Following the referendum on 1 October, which the Spanish state attempted to stop through police violence, the Catalan assembly voted to implement the will of the people and unilaterally declared independence.

Joint statement by the Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party (DSIP) in Turkey and the International Socialists in the Netherlands:

The escalation of tensions between the Dutch and Turkish governments came to a head last weekend as the Dutch government declared the Turkish Minister of Family Affairs Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya an ‘unwanted immigrant’ and deported her from Dutch soil. Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb then unleashed riot police on Turkish-Dutch protesters that had gathered in front of the Turkish consulate.

While the big powers and their allies attempt to reach agreement on a transition which includes Assad, Turkey has launched a military operation in Syria, as it has long wanted to do, in order to strengthen its hand at the negotiating table.

The AKP government claims that Turkey and Iran are the two states which have most say on what happens in Syria.

The bombing of a wedding party in Gaziantep (South-East Turkey) by ISIS created a blood bath. At least 50 people have died.

Yet again, we are saddened by another atrocity. Since 5 July 2015* we are under constant attacks with bombings in Diyarbakir, Suruç, Ankara, İstanbul, Bursa, again Ankara and İstanbul, Elazığ, Van and again Diyarbakır. The lists keeps growing. Once a month we lose our brothers and sisters in ongoing bomb attacks. We stand in solidarity with the victims of these attacks.

Turkey is an interesting country. In a place that, together with the 15 July coup attempt, has experienced five serious coups, the concept of a coup is being applied to whatever anyone wants. The variety of uses of the concept of a coup rivals only the variety of uses for the concept of fascism.

Just as these days terms like “civil fascism”, “military fascism”, “colonial-type fascism”, “Islamofascism” and “open fascism” are often being used, so to about coups we hear “civil coup”, “Islamic coup” and “palace coup”.

This is not the reality.

The coup attempt that began on 15 July has been crushed by the heroic resistance of the people.

Across the country, mainly in Istanbul and Ankara, tens of thousands of people put up a resistance against the bullets and bombs in order to prevent the assigned soldiers from suspending governance by elected politicians and turning the country into an oppressive regime under a state of emergency.

We have been living through an attempted coup for the past few hours. A group within the army have been attempting to take power. Air Force jets have been flying low over Ankara. The Turkish Radio Television building has been bombed. There are still sounds of bombs exploding.

SON SAYI