60 Years of NATO – Enough!

This year sees the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), The governments of the West are planning to celebrate this event in grand style next April in Strasburg.

The antiwar and social movements in Europe and in the whole world are planning to ruin their fiesta. We are not prepared to allow these vultures celebrate their 60 years of crimes. The USA and its western allies established NATO in April 1949. It played a central role in the huge increase of military competition between the two blocs during the Cold War.

Today, nearly 20 years since the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact, NATO has been transformed into an instrument for the implementation of the interests of the USA and its allies over the rest of the planet. It supported and supports dictatorships and juntas while continuing to pursue wars and occupations all over the world. The administration of the war in Afghanistan is in the hands of NATO and 80% of military spending worldwide is carried out by its 26 member states.

NATO's attempt to expand further East creates instability and has already been the cause of the war between Russia and Georgia last August over North Ossetia.

The triangle of Greece-Turkey and Cyprus is very central to NATO plans in the M. East region. US maintain military bases in Turkey and Greece while Britain has two important bases in Cyprus, the two little 'Gibraltars', in Dekelia and Akrotiri.

Ordinary people in Cyprus, both Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot, paid and continue to pay a heavy price for the imperialist intervention of country member states of NATO. Many lives have been lost and a great deal of suffering was the result of NATO’s attempt to turn Cyprus into an unsinkable aircraft carrier to be used against the Middle East, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Afghanistan.

It’s imperative that we add our voices to those of hundreds of thousands of activists in the whole of Europe who are preparing to demonstrate against NATO under the slogan «60 years of NATO are enough».

UPDATED LIST of groups/organisations supporting the campaign:
Stop the War Coalition-Cyprus,New Cyprus Party (YKP), Workers Democracy, Cyprus Green Party, BARAKA Cultural Centre, Hands Across the Divide, RoofTop Theatre Group, Turkish Cypriot Teacher’s Trade Union, (KTÖS), Larnaka Cultural Association Initiative, IKME (Sociopolitical Studies Institute), New Cyprus Association, KISA (Action for Equality, Support, Antiracism), “Ammochostos Return”, Youth Against Nationalism, Political Movement SYNASPISMOS Cyprus, Cyprus Peace Platform, "United Cyprus"- Platform of G/C and T/C Teachers.