Dimitris Koutsoubas: The US does not want to «lose» Turkey

The Secretary General of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, in an interview with the newspaper «Kyriakati Democracy», expresses the KKE's concern about the general developments in the region and the course of Greek-Turkish relations. He notes that tension and aggravation will coexist along with the effort for a compromise solution and stresses that «Turkey is seeking a discussion on everything, despite what the government says that it is discussing only the continental shelf and the EEZ».

«The expectations cultivated by the Southwest and other parties that the Biden presidency will put a brake on Turkish aggression are meaningless, not only because US policy in the region is continuous and dictated only by their own interests, but also because what they are «burning» is to keep Turkey in the Euro-Atlantic camp away from Russia, in return for which they can proceed with their plans for co-exploitation in the Aegean and the East Asia-Pacific. They want to pursue their ambitions to expand their ambitions in the Mediterranean and the Mediterranean.

«The coexploitation that is being ‘cooked up’ does not prevent the worst, on the contrary, it prepares it, because the sharing is going to be between energy groups that are slaughtering each other to get their hands on the wealth of the region. Of course, going to The Hague is not a solution either, since an appeal requires a compromise, which will give Turkey the opportunity to put forward all its unacceptable claims», he adds.

He said that the KKE voted against the supply of the Rafale «because the criterion for us is ‘what arms, for what needs and for what purpose’», adding that our people - at a time when they lack too much in health, income, etc. - are paying 2.5 billion for arms that primarily concern NATO's objectives. He recalls the questions raised by the KKE in Parliament, «what kind of allies are all those who sell arms to both Greece and Turkey? How can it be explained that a NATO country, France, is arming another NATO country, Greece, to confront supposedly another NATO country, Turkey? What interests of the people are at stake in Saudi Arabia, where Patriots, also paid for in gold by the people, will be sent?».

On the management of the pandemic, he says that «when we talk about the government's responsibilities in the management of the pandemic, we are not just talking about an inadequacy or some incompetence, but mainly about the political choice of the government of the New Democracy to put above all the needs of capital, which it falsely calls ’the strength of the economy‘’. As he explains, »these «resilience‘ include subsidies and other facilities for big business, but they do not include recruitment in hospitals and health centres, open schools with fewer pupils per class and more teachers, safe public transport, controls at workplaces to ensure compliance with health and safety measures’.

«Neither the extraordinary level of 600 euros, proposed by the KKE for all unemployed, nor the relief measures for farmers and farmers with a living wage, contained in the proposal for a law submitted by our parliamentary group. This adventure will eventually come to an end. But it will leave behind new modern forms of exploitation, even more flexible and cheap labour, the expansion of teleworking, unpaid work and repressive measures. It will reveal the deterioration of living conditions, even the destruction of thousands of small businesses and poor farmers. These are the results of the policy of the New Democracy that puts the burden of the pandemic and the crisis on the people,» he adds.

Asked about this, D. Koutsoumbas said that even the possibility of early elections is open, noting the disorienting nature of the debate «because at a time when the ‘upheavals of the century’ are being prepared, we cannot discuss whether and when Mr Mitsotakis will choose to go to elections».

«Now the struggle for the shielding of the public health system, medical and pharmaceutical care, public and free of charge, measures to protect the life and health of the people, must be organised among the workers, among the people. To abolish the anti-worker laws. For all workers and unemployed to have a decent income, for the protection of people's housing, the defence of people's freedoms. To strengthen the struggle against the dangerous imperialist plans and Greece's participation in them. And the KKE in this struggle is leading the way, taking up the confrontation with the government, capital and its staffs, at the same time that the so-called opposition of the other parties, which are trying to repair the rusty trap of ’progressive governance’ in order to imprison our people again, is convenient‘, he stresses. .

Asked finally whether «the signing of a joint protest document with the other parties of the left for what happened during the celebration of the Polytechnic, will be followed up», he replied, among other things, that «if by ‘follow-up’ you mean political cooperation between the KKE and the other parties of the bourgeois opposition, there will be no such thing, it is not realistic, it is not in the aims of the KKE. But there is continuity in the initiatives of the KKE within the unions, the associations, the mass organisations, the municipalities and regions, in the Parliament and the European Parliament, in defence of the rights of the workers, of the popular freedoms that have been targeted. And that is where we really can meet and walk together with the voters of all parties, without exception.».