{"id":76210,"date":"2026-07-04T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T09:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/?p=76210"},"modified":"2026-07-03T16:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:51:15","slug":"imperialisms-war-ritual-in-ankara-sounds-of-police-batons-on-the-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/imperialisms-war-ritual-in-ankara-sounds-of-police-batons-on-the-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Imperialism\u2019s War Ritual in Ankara, Sounds of Police Batons on the Street"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

War lords and partners in interest in the Epstein scandals are gathering in Ankara on 7\u20138 July under the guise of the NATO Summit. It is clear that this summit, at which the strategies of US imperialism and its allies to turn the world into a plunder ground and a battlefield will be discussed, will bring no benefit whatsoever to either the Turkish working class or the peoples of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is the NATO Summit Being Held in Turkiye?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Turkish bourgeoisie has long sought to adopt a relatively balanced stance regarding the US\u2013China rivalry, Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and the attacks on Iran. However, the Palace regime is no longer in a position to maintain this policy. As financial difficulties deepen, the country is becoming increasingly dependent on US imperialism. The Palace hopes to overcome economic collapse by increasing its role as a subcontractor for imperialism; in particular, by securing international support in the energy and defence industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when the struggle over global energy corridors is intensifying, the decision to hold the summit in Ankara is a result of the Turkish bourgeoisie\u2019s desire to increase its bargaining power within the imperialist bloc. Whilst marketing its geographical position and military strength to Western imperialism as a \u2018forward outpost\u2019, Turkiye aims to secure permission in return for its own \u2018sub-imperialist\u2019 manoeuvres in the region. At the same time, it aims to develop military cooperation with the European Union, secure a commercial share by playing a role in European defence, and weaken the energy partnership of the Egypt\u2013Southern Cyprus\u2013Israel axis in the Eastern Mediterranean. It seeks to secure NATO\u2019s backing in the event of potential regional conflicts and, by utilising its position as NATO\u2019s second-largest land force, to open up new investment and spheres of influence for its own capitalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a significant portion of these imperialist objectives has already hit a brick wall. Not only is it impossible for them to halt the Israel\u2013Southern Cyprus\u2013Egypt energy corridor, but the US bloc led by Trump is also pressuring Turkiye to recognise Southern Cyprus. Meanwhile, the European Union is excluding Turkiye from defence industry agreements. Whilst France openly expresses its distrust of Ankara, Germany is shifting its investments to Eastern Europe, which it has historically regarded as its own \u2018backyard\u2019. Today, the European bourgeoisie is openly asking the following question: \u2018If Russia attacks Estonia, will Turkiye enter this war?\u2019 The answer from Western imperialism is clear: No. To this must be added the rise of the far right in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the restructuring of the state along NATO lines provides an international shield of protection and a basis of legitimacy against the working class, whose anger is growing at home. The rhetoric of \u201csecurity\u201d and \u201ccounter-terrorism\u201d is deployed not merely to protect imperialist leaders; it is primarily intended to completely block the channels through which teachers, workers and the oppressed can seek their rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For NATO Bandits Pressure is Increasing on the Masses.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even before the summit began, we witnessed first-hand how Erdo\u011fan\u2019s Palace had turned the entire city into an open-air prison for its own people. In Ankara, nearly 200 revolutionaries and activists were detained in dawn raids and hastily imprisoned. Moreover, the ruling class could not even tolerate the conduct of token court proceedings in response to this terror of detention. In Istanbul and other cities, meanwhile, detentions and threats are continuing for the time being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TEMA Foundation Nature Volunteers, academics and ordinary citizens, who had not even taken part in any street demonstrations, have been thrown into prison on fabricated charges of \u2018membership of a terrorist organisation\u2019. Social media restrictions have also been added to this siege; opposition accounts have been shut down one by one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This militarist regime, in which the capital has been closed off to all demonstrations and protests, and everyone seeking their rights has been declared a \u201cpotential threat\u201d and imprisoned, is unacceptable. Everyone who is being unjustly detained for saying \u201cno\u201d to the imperialists\u2019 war budgets and for defending their country and their labour must be released immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Handful of Teachers Terrified the NATO Supporters<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During the NATO preparations, the hunger strike organised in Ankara by the Private Sector Teachers\u2019 Union and those affected by the interview process, demanding a decent wage and secure employment, was repeatedly targeted with arrests and police attacks. Finally, on 27 June, the teachers were forced to suspend their protest due to the Ankara Governor\u2019s Office\u2019s \u2018NATO directives\u2019, which placed the city under siege, and mounting pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order for NATO\u2019s war machines to be comfortably hosted in Ankara, this country\u2019s teachers\u2019 freedom to seek their rights has effectively been abolished. As education becomes increasingly commodified, teachers are condemned to precarious conditions; even the slightest protest against this is sought to be suppressed by state violence. To continue their struggle, the teachers organised a march in Istanbul on 29 June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pride March Again Attempted to Be Stopped by Detentions and Barricades<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The bans and police barricades imposed on the 28 June Pride March are a direct part of the identity politics pursued by the ruling class to divide the masses and strengthen its conservative stronghold. We reject this ideological policy of repression aimed at shattering the common ground for struggle between the working class and the oppressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Channels for the pursuit of democratic and economic rights,  whether trade union-based or identity-based,  are being crushed by the Palace with the same heavy-handed tactics. Our task, however, is to unite these struggles under a common banner. We stand with our comrades in struggle who were detained at the Pride March. They will live their identities freely in a free country; the oppressors, however, will lose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minimum Wage Below the Poverty Line<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whilst all these developments are unfolding, the people are struggling to survive in the grip of high inflation, rising living costs and a deepening housing crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from T\u00fcrk-\u0130s (Trade Union Confederation) for June 2026 clearly illustrates the situation: the poverty line has surpassed the minimum wage. The minimum wage (28,000 TL) falls short of the poverty line, which covers only the food expenses of a family of four. Millions of workers are, despite having jobs, literally surviving in conditions of starvation. