NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), founded on April 4th 1949, has been the largest military alliance on earth for the last 74 years. The leader of NATO, the USA, is the largest arms dealer in the world. The organisation has illegal operational centres such as the “Gladio” example in Italy, which interferes with the internal affairs of countries and carries out counterguerrilla operations, and to this day has not gotten rid of these illegal extensions. In the past 74 years, the USA and NATO played leading roles in the irreparable damage caused and destabilisation through bombing in many countries: examples such as Afghanistan and Libya are clear pieces of evidence of this very issue. NATO, which has caused innumerable wars, pain and destruction, must be abolished.
NATO effectively controls the military strategies and industries of the member nations due to so-called coordination and standardisation. NATO is a mechanism of imposition which works to increase the sales of weapons of American origin. This mechanism also serves to enable the USA to keep member nations under her own political designs. Turkey must immediately leave NATO in order to break this siege.
With its military bases and exercises, this military alliance which causes even worse decline in many parts of the world, portrays itself almost as a parallel organisation to the European Union or the United Nations. The pact, which was supposedly created “against threats from the Soviet Union”, actually intends to facilitate the domination of the imperialist Western bloc, and the greater armament, polarisation and tension created since the dissolution of the Soviet Union proves this intention.
The organisation which has incessantly expanded since the end of the Cold War, recently tried to include Ukraine under its umbrella after the US-centred coup d’etat, which was shortly followed by the Russian invasion. The Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) assesses that while the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign nation, is a completely unacceptable step; the party strongly opposes the American interference and the NATO expansion which has set this course in motion.
Peace cannot be achieved through more armament or expanding military pacts, it can only be achieved through mutual assurances and downsized military budgets. The most recent expansion process of NATO, which includes Finland, is worrying. The main factor which destabilises not only the Russian-Ukrainian rift but many parts of the world is NATO itself, and its aims of expansion.
NATO member countries including Turkey have embarked upon an armament race on a scale rarely seen in history against countries like Russia, China and India. Steps taken back on the controls of weapons of mass destruction, which were enshrined in treaties between Washington and Moscow during the existence of the Soviet Union, are worrying in how they reflect a constructive and resolution based approach is now being abandoned. In order to achieve peace, it is crucial to create an underlying framework to control the arms race. For this exact reason, all military pacts must be abolished and there must be a return to the international treaties which will reverse the arms race.
The Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) stands against looking for solutions through military means and attempts of expansion of imperialist and expansive nature.
No to NATO, no to NATO’s expansion and no to Turkey in NATO!
We insist on having peace in the country, the region and the world.
