On 19 January 2025, a meeting of the European Communist Action took place in Istanbul on the theme “Developments in the Middle East. We strengthen our solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria”, hosted by the Communist Party of Turkey. Giorgos Marinos, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE delivered a speech on behalf of the KKE, which reads as follows:

“We would like to thank the Communist Party of Turkey for hosting today’s ECA meeting to collectively examine the developments in the Middle East and to express solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.

The discussion can contribute to a unified understanding of the critical events that the peoples are experiencing under the conditions of the imperialist wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and the dozens of hotbeds of war triggered by the imperialist competition, in which the conflict between the USA and China for supremacy in the capitalist system, as well as between the Euro-Atlantic alliance (US – NATO–EU–Israel) and the Eurasian alliance under formation, led by China and Russia with the participation of Iran, has a decisive influence.

First, we have condemned the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the murderous state of Israel and the genocide of the Palestinian people with the support of the USA, NATO and the EU. We reject the pretexts of the occupier’s ‘right of self-defence’ and the slanders that characterize the Palestinian struggle as terrorism, having underlined our unbridgeable ideological differences with the bourgeois political-Islamic organizations. We support the right of the Palestinian people to claim, through all forms of struggle, their own homeland, an independent Palestinian state on the borders that existed prior to June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside Israel.

The fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip does not erase the crimes of the Israeli state. The resistance of the Palestinian people and the solidarity of the peoples around the world, which have characterized the struggle against the aggression of the occupier throughout this period, continue for the freedom of Palestine.

Second, the Syrian state was toppled by the jihadists with the support of the USA, Turkey and Israel. Syria, which occupies a strategic geographical position and possesses significant energy reserves, was targeted by the USA and its allies, especially when the Syrian regime opposed the Qatar–Saudi Arabia–Jordan–Syria–Europe energy route and opted for the energy pipeline starting from Iran. The so-called Arab Spring exploited the deadlocks of capitalism and was used as a vehicle to promote the imperialist plan for a ‘New Middle East’. The USA, Turkey, Britain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia financed, trained and armed jihadist forces to overthrow Assad as early as 2011.

The Ba'athist regime was then saved with the support of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah for their own interests, but today these powers have stopped supporting the regime —Iran owing to the problems in the conflict with Israel, Hezbollah owing to the war in Lebanon and Russia owing to the demands of the war in Ukraine and related developments.

The Jihadists based in Idlib were supported by Turkey in many ways; they were prepared and acted at the right moment. Their rapid advance highlighted the disintegration of the Syrian state apparatus, the Syrian army and the policy of the Ba'athist regime, which were contrary to the interests of the Syrian people.

We vehemently condemn the imperialist intervention and stress that the developments in Syria aggravate the situation of the people and the conditions of the class struggle and fuel imperialist competition and a new wave of refugees. We are facing a dismemberment of the country and a change of borders.

Israel continues to occupy the Golan Heights and is expanding into Syrian territory. It supports the autonomy of the Druze regions in southern Syria and of the Kurds in Syria, and seeks to improve its position in the region. The USA is supporting Kurdish forces, strengthening its military presence in north-eastern Syria and controlling important energy resources. Russia is negotiating its military bases in Tartus and Latakia, is interested in Syria’s coastal zone and its presence in the Mediterranean, and is considering adjusting its strategy. The Turkish state maintains strong forces in Syria and threatens to escalate the conflict with the Kurds. It seeks to enhance its position in the Middle East and is making claims in the Eastern Mediterranean and

the Aegean, with negative consequences for the relations between Greece and Turkey, which are shaped under the responsibility of the bourgeois classes and the US–NATO intervention to strengthen the south-eastern wing of NATO and the joint exploitation of the Aegean. At the same time, a dichotomous solution is being promoted in Cyprus. The KKE highlights these negative developments for the peoples and condemns, among other things, the plan to integrate Cyprus into NATO.

Dear comrades,

The re-division of Syria for the interest of the bourgeois classes gives a very dangerous impetus to the developments, adding new elements to the vicious circle of imperialist interventions and wars. The USA and Israel have set their sights on Iran, while their attack on Yemen is intensifying.

We evaluate the developments from the point of view of the interests of the workers and the people. We take into account the serious problems of strategy faced by the communist movement in the region and its weakness in the face of the needs of the class struggle. We express our solidarity with the peoples and the communists and we consider it necessary to intensify the debate on crucial issues:

· On the independent struggle of the working class and the peoples against the bourgeois classes and their imperialist alliances;

· On the creation of a link between the struggle against any kind of intervention, invasion and change of borders and throwing off foreign occupation, in the direction of the concentration of workers’–people’s forces, for the overthrow of capitalist exploitation and the struggle for socialism, as this is the only solution that will eliminate the causes of exploitation, poverty and wars.

We need to intensify the struggle against bourgeois, liberal and social-democratic forces, as well as against opportunism on the above-mentioned issues. Our parties take on additional responsibilities.”

21.01.2025