The Communist Youth – France: Freedom for the Arrested Revolutionaries in Turkey!
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement published on the X account of the Communist Youth (JC) of France on the 25th of June.
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
On Tuesday, June 23, the reactionary Turkish state raided several hundred homes across the country, arresting 209 people while announcing that it had issued arrest warrants for a total of 250 trade unionists, students, democrats, anti-imperialists, journalists, and revolutionary activists. Several of our comrades from Partizan were arrested during this police operation.
This action by the fascist Turkish state comes ahead of the 38th NATO conference—the armed wing of imperialism—which will take place in Ankara on July 7 and 8, 2026. The fascist Erdogan, a watchdog of US imperialism, is attempting to use terror to silence the voices that oppose militarization, war, and imperialism.
This operation is not an isolated incident, and for more than three weeks now, dozens of activists have been arrested daily under the scandalous pretext of “membership in a terrorist organization”—a pretext that serves only to try to quell the growing protest among the masses. The government in Ankara is trying to appear exemplary in the eyes of its masters and is doing everything in its power to ensure that this NATO conference takes place, even going so far as to repaint the facades of buildings near the conference venue to project a positive image of the country. At present, the Turkish state is denying those arrested access to a lawyer and is holding prisoners in total isolation, in flagrant violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Alongside these arrests, the government has restricted the freedom of press and banned political rallies, demonstrations, the setting up of booths, and the distribution of leaflets. Fascism is running rampant in an attempt to silence the masses protesting against the conference of genocidal perpetrators.
We proclaim loud and clear that the only terrorists are NATO—led by the United States—which bombs Iran and Yemen and funds Israel and the genocide in Palestine. The sole terrorist is the old Turkish state, which imprisons thousands of opponents and suppresses workers’ and peasants’ mobilizations. Terrorism is what strikes the Kurdish nation, which sees its rights increasingly trampled upon by fascism.
Turkey has not “become democratic”; it remains subservient to imperialism and hosts major US military bases on its soil that serve to control the Middle East and terrorize the peoples of the region.
Repression is nothing more than an admission of weakness on the part of a State that has nothing left but imprisonment as a means to try to conceal its submission to imperialism and its crimes against the people. Nothing can break the determination of people ready to fight; fascism will inevitably be crushed by the people. Arrests and reprisals of all kinds only serve to reveal the true face of a system on its last legs.
As the Communist Youth, we express our full revolutionary solidarity with our comrades imprisoned in fascist jails. We salute the heroic resistance of the masses of various nationalities in Turkey. Nothing can break the will of a people rising up against imperialism, feudalism, and fascism!
Freedom for all political prisoners!
Down with NATO! Down with imperialism!
Down with Erdogan’s fascist regime! Long live the struggle of the masses of Turkey!