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s Palace prefers to wage war not against poverty, but against those fighting it. The second half of the year will turn into a genuine struggle for survival for the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uniting these struggles is now an urgent imperative. There is no way out other than a united struggle against the crisis, poverty and anti-democratic practices. The people of Bolivia have paved the way; why should the people of Turkiye not achieve the same?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Opposition Is Forced into Line, the Illusion of Elections Fades<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The court ruling to annul the 38th Ordinary Congress of the main opposition party, the CHP, the removal from office of the leadership under \u00d6zg\u00fcr \u00d6zel, and the escalating attempts to impose a political ban on the detained presidential candidate Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu, all indicate that the Palace is preparing to govern the coming period entirely under a \u2018state of emergency\u2019 logic. Erdo\u011fan\u2019s repressive regime, driven by the economic crisis and NATO-centred regional strategies, no longer hesitates to trample even its own rule of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside these developments, the illusion that \u201ceverything will change through the ballot box\u201d, nurtured for years by the liberal left, has also suffered a severe blow. Lenin defined the imperialist stage of capitalism as \u2018parasitic and decaying capitalism\u2019. Today, the rise of the far right across the world also presents itself as a consequence of this economic and political decay. As the system becomes increasingly gridlocked, the mask of bourgeois democracy slips away; what remains is naked state violence, chauvinism and militarism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether \u00d6zg\u00fcr \u00d6zel will lead a new mobilisation, stretching from the streets to Parliament alongside the masses, or whether he will be forced to conform to the repressive regime, will become clear in the coming period. If the current party leadership (the K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu faction), citing the court ruling as justification, fails to convene an extraordinary congress, effectively suspends the party constitution and completely purges \u00d6zg\u00fcr \u00d6zel\u2019s team, the possibility for \u00d6zel to continue in politics under the CHP banner will largely disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear, however, that the \u2018new party\u2019 option being discussed behind the scenes will not offer any real hope for workers and the oppressed. This is because all these discussions are fundamentally aimed at shifting the CHP further towards the centre-right. Yet it is precisely the political centre that is collapsing in the world today. High inflation, the housing crisis and precariousness are bringing much more radical demands to the fore amongst the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Task of Our Class<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The June 2026 scenario clearly illustrates the raw violence that emerges when capitalism reaches a dead end. On the one hand, teachers condemned to live on less than the minimum wage, beaten with truncheons for demanding their rights; on the other, revolutionaries detained in night-time raids to \u2018clear\u2019 the streets ahead of the NATO Summit, banned Pride Marches, and a judicial system that can no longer tolerate even the bourgeois opposition\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation is clear: the living space of the working class and the oppressed is being squeezed in order to make way for imperialism\u2019s war machine and the interests of capital. The urgent task facing socialists and workers\u2019 leaders is to unite all these fragmented struggles within a common class front. The anger of the working class and the oppressed is not merely a \u2018struggle for rights\u2019, but also a struggle for survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building an independent and revolutionary working-class front, encompassing workers and their trade unions, Kurds, Alevis, women, LGBTI+ individuals, environmental movements and all oppressed sections of society, as well as social democrats dissatisfied with the current order, is today\u2019s most urgent task. This front must also put forward the perspective of a democratic assembly in which all sections are represented and which stands alongside the working people. The way forward lies solely in this united front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First published here<\/a> by Marxism Now!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

War lords and partners in interest in the Epstein scandals are gathering in Ankara on 7\u20138 July under the guise of the NATO Summit. It is clear that this summit, at which the strategies of US imperialism and its allies to turn the world into a plunder ground and a battlefield will be discussed, will bring no benefit whatsoever to either the Turkish working class or the peoples of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":76211,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"litci_post_political_author":"Marxism Now Editorial Board","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3557],"tags":[694,3656,4003,6820,6821,4580,6173],"class_list":["post-76210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkiye-europe","tag-erdogan","tag-imperialism","tag-nato","tag-otan","tag-summit","tag-turkey","tag-turkiye"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-03-at-12.43.57-PM.png?fit=1500%2C850&ssl=1","fimg_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-03-at-12.43.57-PM.png?fit=1500%2C850&ssl=1","categories_names":["T\u00fcrkiye"],"author_info":{"name":"Carlos S.","pic":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fdf3a2076204dbf848fa7838fc9e2787f3317262207b35e333f31316e39fce9c?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"political_author":"Marxism Now Editorial Board","tagline":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76212,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76210\/revisions\/76212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}