Workers, toilers, brothers/sisters!

The war launched by Russia on Ukraine is an unjust imperialist war. Together with neighbouring peoples, we, here in Turkey, also feel the grave consequences of the hell created by imperialist powers from Afghanistan through Iraq to Syria. By attacking Ukraine, Russia has added a new link to the Third World War. One side of the Third World War is formed by Western imperialism led by US and British imperialism and the other side by Chinese and Russian imperialism. For workers and toilers imperialist war means devastation, death, pain, homelessness, joblessness and poverty. This war is an unjust and imperialist war which workers and toilers in all countries must oppose.

To disguise its imperialist aggression, Russia declared on 21 February that it recognised Donetsk and Lugansk in Donbass region in the eastern part of Ukraine, which had proclaimed their independence in 2014. Acting according to the plan, the governments of these regions called for military aid from Russia, and Putin rushed to their help!  Russian rulers seek to justify the war by claiming that they want to save Ukrainians from tyranny. This approach is no different from the approach of the US imperialism that turned Afghanistan and Iraq into hell with the lie that they would bring “freedom and democracy” to them.

Brothers/sisters!

The US imperialism and NATO have been arming and using Ukraine to limit Russia’s sphere of influence and weaken it in the ongoing imperialist rivalry. But this does not change the fact that Russia has started an imperialist war! What this shows is that Russia is equally hypocritical as the US, and that no side is less cruel than the other in shelling peoples and making them suffer death and pain. Therefore, arguments to justify Russia’s imperialist policies and invasive operations while standing up against those of the USA are unacceptable! Let’s not forget that powers such as Russia and China are also acting according to their imperialist interests.

Western imperialist powers that condemn Russia for its aggression are totally pursuing a hypocritical policy. When the US imperialism invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, it presented this atrocity as “democracy and freedom”. And now they present Russia as invader. In all its hypocrisy, the Western media broadcasted live when Iraq was turned into rubble, and now they try to justify the imperialist policies of the West by likening Putin to Hitler. Likewise, Putin and Russian rulers utilise the hypocritical policy of the West in order to legitimise their own irredentist ambitions. There is no right side in this conflict for the labourers, oppressed all along by the mechanisms of imperialist capitalist system. The imperialist war emanates from capitalist system of exploitation. As long as this order remains, there will be unjust and imperialist wars.

Brothers/sisters!

Ukrainian labourers are of no interest to the imperialist powers that throw them into the flames of war. We should know that this war will not imperil the lives of millions of labourers only in Ukraine, but, directly or indirectly, all peoples in the region, including the ones in Turkey. The working class has no interest in imperialist and unjust wars. Only the rulers have interest in war; arms monopolies break records in their profits as bombs fall onto the peoples. To oppose the imperialist war in Ukraine is an urgent task of the workers and toilers of the world. Therefore, it is very valuable for the people in Russia to come out to the streets in opposition to their rulers and express their desire for peace.

No to the imperialist war!

Russia and NATO get out of Ukraine!

Long live the brotherhood of peoples!

Long live international solidarity of the working class!