Looking to the July Summit While the Country Is Ablaze: NATO Means Hunger at Home and Handcuffs in the Street!

My dear sibling, my fellow worker, my retired brother and sister who feel down every Sunday and come home with empty baskets...

We know that when you saw, today, that poster passing from hand to hand in the streets, coffeehouses, or neighborhood assemblies of Muğla, this rightful outcry passed through your mind: "Look here, my friend; there's no soup boiling at home, rents have flown sky-high, the districts of Muğla are full of pensioners who can't make ends meet. On top of that, trustees are being appointed to municipalities, our votes are being usurped. While the country is ablaze, why are we worrying about a NATO Summit to be held in July? Is this the time for foreign policy?"

I will explain it to you plainly—without any bookish, ornate, heavy theoretical talk—like two comrades, two companions in hardship. It is the time; indeed, it is exactly the time!

Because between the emptiness of that Sunday basket, the police barricade set up at the municipality's door, and the NATO tables to be set up on these lands in July 2026, there is such a hidden yet steely bond that... Let us speak of that bond, with the concrete lived experiences that the televisions have not told you about until now, openly, in its barest form.

Let Us Expose a Great Lie: What Is NATO, Really?

For years, in schools and on mainstream television news, they packaged and presented NATO to us as a "peace and defense alliance." They said, "If we become a member, they'll protect us from foreign enemies." A great big lie, comrades!

The thing they call imperialism is not some abstract concept coming from space; it is the loan shark in the neighborhood, the exploiting boss in the factory, the holding-company owners, descended upon the whole world. And NATO is the armed protection army in the hands of these global bosses. It protects not peace, but those bosses' coffers and their order of exploitation.

Let us turn back to history and refresh our memory. Let us recall, with concrete examples, NATO's bloody footprints on these lands:

The September 12, 1980 Coup: In this country, one night we woke to the sound of military boots, so that workers would not seek their rights, unions would not grow, and the rich could grow richer more comfortably. Parliament was shut down, revolutionaries were put through torture, very young children were executed. Do you know what report was sent to the NATO headquarters in America the very next day after that dark day? "Our boys did it!" This is the "defense" that NATO brought to this country: crushing the working class, rescuing the bosses!
The Bloody Gladio (Counter-Guerrilla) Operations: Whenever the people in Turkey awakened, whenever socialists grew into a mass movement, whenever workers sought their rights, dark massacres always followed. The May 1, 1977 Taksim Massacre, the Maraş Massacre, the Çorum Massacre, and the assassinations of our intellectuals... All of these were the handiwork of the secret underground networks called "Gladio" that NATO established in every member country, and of CIA operations. NATO's gun barrel was never turned outward; that barrel was always turned inward, against its own people, its workers, its peasants who sought their rights.

"All Right, but What Does This Have to Do with My Empty Basket, with Making Ends Meet?"

My dear comrade... Now come, let us fill in, with concrete examples and figures, the content of that question you ask most—the most rightful question of the street. Let us see nakedly how those who show enormous warplanes and gleaming missiles on television and blend them with a sauce of nationalism are fanning the flames in your kitchen.

We Marxists say this: The budget is a class choice. Where a state spends its money shows whose state that state is. Don't the ruling classes go on television every morning and tell the lie, "There's no money in the treasury; if we give the pensioner a raise, inflation will explode, the budget balance will collapse"? Yet that same power will, at NATO's behind-closed-doors summit coming to these lands in July 2026, sign off on entirely different commitments.

The Cost of Missiles and the Pensioner's Table: The Numbers Don't Lie

Come, let us do some very simple math that all of us can understand. There is a condition, accepted by the ruling class, for being a NATO member and remaining in that bloc: to invest at least 2% of GDP (that is, of the total wealth the country produces) in military spending and weapons.

So, what does this 2% mean? It means billions of dollars being cut from the people's throats and transferred into the coffers of the global arms monopolies.

