On March 3, 2020, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued a statement regarding the refugee situation in the Greek-Turkish borders and the measures announced by the government. You can read previous statements by the KKE about the issue here and here





The statement is the following:





The latest developments, with the entrapment of thousands of refugees and immigrants on the Aegean islands and at the Greek-Turkish border in Evros, confirm once again that the EU and NATO policy that the Greek governments have followed and are fervently adhering to now is, on the one hand, responsible for the dissolution of countries and the uprooting of peoples and on the other, for the entrapment of uprooted peoples on islands and at borders. This policy has paved the way for Erdogan to try to impose his own objectives, using the refugee situation as a vehicle.







If now there is no dispute and conflict with this policy, with the Dublin Regulation and the EU-Turkey agreements, then no crackdown, no hypocritical voice of sensitivity and sympathy from EU officials, and no government missive on supposed solidarity from the EU , will be able to deal with the exacerbation of the problem.





What will happen is the number of dead will increase, among them young children, for refugees and immigrants to seek out even more dangerous escape routes and be preyed upon by traffickers and also by governments, such as the Erdogan government which exploits them for its own geopolitical games, but also to blackmail the EU - NATO - US for further exchanges in order to support its invasion of Syria.





At the special meeting of NATO ambassadors, where Turkey requested NATO assistance to maintain its occupation and essentially to annex Syrian territories which it has illegally invaded, the Greek government’s alleged response was to raise only the issue of respect on the part of Turkey for the EU - Turkey Refugee Agreement. If this is the case, it is very dangerous since it essentially condones the aggressive stance of the Turkish bourgeoisie at the expense of the sovereign rights of other countries and the breach of agreements which determine borders such as the Lausanne Agreement. The consequences of all this are paid for by the peoples.





So instead of ‘flexing its muscles’ against both destitute and drowned refugees and islanders, the ND government should show some attitude towards the EU and NATO, who view Turkey’s invasion of Idlib as "just", providing Erdogan with an alibi to exploit refugees and immigrants for the ambitions of the Turkish ruling class. We call on the ND government to withdraw from the Dublin Regulation and demand the annulment of the EU-Turkey Joint Statement which converts Greece into a warehouse of souls, and for refugees to go to their countries of destination.





In Evros and the Aegean the enemies of the Greek people are not the victims of capitalist barbarism, those who are uprooted by the wars and interventions launched by the US, NATO and the EU, with the support of all the Greek governments, in the interests of Greek capital. The enemy is the policy that, on the one hand, supports imperialist wars, increasing the waves of refugees and, on the other hand, turns Greece into a prison state to protect the EU "fortress".





The necessary guarding of the border at Evros cannot be used to legitimize far-right voices and actions, open and covert, promoted by the racist epithets of ministers, so that the perpetrators of this policy will remain unscathed. The reactionary, xenophobic voices seeking to turn the Greek people against the victims, refugees and immigrants, eventually become the best ally of those who create and sustain the problem, becoming the best ally of the Erdogan government, who is trying to use these people for its own purposes.





In this respect, we are opposed to and we consider the measures announced by the ND government to be a deadlock. In particular, the demand for the application of Article 78 (3) of the "Lisbon Treaty" for the involvement of the European Border-Coast Guard (Frontex), that is, foreign military rapid intervention teams to guard the Greek border, is moving in a dangerous direction and it will complicate the situation. After all, no solution to date has been provided by the involvement of NATO and Frontex in the Aegean. In fact, the exact opposite is true.





SYRIZA and the other parties do not say a word about the Dublin Regulation and the EU-Turkey Agreement which transform the islands, the country, into a center of "open" and "closed" entrapment.





We call on the Greek people, especially the people of the islands and border regions, to organize their struggle, focusing on those who are responsible and the causes that are at the root of the problem. To isolate both reactionary nationalism and repression, as well as the dangerous cosmopolitanism of the "open borders" theory. The people to be in solidarity with one another and to forge an alliance in their struggles against the bourgeois governments and their imperialist partners.





What is required now is:





• Abolition of the Dublin Regulation and the EU-Turkey Joint Statement, which is ineffective and inactive anyway.





• To close all the hot spots on the Aegean islands and not to create new ones, neither closed nor open





• Immediate release of refugees from the islands and fast-track procedures to be implemented for them to go to their countries of destination.





• The EU and UN to organize asylum procedures now, within Turkey and at the border with Greece and at the border with Syria, and direct movement of refugees to their countries of destination. This measure can support the right of refugees for protection under international conventions.





• An end to all participation, support and involvement in NATO, US and EU actions and operations in the Middle East region that support Turkey's invasion of Syria, interventions in Libya, perpetuating war and disaster.





ATHENS 3/3/2020





THE PB OF THE CC OF THE KKE



