On June 28 and 29, 2004, a summit of NATO member countries will take place in Istanbul, where Bush and others will be present.

The official reason for the meeting is expanding into Asia. The actual reason is to secure the mastery of NATO’s machinery of aggression in the Middle East and Asia, in the name of imperialism.

WHAT HAS NATO DONE UP TO NOW?

NATO was originally set up as a defence agreement after the socialist system came into existence, but its real aim was to destroy socialism. Since NATO’s founding, it has taken on the task of an organisation whose raison d’etre is aggression and plots directed at all the peoples of the world.

It has never directly waged war on the basis of the reason it gave for existing, that is, to protect non-socialist states against a Soviet attack. The only war which NATO has openly engaged in was the occupation of Yugoslavia.

COMMUNISM WILL COME THIS WINTER: This _expression of fear was virtually a symbol of the Cold War. It became a symbol of NATO plots. Anti-communist organisations were set up in all NATO member countries and neo-colonial lands where imperialism held sway. In parallel with this the GLADIO organisations were created, notorious for the slaughter they perpetrated worldwide.

GLADIO was always what was behind a thousand crimes, a thousand provocations, plots and massacres committed against the peoples worldwide. Millions of people were tortured and hundreds of thousands slaughtered in the course of the policies and massacres in which the GLADIO has been complicit, up to the present.

The fascist movement, exposed and defeated after World War II, tried to revive under the cover of anti-communism and regain new support for fascism among the masses. Fascist governments in the neo-colonial countries were formed in this way, as were reactionary, racist and xenophobic organisations in both Europe and the USA.

FASCIST PUTSCHES: In particular in the 1970s, both fascist massacres and fascist military putsches were perpetrated in neo-colonial countries. Inhuman deeds were committed such
as torture, disappearances while in detention, the bombing of villages and cities, death squads and rape on a mass scale. NATO, led by the USA, quite openly organised this policy of hostility to the people, employing these terrorist, contra-guerrilla methods through both public and secret instruction and training in torture and murder at American schools. It carried out a merciless struggle against freedom of thought and freedom of association, against the peoples’ right of self-determination, against demands for justice and against rights and freedoms in general.

In the 1980s, when the socialist bloc was gradually losing its ability to function, the murderous generals were transformed into civilians in order to suppress the anti-imperialist struggle.
The imperialist, exploitative monopolies justified that by saying that military juntas in neo-colonial countries were overrated; the monopolies wanted to increase their own share of the plunder.
LOW-INTENSITY CONLICT: In places where there had been military juntas installed, especially in the 1970s, the 1980s and 1990s saw civilian systems established and institutionalised. Hitherto openly fascist regimes were disguised with a civilian appearance. That is the true face of present-day democratisation. Policies designated as LIC (Low Intensity Conflict) are actually the policies of USA-NATO.

PRESENT-DAY NATO POLICIES

NATO, had justified its existence for decades with demagogy about deterring the Warsaw Pact, but after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact it concentrated on expanding to the east. With the help of NATO’s expansion to the east, countries, which had formerly been outside the reach of imperialism were used to secure the dominance of imperialist exploitation.

After the collapse of the socialist bloc the GLADIO network in EU countries was partly dissolved, on the grounds that there was no need for them and the cost was too high. But in neo-colonial countries where imperialism fears the danger of revolution, GLADIO organisations continue to exist.

Nowadays there is a revival domestically of policies associated with the well-known US anti-communist McCarthy, involving anti-terror laws which carry with them the suspension of democratic rights and freedoms; while abroad, blacklists are used and overt warfare is unleashed against countries which are subjected to military occupation. This is done with the help of demagogy about the war on terrorism.

And in the EU countries, as in the USA, old GLADIO methods are continued in the form of blacklists, anti-terror laws, bans on the activity of democratic organisations, and open, political, financial and military support for waging war and carrying out military occupation.

Parliaments, the EU and other international institutions now openly do what in the past was the preserve of NATO’s undercover organisations.

Alongside the successes achieved against the former socialist states, all over the world many revolutionary organisations have become distanced from the aim of revolution and achieving power; this has been brought about, amongst other ways, through demagogy about democratisation and the strengthening of an NGO (non-governmental organisation) culture, all of which has created an environment favourable to imperialism.
Giving up the aim of revolution, surrendering weapons, cease-fires and peace processes have weakened revolutionary movements all over the world.

Plans to annihilate revolutionary movements have been hatched to decisively remove the threat of revolution, like Plan C in Colombia, the setting up of military bases in the Philippines as part of a South-East Asia policy and the constant, ongoing presence of military bases in Turkey which can intervene directly if necessary.

Moreover, in Turkey the use of isolation cells called F-Types has been expanded to coerce those who harbour opposition thoughts, and an extension of their use to other neo-colonial countries is on the agenda.

Besides examples like Chile, Peru and Russia, the example of Guantanamo serves to clarify the situation for all the world’s revolutionary movements; essentially concentration camps are being extended to operating on a world scale.

TO SUM UP: NATO was always a structure which served the interests of the imperialists. In the past, the Soviet bloc was seen as the greatest threat and to meet this, NATO was established.

But since the aims and interests of the monopolies were extended, NATO had to be restructured but in essence no change occurred.

Since imperialist policies were determined by the USA, the USA has also determined the new policies of NATO.

Imperialist policies are today based on three foundation stones:
Isolation cells; prisoners and opposition beliefs are to be broken through the use of methods reminiscent of concentration camps. Organisations are to be coerced into compliance with anti-terror laws, blacklists and bans. The national sovereignty of individual countries is to be overcome and they are to be made to submit through war scares, actual war and military occupation.

All who oppose the world being drowned in a bloodbath of wars and military occupation;

All who think the blacklists, anti-terror laws and infringements on democratic rights and freedoms should be ended;

All who oppose isolation cells, the coercion of oppositional beliefs and the Guantanamo-isation of the world;

Should unite and internationalise the struggle against these policies of imperialism.

THE TIES BETWEEN NATO AND TURKEY

A milestone in Turkey becoming a neo-colony was its joining NATO. It took part in the Korean War in order to be accepted into NATO. It accepted the loss of over a thousand soldiers in order to benefit from the Marshall Plan and obtain NATO membership. Turkey has the most soldiers in NATO, after the USA.

The CONTRA-GUERRILLAS, which were the GLADIO organisation in Turkey, were set up from the 1950s onwards and played a significant part in fascist governments during the modern history of Turkey, irrespective of whether these had a veneer of parliamentary democracy or were an overt military junta.

They have been institutionalised by the constitution, in contrast with EU countries where the contra-guerrillas were abolished at least in part.

We invite all who oppose wars, occupations, blacklists and isolation cells to the counter-summit on June 28-29, 2004, organised by the COORDINATION AGAINST THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ.

NO TO NATO;
NO TO WARS, OCCUPATIONS, BLACKLISTS AND ISOLATION
NATO MUST BE ABOLISHED; THOSE WHO COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH SHOULD BE CONDEMNED

February 5, 2004
DHKC International

P.S: The Istanbul Initiative, June 2004, is directed by the Coordination Against the Occupation of Iraq, which represents a very wide range of political views in Turkey.
The address for the organisation in Turkey: temelhaklar@hotmail.com
The address for the organisation in Europe: hoc@post.com
These addresses can be contacted about travel to and accommodation in Istanbul, about the event and about organisational matters.