On July 4, the historic 11th International Anti-imperialist Conference, organized by the World Anti-imperialist Platform and Struggle Unity (Türkiye), was successfully held online under the theme “World War 3 and the World Anti-imperialist Front.“
The World Anti-imperialist Platform was founded in Paris in October 2022 by anti-imperialist revolutionary parties and organizations. It upholds three principal objectives: advancing the global anti-imperialist struggle, waging the ideological struggle, and strengthening the international communist movement, and has been striving tirelessly to realize these goals. Since its founding at the Paris International Conference in October 2022, the Platform has organized International Anti-imperialist Conferences in Belgrade (December 2022), Caracas (March 2023), Seoul (May 2023), Athens (November 2023), Washington (July 2024), Dakar (October 2024), Amsterdam (June 2025), Caracas (October 2025), and Nairobi (May 2026). It has also organized the world anti-imperialist joint actions and numerous other mass rallies and activities as part of its ongoing struggle.
The 11th International Anti-imperialist Conference was held online in advance of the NATO Summit scheduled to take place in Ankara, Türkiye, on July 7–8.
Ahead of the NATO Summit, the Erdoğan fascist government has brutally detained approximately 500 activists since late June under the pretext of “preventive detention,” imprisoning some of them while severely suppressing anti-imperialist and anti-NATO activities and public opinion.
At around 3:00 a.m. on July 1, the Erdoğan fascist authorities raided the youth camp organized by the World Anti-imperialist Youth Platform and violently arrested a total of 24 people, including members of the Platform’s international delegation and Turkish youth activists. Applying the notorious fascist “Anti-Terror Law,” unprecedented in its severity, the Turkish authorities illegally detained and held more than twenty international progressive youth activists while banning all political events and gatherings, demonstrating an extremely repressive fascist practice. On July 5, the international delegates were ordered released by the court but simultaneously received deportation orders.
To guarantee the safety of the international delegates and ensure broad participation by comrades around the world, the Platform decided to hold the conference online instead of convening it in Istanbul, Türkiye, as originally planned.
The conference brought together 30 political parties and political organizations from Africa, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and other regions of the world.
Participants analyzed the grave reality in which people around the world are suffering from the destruction of their livelihoods as a result of imperialist aggression and plunder. They also conducted in-depth discussions on the strategies and tactics that the international communist movement must uphold amid the global situation marked by the accelerating Third World War.
The conference was chaired by the International Department of the People’s Democracy Party (PDP) of the ‘Repubic of Korea.’
Following the opening address by the Platform, a photo and video presentation was shown highlighting solidarity actions demanding the release of members of the Youth Platform taking place around the world.
This was followed by live speeches from Crispin Kabasele Tshimanga Babanya Kabudi, National President of the Union des Democrates Socialstes (UDS) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Imani Na Umoja, Political Bureau member of the PAIGC of Guinea-Bissau; Sobukwe Shukura of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP); Saïd Bakali, Head of International Relations of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) of Morocco; a representative of Struggle Unity of Türkiye; Karen Shakhnikyan of the Communist Party of Armenia; Hasan Almarzooq, Secretary General of the Unitary National Democratic Assemblage of Bahrain; Miguel Ángel of Unión Proletaria of Spain; and Aleksandar Đeni큓, Executive Secretary of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia of Serbia.
They were followed by live presentations from Pasquale Davide Guerra of CARC Party, Italy; No NATO National Coordination of Italy; Francesca Amoruso of the Freedom Flotilla, Italy; Gianni Pierini of Risorgere, Italy; and Jean-Paul Batisse of the PRCF of France.
Video presentations were then delivered by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); Alexander Babakov, First Deputy Chairman of A Just Russia and Chairman of the Organizing Committee of SOVINTERN, Russia; AFVN (Antifascist Former Resistance Fighters Netherlands); Stefan Petrov of September 23 Movement of Bulagaria; Gianmarco Pisa, Head of International Department of the Communist Party of Pupular Unity (PCUP), Italy; and Jesse Winney, Coordinator of No to NATO, UK.
Speech from Sergey Mikhaylov, Second Secretary of the DRPK International Youth Friendship League, Russia, and the speech of Alexander Mostov, Director of the Fourth Executive Department of the Central Committee of the DPRK International Solidarity Group, were read on his behalf.
Written statements were submitted by Jozef Bossuyt, Political Bureau member of the Communist Party of Belgium; Taimur Rahman, General Secretary of the Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP) of Pakistan; Mafa Kwanisai Mafa of Zimbabwe Movement of Pan-African Socialists; Mwaivu Kaluka, National Chair of the Communist Party Marxist Kenya; Rafael Aguiñada Carranza Inter-Union Coordinating Committee (CIRAC) of El Salvador; and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
A statement by the Revolutionary Theory Group of Greece, calling for the release of the detained youth activists, was also presented.
