and France is very clear: You didn’t acquire any rights. We don’t recognize any acquired rights. This country will be free and independent.

And this country will become socialist. We will get rid of this shame.

Sisters and brothers,

Now, the condition of patriotism is to fight against capitalism in a determined way. The capitalist can’t do without selling out and betraying. We will hit two birds with a single stone. The stone of patriotism is enough for both the imperialists and capitalists!

Yes, we want to get rid of imperialists and capitalists simultaneously. You know the reasons for that very well, but with a small example I want to demonstrate, why we should get rid of capitalism immediately.

Last summer, I witnessed a forest fire near Izmir. It saddened me to see the olive trees and pine trees in flames. I asked a peasant how the fire started. He pointed to the sky…. There were fire extinguishing helicopters up there…. "They get paid 1000 dollars for an hour"…. This is the problem my friends: Republic of Turkey doesn’t buy helicopters to extinguish fires. It buys polis helicopters and assault helicopters, but no fire extinguishing helicopters. Instead, they rent it together with the pilot. At each fire operation these helicopters get 2600 dollars. As a result, a sum, which is greater than the purchasing of helicopters, goes to private companies. Even worse, these companies have an interest in having more fires!

Capitalism spreads diseases to sell medication…. It starts wars to sell arms…. It starts fires to extinguish it and get paid!

Humanity cannot take that. Humanity is here…. It is embodied in workers all over the world and it will end this shae.

We were in Istanbul! To challenge capitalism and imperialism. Today, there supposed to be a rally in Diyarbakir. It was banned. In favor of the European Union…. Unfortunately, thousands of poor Kurds were to be there! They believe that the salvation will come from the EU. What a shame! And in Ankara there is a racist and nationalist rally in favor of the "honorable EU membership".

Yes, we are here! To block the way of the European imperialists, we chose a closer place, Istanbul of the workers!

We won’t leave this city, nor Diyarbakir, neither Ankara to imperialists and their collaborators!

Long live the Patriotic Front!
Long live independence and socialism!
Long live internationalism!