A Single Missile vs. Thousands of Pensions: Today, the cost of a single modern air-defense missile or an advanced guided munition that Turkey purchases or produces to comply with NATO standards is millions of dollars. With the price of a single high-tech missile, all the pensioners receiving poverty wages in one district of Muğla could be given supplementary raises that would let them live humanely for months.
The Tribute Paid to American Holding Companies: Just think of the billions of dollars committed to U.S. arms monopolies in the recent period alone for F-16 modernization packages and new warplanes. Whose money is that money? It's the taxes you pay when you buy bread at the grocer, when you pay your natural-gas bill! While those billions of dollars flow into the coffers of Pentagon-connected companies, the share that falls to you is gathering bruised vegetables from under the counter in the market's last hour.

The Summary from the Street: Every munition they detonate across the border, every show of force at NATO exercises, is the meat missing from your pot, the milk your child couldn't drink, the natural gas you couldn't burn in winter. The war economy is the greatest mechanism of exploitation choking the throat of the working class.

The "IMF Program Without the IMF" and NATO Stability

If you think that the austerity policies applied in Turkey today, the high interest rates, and the erosion of fixed wages (the minimum wage and pensions) against inflation are merely some local economic-management incompetence, you are mistaken, comrade. This is the very program imposed on this country by international finance capital.

We said that NATO is not merely a military pact but at the same time the armed protector of the Western-centered capitalist world of exploitation. When the global loan sharks, the finance barons in London and New York, lend money to a country or invest in it, they look at this: "Does this country's government have the fiscal discipline to pay our money and meet its NATO commitments by trampling on the backs of the people?"

Behind the Scenes of the Mehmet Şimşek Program: The true aim of the bitter prescription and tightening policies imposed on the people today is the effort to prove that Turkey is a "reliable partner faithful to its debts" in the eyes of international capital circles. When the RTE government stands before Western leaders at the July summit, it will present this report: "Look, in the name of lowering inflation, I have choked the throats of the worker and the pensioner, I have put the budget in order; our money is ready to be allocated to your military projects and to the NATO budget."
Destitution Is Not Coincidence, It Is a Choice: That is, your difficulty making ends meet is not because of someone's incompetence; it is a class assault, consciously designed to keep this country inside the imperialist machinery and to pay the bills of that dirty alliance.

The Plunder of Nature in Muğla: From Akbelen to the NATO Tables

Making ends meet is not only about the wage you earn, my friend; the air you breathe, the dam from which you draw your water, the olive tree in whose shade you sit—these too are your livelihood. Think of those savage massacres of nature happening today across every corner of Muğla (in Akbelen, in Milas, on our coasts). Why are the crony holding companies and international corporations that seize the peasant's land and olive trees turning these places into mining sites?

Because, in order to pay their foreign debts to the imperialist capitalist system and to stay standing within that system, the rulers of this country are compelled to greedily plunder the country's underground and aboveground resources.

The global order that NATO represents recognizes neither environmental law nor the peasant's right. For them, Muğla is nothing but a mining site to be exploited, an energy corridor, and a militarily strategic logistics base. The peasant who loses their land migrates to the edges of the city and is turned into a worker condemned to the minimum wage, or into a pensioner living in destitution.

Let us speak openly and clearly: Every missile they produce or purchase is hundreds of kilos of meat, milk, and bread missing from our pensioner's table. As the NATO budget grows, the people's basket shrinks. Opposition to NATO means saying: "Spend my taxes, my resources, not on the weapons of global gangs, but on the pensioner, the worker, the livelihood of the people!"

In Short: This Fight Is in Our Kitchen!

As you can see, comrade; when we dig a little into the matter, the same truth always emerges from beneath it. Opposition to NATO is not protesting some distant country.

The trustee appointed to your municipality is the gendarme's baton that comes down on your head to stop you from raising your voice.
The NATO budget is the bread money stolen from your pocket.
Imperialist policies are that century-old olive tree felled in Akbelen.