Finally, a written contribution by Stephen Cho, Organizer of the World Anti-imperialist Platform and Coordinator of the Korea International Forum, was presented.
The conference adopted and announced the historic “Istanbul Declaration: Dismantle NATO, the War Machine! Defeat Imperialism, the Root Cause of War!”, expressing the unanimous will of all participants.
The full text of the declaration follows.
[Istanbul Declaration]
Dismantle NATO, the War Machine! Defeat Imperialism, the Root Cause of War!
In July 2026, NATO will hold its Summit in Ankara. The purpose is to further discuss and review the implementation of last year’s Hague Summit decision to raise military spending by all NATO member states to 5% of GDP. It is also intended to strengthen support for Ukraine, isolate Iran, and intensify the encirclement of China. Through NATO, the Indo-Pacific Partners (IP4)—Japan, the ‘Republic of Korea (ROK)’, Australia, and New Zealand—are being drawn into military standardization and the integration of intelligence systems. A NATO Joint Forum with the four Gulf states—Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait—as well as a NATO Defense Industry and Emerging Technologies event are also scheduled. The Joint Forum is a venue for imperialist propaganda, while the defense industry event serves as an opportunity to integrate AI-based offensive weapons systems between NATO and pro-NATO states. NATO’s maneuvers to intensify World War 3 are thus unfolding in a systematic and comprehensive manner.
It has now been more than four years since the war in Ukraine—set in motion by the 2014 Maidan coup and entering a full-scale phase with Russia’s Special Military Operation in February 2022, which was launched as an unavoidable measure to halt NATO’s eastward expansion. World War 3 then spread from Ukraine to West Asia, including Palestine, in October 2023, and has since moved toward East Asia. In July 2024, through the Washington Summit and RIMPAC exercise, NATO completed the “Pacificization of NATO” not only politically but militarily as well. Then, in the autumn of that year, the aggressive imperialist forces and the ‘ROK’ fascist forces escalated their war provocations against the DPRK and attempted a coup within the ‘ROK,’ pushing the ‘ROK’ and East Asia as a whole to the brink of war. In February 2026, the imperialist aggression launched by US imperialism and the Israeli Zionists against Iran and other parts of West Asia once again placed the world in an extremely dangerous situation, with the threat of an East Asian war following the West Asian conflict―the full-scale escalation of World War 3―drawing ever closer.
NATO is conducting large-scale, multi-domain joint military exercises in Europe on a daily basis, and the spearhead of its attack is aimed entirely at Russia. It is no longer a secret that Ukraine’s drone attacks against Russia carry the risk of expanding and deepening the Ukrainian war into an Eastern European war, and from a conventional war into a nuclear war. It is in the same context that the invasion of Lebanon is continued by the Israeli Zionists, who oppose the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the USA, becoming a new detonator for a West Asian war. The forces behind the Ukrainian neo-Nazis and Israeli Zionists are none other than the aggressive imperialist forces, including NATO. Imperialism is trying to escalate regional wars through proxy wars using fascists as its stooges, and then use this as a springboard to transform and develop them into a world war. We must unconditionally thwart the expansion into an Eastern European war and the outbreak of an East Asian war, following the West Asian war, which imperialism is relentlessly pushing forward and which signifies the stage of full-scale escalation of World War 3.
With NATO as its war and massacre machine, imperialism is the main culprit of war and the root of all evil. Imperialism is trying to unleash a storm of nuclear war throughout the world, using NATO as the headquarters for World War 3. The dissolution of NATO and the overthrow of imperialism are the most urgent tasks of the people throughout the world who aspire to peace, independence, and liberation, and they constitute the strategic central link leading towards human emancipation. The aspiration of the people is always peace, not war; independence, not domination; and liberation, not subordination. Today, anti-NATO and anti-imperialism are the only way to prevent war, safeguard peace, and escape from domination and subordination; they are the banner of justice. Since its founding in October 2022, the World Anti-imperialist Platform, which has consistently waged practical struggles against NATO and imperialism as well as an ideological warfare against opportunism, will continue to fight even more vigorously at the forefront without faltering. We are convinced that the people throughout the world, firmly united in the world anti-imperialist front, will put an end to NATO and imperialism through an all-people’s resistance and bring forward the realization of the historical cause of permanent peace and global independence.
Disband NATO, the war machine and massacre machine!
Down with imperialism, the main culprit of war and the root of all evil!
July 4, 2026
World Anti-imperialist Platform
