Interview
Question: Hello. First of all, could you please introduce yourself?
Answer: – My name is Özgür Aren. I am a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the TKP-ML.
Q: You have announced that your party held its 2nd Congress and that you adopted resolutions on many important issues, primarily the changes taking place in Turkey’s socio-economic structure. What would you like to say about the developments that have taken place since the Congress?
A: Certainly. We can globally say that two main issues have come to the fore both in the world and in Turkey following the 2nd Congress. The first of these was the imperialists’ preparations for a new war of partition, a trend we had already identified at our 2nd Congress as the direction of developments. The period following the Congress witnessed developments that reinforced our party’s assessment. As can be seen in the aggression of the US and Israel towards Iran, these preparations have evolved into open attacks and conflicts.
Another concrete indication that the imperialist capitalist system is preparing for a new war of partition can be seen in the steps taken by Donald Trump’s presidency, particularly in parallel with the waning dominance of US imperialism on the international stage. In particular, the increase in military spending by British and EU imperialist powers, under the guise of “defence” and led by US imperialism, can be interpreted as preparation for a war of partition. The decisions taken at the most recent NATO summit held in Ankara on 6–7 July also point to this preparation.
Whilst the US and British imperialists are the main instigators of the partition war, the Chinese and Russian imperialists are currently adopting a more defensive stance. However, they too are preparing for war through the alliances they are forging and the military build-up they are undertaking. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war, now entering its fifth year, are not independent of the attrition war waged against Russia by EU imperialists—mostly by the UK—via NATO, using Ukraine as a proxy. The decisions taken at NATO’s recent Ankara summit signal the determination of Western imperialists to continue the war against Russia through NATO.
Furthermore, the participation of South Asian countries in the same NATO summit demonstrates that the strategy of encirclement and preparation for war against China—which US imperialism has defined as its primary enemy in its strategic documents—continues. Indeed, the US’s attack on Iran and its objective of regime change are not independent of the Iranian reactionary state’s relations with China and Russia.
The signs that the imperialists are preparing for a new war of partition are not limited to the military aggression war and arms race taking place on the international stage. In addition, the imperialists have embarked on a campaign of annihilation and liquidation against every force that is in conflict with the capitalist system to one degree or another, and which does not fully submit to their system. Developments ranging from the crushing of the Palestinian national resistance to the disarmament of Hezbollah, and the elimination of the revolutionary dynamism of the Kurdish national movement—thereby reducing it to a level acceptable to the capitalist system—must be assessed within this context.
More specifically, it is evident that the policy US imperialism is attempting to implement in the Middle East is to force all military forces outside the central state armies to join the central armies. The aim is both to dismantle the relatively independent political and military structures of these organizations and to exploit, for its own ends, the contradictions that would arise when forces that have at times fought one another are brought together under a single umbrella. We are faced with a different version of the “divide and rule” policy. It appears that the US, having suffered a significant and largely exposed loss of hegemony, is pursuing such a policy in the medium term as a means of recovery.