Imperialism is precisely in your kitchen, in your pot, inside the rent you cannot pay! When we raise our voice against the July summit, we are in fact crying out against precisely this order of destitution, into the faces of those who condemn us to this poverty.

The Trustee Regime: The "Internal Stability" Guarantee Given to Global Capital

Our agenda is hot; trustee coups against CHP municipalities, usurpations of the popular will, and theaters of "absolute nullity" that completely liquidate the law are being staged. The people are rightfully angry. So, what is the connection of this to the NATO Summit in July?

Capitalism and its armed protector NATO want, above all else, "capital stability." For the global monopolies and international finance circles to secure their interests, investments, and military commitments on these lands, a thornless rose garden must be created at home. The silencing of the worker who seeks their rights, of the people who defend their will, of the voices filling the squares, is essential.

While the Palace regime usurps local governments and tries to suffocate the voice of the people, it is in fact giving this message to the imperialist partners with whom it will sit at the table in July:

"Control at home is mine. I am suppressing the worker, the pensioner, the opposition with my authoritarian fist. There will be no barricade of the people standing before the military and economic agreements, the logistical commitments, that we will make with you in July."

The liquidation of even the crumbs of democracy is the administrative and legal preparation for Turkey's smoother, more seamless articulation into the imperialist chain of war. The trustee regime is a certificate of loyalty offered to imperialism from within.

Comrades, now let us dissect the darkest face of the medal—but, from our perspective, the most transparent face—namely, those organized operations carried out through the judiciary. Whomever we touch in the street rightfully cries out: "Trustees are being appointed to our municipalities, our votes are being usurped, dozens of patriots, revolutionaries, and democrats are being thrown into prison on fabricated grounds. The courts have stopped dispensing justice; detention periods have turned into open-ended methods of punishment."

So, is this entire wave of lawlessness, this regime of oppression, merely the anger of one leader or a love of the seat of power?

Never, comrades! When we look at it as Marxists, we see that this picture before us is not the result of accidental structural disorders or temporary madness; it is part of an integrated stability program being run like clockwork in the lead-up to that ill-omened NATO Summit in July 2026. Imperialist capitalism wants a thornless rose garden; and this lawless system is the pruning machine that clears the thorns from that garden.

Detentions Turned into Punishment: The Program of Intimidation in the Street

We all see, through our own lived experience, that the judicial system in this country has lost its impartiality and that open-ended detention periods have turned directly into a mechanism of administrative punishment. There can be no legal explanation for holding a person inside for months, for years, without bringing them before a judge, without preparing an indictment. But there is a class and political explanation:

Paralyzing Potential Opposition: The message given to the worker preparing for a strike in the factory, to the peasant defending their land, to the youth marching into the square to defend their will, is very clear: "If you step outside the order, I will leave you breathless in that bottomless pit of lawlessness."
Pre-July Preventive Cleansing: A preventive cleansing is being carried out in advance so that when the global bandits swarm into Ankara and İstanbul in July, mass popular protests are not held in the streets and strong socialist barricades are not erected against Pentagon plans. The filling of prisons with dozens of political figures, journalists, and activists is the preparation of a thornless ground at home for the dirty signatures to be made at the July tables.

The "Absolute Nullity" Theater and the Comfort of Domestic and Foreign Capital

Those ponderous legal concepts like "absolute nullity," used in the usurpation of CHP municipalities, are in fact nothing but bourgeois pretexts fabricated to steal the will of the street. Capitalism and its most savage military apparatus, NATO, demand from member countries, above all else, "predictability" and "capital security."

Imperialism's Formula for Stability: When the global monopolies, the finance barons of London or New York, lend money to Turkey or sign new multibillion-dollar arms-industry contracts with the RTE government, they look at this: "I am investing this money, but what happens if tomorrow the workers in this country rise up, if the people go to the ballot box and bring to power local governments and administrations that will wreck our plans?"

