During the month of September a vicious wave of attacks by the state swept Turkish and Kurdish left. The police chiefs are bragging about accomplishing the biggest arrest operation in years. Within the course of several weeks they have unfolded a synchronized, well informed and planed operation of detaining, arresting and imprisoning of progressive journalists, writers, trade union leaders, human rights, youth, anti-imperialist war and socialist activists and revolutionaries in 20 cities across the country. The police has raided over 50 organizations and houses, among them: the newspaper Atilim’s central office and its branches in various cities, offices of the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed (ESP) in Istanbul and many other cities, offices of Socialist Youth Association (SGD) in various cities, shipbuilders’ and textile workers’ trade unions Limter-Is and Tekstil-Sen, Association of Labouring Women (EKD), youth and culture centre BEKSAV, local offices and cultural centres of the magazine Art and Life, Ozgur (Freedom) radio and houses of those who work for these organizations and of those who visit them have been raided almost simultaneously throughout Turkey and Northern Kurdistan. The police seized many documents, computers, hundreds of books, cassette tapes, CDs, mobile phones, contact lists and private notes. The police has detained over 120 revolutionaries and imprisoned 45 of them, having held a lot of them in the Anti-Terror Department of Vatan in Istanbul. Arrests, raids and imprisonments continue.

These attacks by the Turkish state are targeted mostly at the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Turkey/Northern Kurdistan and its ultimate goal is complete disablement of one of the most militant left organizations in the area. Planning of these acts of aggression against the organization may have started as far back as the party’s activities in organizing an anti-NATO summit in 2004 and were intensified after the party’s and numerous organizations’ leading the recent resistance against sending Turkish troops to Lebanon. They raise awareness and opposition of tens of thousands where the ruling Party of Justice and Development (AKP), which calls itself Islamic, sends its country’s sons in uniforms to defend and to die for Zionism.

The repressions were held under the auspices of the new Anti-Terror Law, which gives the state close to unlimited right for such persecution. Having bred the post September 11 hysteria, there is nothing easier for any state, which follows neo-liberal directions, than simply sticking a label "terrorist" onto anyone who is not convenient to them. As the examples of 17 Muslim men arrested in Toronto or a young Brazilian, mistaken for a terrorist and shot in London, show that labeling a person or a group as "terrorist" makes a state omnipotent and free to imprison or kill indiscriminately. Some of the arrested women in Turkey were forced to wear a label "Terrorist" when seeing their visitors and after refusal to wear one they were punished. Those of the arrested who refused to be searched naked were beaten and tortured. The arrested are often held in isolation type-F prisons in the attempt to break their will and communication. The newspaper Atilim was banned for a period of time merely for publishing the news about the arrest of its editor.

Despite this harsh strike, Turkish and Kurdish revolutionaries receive wide domestic and international support. Youth and women’s organizations, as well as trade unions organize press releases and rallies demanding release of their leaders. Prominent journalists and writers speak up about their support of the socialist press and join the campaign "work one day for Atilim". Volunteers sell the banned newspaper Atilim on the streets and door-to-door. Artists and intellectuals support those on hunger strike against isolation prisons. University students protest the visit by former Minister of Justice guilty of developing F-type prison system. Relatives of the imprisoned go to rally in Ankara, while activists block roads with slogans "You are not strong enough to defeat us!" Under these brutal conditions 1,500 people participate in the Social Forum of Turkey with seminars on "EU – union of monopolies and revolutionary alternative", "Anti-Terror Laws", "Imperialist aggression in the Middle East" and others. Panel by the Middle East Anti-imperialist Struggle Coordination takes place. Meanwhile, 15,000 architects and engineers hit the streets shouting "We want to live like human beings!" and pensioners march down the streets under the slogans "Enough is enough, the knife has reached the bone!" and "Budget for pensioners, not for IMF!" demonstrating that the banned socialist press and its leaders truly knew what they were talking about. At the same time, the revolutionary organizations, which have suffered under these atrocious attacks, receive numerous messages of support from anti-imperialist organizations all over the world, including, but not limited to Greece, Italy, Serbia, Germany, Spain, Holland, Canada, Argentina, Chile and India.

For some reason, when just barely catching a sniff of what state terror is, I had this feeling that my experience was not about Turkey, that Turkey was merely a training camp ground for what we all may soon face anywhere far way from this country, so well-known for its repressive practices. Russia is many times larger than Turkey by size and population, yet there police did not have difficulties singling out the leaders and synchronizing their actions across the country on detention of the activists and preventing them from attending the anti G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg. In Philippines the government of Gloria Arroyo kills communists, community activists, youth and priests under the pretext of "war on terror". How about regular reminders from Prime Minister Stephen Harper arriving lately in the mailbox of every Canadian kindly introducing the citizens to "more police on the streets" and "strengthening border security"? And to top it all, US Military Commissions Act of 2006, the most recent and important piece of legislation on the war on terror, which according to the executive director the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Anthony Romero, enables "the president -- with the approval of Congress -- indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions." Both, US Military Commissions Act and Turkish Anti-Terror Law give the government officials immunity from prosecution.

Let us not fool ourselves by sympathizing with the "unfortunate" oppressed Turks in that remote land and turning back to our local routine. Turkey is everywhere. Or will be, perhaps in our lifetime. Imperialism knows no boarders. Neither do its defense mechanisms. For this reason, let us treat the repressions against our comrades like they are repressions directly against us and show our unconditional support by: