Earlier this year the governments of Greece and Turkey came within minutes of declaring war over an uninhabited island in the Aegean sea.

The rulers of Greece, faced with a deep economic crisis, are betting their economic survival on expanding their role throughout the region of the Balkans, the Middle East and the Caucasus - i.e. getting their pound of flesh from the labor of the workers of the region. In their attempts at economic expansion, Athens comes up not only against its imperialist rivals, but also the capitalist rulers of Turkey. They have used this recent episode to whip up nationalist anti-Turkish sentiment and attempt to rally working people around their massive militarization and austerity program.

Twenty-two years ago the military dictatorship then running Greece staged a military coup in Cyprus with the aim of annexation. The rulers of Turkey responded by occupying the island's northern third, allegedly to protect the Turkish- Cypriot minority, and installed a puppet military regime. Greek and Turkish rulers are both responsible for partition, as well as British imperialism, which maintains two bases there, and Washington.

The recent Greek nationalist flag-waving affairs that led up to the killing of the two youths have nothing to do with the just cause of putting an end to the Turkish occupation and reunifying the island of Cyprus. They reinforce divisions between Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot working people and play into the hands of the annexationist aims of Greek imperialism. They come at a time when Greek capitalists are playing an ever greater role in the island's economy, using it as an export platform and as a base for their offshore companies. The working people of Cyprus have not yet spoken, neither through the demonstrators draped in the Greek flag asking for the Greek army to intervene, nor through the actions of the Gray Wolves and other armed fascist gangs brought in from Turkey to beat them up.

Working-class forces on both sides of the buffer zone must begin to answer the Greek and Turkish rulers' chauvinist campaign, which leads only to war and permanent partition. Such a united answer can begin to give lie to the rulers' claim that "Greeks and Turks cannot live together."

All foreign troops deployed in Cyprus are on obstacle to reunification and independence. British, UN and Greek imperialist troops, as well as Turkish occupation forces, must be removed from Cypriot soil.

The right to return of all refugees forcibly removed from their lands through the occupation and its aftermath -200,000 Greek- and 30,000 Turkish-Cypriots - must be guaranteed.

Unification can only be achieved on the basis of respect for the rights of the historically oppressed Turkish-Cypriot minority, including that of self-determination.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home