This is where the trustee regime is the clearest, bloodiest answer given from within to this fear of international capital. By seizing local governments through police force, the Palace offers its Western partners this guarantee:

"Around here, the ballot box is symbolic. Whatever the people choose, at the end of the day it is my iron fist that will protect your interests. We will continue to open municipal budgets not to the people, but to your projects, your energy corridors, and your NATO logistics lines. We have cleared away all the snags at home, even at the cost of completely liquidating the law."

This Is a Package Program: Destitution, Handcuffs, and Missiles!

Comrades, let us put the pieces together correctly. The economic-destitution program, the trustee regime, and NATO dependency are all inside the same package.

The Economic Leg: The austerity policies run through Mehmet Şimşek, the condemning of the pensioner to 12,500 lira, the transfer of taxes cut from the people's throats to the global arms industry—this is the financial program.
The Political/Legal Leg: The trustee coups, the open-ended detentions, and the lawless judicial system carried out so that the working class and the people do not rise up against this order of plunder, so that they cannot show their will at the ballot box or in the street—this is the protective shield.
The Military Leg: What provides the international ground of legitimacy for this entire mechanism of domestic dictatorship, what protects and watches over the power on a global scale, is the NATO umbrella.

That is, my comrade; as those lawless detention periods in the prisons grow longer, your Sunday basket empties further. As police barricades are set up at the municipality's door, the legs of those dirty war tables in July are made all the more solid.

When we oppose NATO, we are targeting this entire integrated program of exploitation! To paralyze all the arms of the monster before us at once, it is our revolutionary duty to explain, one by one, the links of this fascist chain to each of our people in the street.

Let Us Demolish That Great Fallacy: "If We Leave NATO, Will Israel Attack Us?"

Let us come to that great fear-propaganda that the ruling classes and their media pour like poison into the consciousness of the people: "All right, fine, NATO isn't a good thing, but if we leave, Israel will attack us; who will protect us?"

This is a great fallacy from top to bottom, and the truth behind it is entirely a class matter. When we look through a Marxist lens, we see this naked truth: Israel and NATO are not two structures hostile to one another; they are two different arms of the same imperialist octopus.

Israel is the forward outpost of U.S. and Western imperialism in the Middle East; it is a military base driven into the region to suppress the peoples of the area.
NATO, in turn, is the official army of this global gang.

How can two structures serving the same boss (namely, global finance capital and the giant arms monopolies) obstruct one another? NATO will not protect Turkey from Israel; on the contrary, it imprisons Turkey within that dirty imperialist security architecture in which Israel, too, sits at the very center.

Look at the power and the capital class who deliver bombastic speeches against Israel in the squares. When the cameras turned off, didn't the ships heading from our ports to Israel, the iron and steel trade, the oil shipments, and the military cooperation quietly continue? Our stance here is clear: What secures a country's safety is not imperialist military pacts, but the organized power of that country's working class and the brotherhood of the peoples of the region. What will protect Turkey is not NATO's nuclear missiles, but the common anti-exploitation barricade that the workers of Turkey will build with the Arab, Kurdish, and Palestinian workers beyond the borders.

"Murderous Israel" at the Podium, "Bring On the Money" Behind the Camera: A Great Political Dissimulation!

Let us come to the famous "anti-Israel stance" of the RTE government and the domestic capital class—a stance reeking of insincerity.

Those who take the microphone at rally squares spare nothing; with cries of "Murderous Israel," "Tyrant Netanyahu," they exploit the religious and humane feelings of the people. But when the cameras turn off, the gears turning in the corridors of those ostentatious palaces tell something else entirely. The name of this process is clearly political dissimulation, comrades! They put on a theater while looking right into the eyes of the people.

Why, you ask? Because capitalism has no religion, no faith, no nation; capitalism has only one god, and that is the rate of profit.

