We are here today on the island of the Aegean with the rich militant tradition; on the island of the great and heroic struggles, of the legendary “Go back” slogan in December 1944.

We are here, more strong and more decisive.

We are equipped with the Resolutions of our 21^st Congress, which are lighting the way for the struggles of our class, of our people, of the younger generation that has a lot of expectations from the communists.

We are sure that we will fulfil these expectations!

With more tenacity, strength, will, and militancy.

On behalf of the KKE and KNE, we are very pleased to welcome the delegation of the Communist Party of Turkey and the Communist Youth of Turkey that are today among us overcoming many difficulties.

The 30^th Anti-imperialist two-day camp of KNE, this great nationwide activity, dropped anchor here in Mitilini, on the island of Lesvos.

The KNE once again, under pandemic conditions, is realizing a great nationwide mobilization, observing all protective measures.

We are on the front line of the struggle for the protection of people’s health and the reinforcement of the public health system.

And we are continuing. Because even covered mouths have a very loud voice!

Today, being better equipped with the Resolutions of our 21^st Congress, we can be successful.

We can make our Party more capable as regards its action for the regroupment of the movement, for the social alliance, for socialism.

We can make our Party “the mind, heart, and organizer of the workers’–people’s struggle for socialism”, as has been very aptly demonstrated by the slogan of our Congress.

Dear friends,

The Anti-imperialist two-day camp of KNE has completed three decades, sending from all over the country the message of organized struggle, of solidarity, and of comradeship of the youth in the struggle for a society free from exploitation of man by man; free from imperialist wars, refugees, pain and suffering.

There could be no better way for marking this anniversary than the “red island” of Lesvos.

The island where the popular movement, with our Party at the fore front, has written brilliant pages of unwavering struggle in armed struggles and mass mobilizations, with  militants who died in front of the firing squad, disappointing all those that expected our Party to yield by launching a pogrom of persecution and tortures.

The heroic historical legacy of Lesvos and many other places associated with people’s struggle remains a guiding light for the youth, which are struggling for their rights in education, work, and life; against the anti-popular laws; for the truly contemporary. This is no other than the struggle for contemporary needs, the overthrow of capitalist barbarity, and the construction of the new life, of socialism–communism.

We are sending a strong message of peoples’ internationalism from Lesvos. The message of joint struggle against all those that daily undermine the life of the youth and the people and even threaten to crush it in their military plans.

The bourgeois classes of Greece and Turkey actively participate in the imperialist plans of NATO, the USA, and the EU against other countries and peoples in order to serve their own interests.

They provide military bases and infrastructure.

They finance huge military expenditure on NATO.

They send military corpses, ships, and aircrafts abroad to serve these plans.

These plans have nothing to do with the peoples’ interests nor do the hypocritical claims of the imperialists about “democracy” and “defending human rights”!

They are so sensitive to the issue of democracy that they even reach to the point of openly intervening against elected governments.

The so-called wind of progress that the election of Biden brought —as SYRIZA and ND claim— proved to be the stench of the system of interventions and wars that they all together advocate for.

The struggle in which the bourgeois classes participate is waged over how their monopolies will multiply their profits; over the distribution of the share markets, of the energy resources, of the mineral wealth.

In this process, the position that each bourgeois class occupies is of great importance.

This is why we see them competing, even within their alliances, to occupy new positions and promote their plans.

They are trying to persuade the youth and the people by the use of the so-called “upgrade of the country”.

In reality, they are talking about the upgrade of their own pocket, of the profits gained by the monopoly groups and the plutocracy of each country.

The relations of competition and cooperation that characterize the relations of the bourgeois classes of Greece and Turkey are being developed within this framework.

According to the phase that they are undergoing, they disguise their policy either as nationalism or as cosmopolitanism.

The workers in our countries are in danger, both by the sharpening of military conflicts and war adventurism that turn the people and the youth into cannon fodders, as well as their so-called imperialist “peace”, which prepares the new round of their wars, through the looting of the peoples’ resources and the destruction of the environment by the monopolies brought about by the notorious co-exploitation.

However, we are convinced that the two peoples can chart a different path of development!

They can break this vicious circle of the capitalist way of life – as long as they believe in their power and aim at their real enemy!

We will also contribute to this cause! Side by side with our comrades from the Communist Party of Turkey!

Because our true enemies are not our neighbouring peoples!

It is capitalism, the monopolies, and their imperialist alliances, such as NATO.

Today we have among us our comrades from the Communist Party and the Communist Youth of Turkey in order to jointly call for struggle, for our peoples’ right to live in peace and prosperity, as they truly deserve.

For several years now, the Communist Party of Greece and the Communist Party of Turkey have developed a close comradely relation, both for the revolutionary regroupment of the International Communist Movement and for the joint struggle of the two peoples.

We develop important joint initiatives and positions:

• Against any case of hot incident and war involvement.

• Against border violations and the questioning of International Treaties that have defined the borders in the region.

• Against the change of borders and the Treaties that define them.

• Against the huge military expenditure of the two countries, which set the scene for a war conflict.

• Against the competition for the exploitation of the hydrocarbons in the Aegean by the monopolies and the plans for their “co-exploitation” by the exploitative bourgeois classes of both countries and their powerful allies.

• Against the involvement of Greece and Turkey in imperialist plans, for the return of military forces from NATO and other imperialist missions abroad.

• For the disentanglement of our countries from the imperialist unions, to expel the US and NATO bases from our countries.

The communists in Turkey and Greece walk side by side in the path of proletarian internationalism.

We are struggling together to let the message be heard everywhere:

Our neighbouring peoples want and demand to live in peace, cooperation, and friendship, with equal, mutually beneficial relations.

We struggle to create the preconditions to eventually overturn the rotten system of exploitation and wretchedness, that is, capitalism, in our countries.

All the peoples of the world together can build the new society, socialism–communism!

Geliyoruz zincirleri kıra kıra (We are coming breaking the chains)

Yaşasın Devrim ve Sosyalizm! (Long live the revolution and socialism!)

Our future is not capitalism; it is the new world, socialism!

12/7/2021