History and the Street Are Witnesses: Even at the most heated moment of the Gaza process, even while bombs rained down on our Palestinian siblings, did the ships heading from this country's ports to Israel cease, one after another? No! Even when the government declared token "trade bans" to quell the anger of the domestic public, the capital class did not stop. What happened to the trade? It continued to dock at Israeli ports like clockwork, made to appear—through third countries, on paper—as if it were going to Greece, to Romania, even to Palestine itself.

Conclusion: Wherever We Are Is a Field of Action, Each of Us Is a Vanguard!

My comrades, my dear ones, my fellow travelers;

You see it, don't you? The enemy before us is governed from a single center, with a single class ambition. Our opposition to NATO is not an abstract foreign-policy debate, not an intellectual hobby confined to halls; it is precisely this country's fight for bread, justice, freedom, and life itself.

It is precisely for this reason that the immense picture in which we met eye to eye today in the hall of the Türkan Saylan Cultural Center revealed the very force that will shake those ostentatious imperialist tables of July 2026. In that hall today there were not only members of the Workers' Party of Turkey; all the revolutionary waves of Muğla and the Aegean, our comrades from different leftist and socialist parties, our unionists, the democrat friends with whom we stood shoulder to shoulder, and independent revolutionary wills were side by side.

In these places where we—that is, the revolutionary forces who want to throw a wrench into this machinery of exploitation—are made to appear few in number, where our voice is meant to be drowned among the mountains and coasts of Muğla, the importance of being together and of building unity of action is beyond price. Even if we stand under different emblems, the coming together of those who clench their fists with the same anger against the domestic and foreign overlords of capitalism and militarism is the most concrete mortar of that strong, unified leftist-socialist front we will build in the future. If we do not stand side by side and build a barricade shoulder to shoulder, they will strike us in our dispersal and crush us one by one. But today we showed that: if the enemy is shared, if the exploitation is shared, then the road to be walked against NATO, the armed guard of that exploitation, is also shared!

Even on days when we cannot take to the streets and hold rallies of thousands, when oppression and bans are intense, there is no falling into despair, no retreat, comrades. Wherever we are, every space, every breath of air we breathe is a field of action! Being a revolutionary is not a job to be done only in party buildings or at action podiums.

Our home, our factory, our coffeehouse is our trench of resistance: Starting tomorrow morning, each of us will spread into the streets as a transforming vanguard. To the retired uncle sitting beside you in the coffeehouse, thinking about how to get through the month on the few coins in his pocket, you will explain that direct bond between the NATO budget and his pension that has shriveled to nothing.
The Task of Raising Consciousness and Organizing Rests on Our Shoulders: While waiting at the bus stop, on break at the factory, while setting up a stall in the market, you will touch the shoulder of the worker beside you and, saying "Look, friend, this domestic-boss order that impoverishes us and the international armed force behind it, NATO, are products of the same workbench," you will awaken people. You will refute, one by one, with concrete examples from history, with the realities of the September 12 coups and the bloody Gladio massacres, those fallacies of "If we leave NATO, Israel will attack" that try to take people captive with fear and force them into submission.

As we spread consciousness into the streets, as we organize people against this dirty machinery neighborhood by neighborhood, house by house, those arrogant imperialist tables will begin to shake before they are even set. Remember, comrades; what creates the oceans is the united power of those small drops coming together. At this critical threshold on the way to the July summit, the force that will make the squares and streets of this country too narrow for the global bandits is this comradely unity of ours and the revolutionary faith we will carry into the streets.

I feel in my heart that magnificent determination in your eyes, that rightful anger spilling from the hall into the street. Our road is long, our fight is hard, but the power we draw from our righteousness is infinite.

How good that you exist, how good that we are side by side, right in the middle of this fight.

The future is ours, the future belongs to the working class!

Against Imperialism, NATO, and the Order of Exploitation, Shoulder to Shoulder!

There Is No Salvation Alone—Either All of Society or None of Us!

With all my heart, tightly, with faith and with that inexhaustible revolutionary enthusiasm, I embrace each of you as a comrade... May your fist be in the air and your head held high!