World Youth Declared from Istanbul: We Have Entered the Age of Heroism

Anti-imperialist youth from 25 countries met in Istanbul at the International Anti-Imperialist Youth Festival, organised jointly by the Youth Union of Turkey (TGB) and WAYU. Alongside the speeches, the festival ran through panels, dance performances and concerts, and ended with the participants marching arm in arm.

On the 107th anniversary of 19 May, the youth declared the collapse of US imperialism and of NATO, and announced their determination to build the struggle together. Held at the Süleyman Seba Cultural Centre, the festival opened with a moment of silence and the national anthem.

“We are the rulers of the future”

Opening the festival, TGB Chair Kayahan Çetin said that a new world is being built through the struggle of the front-line countries against imperialist-Zionist aggression:

We are the ones who see not only the end of this order of hegemony, but also the society and the world of the future. Because we are the rulers of the future. We are the rulers of the decades ahead. We are the future of our states and our nations, and equally we are stakeholders in humanity’s community of common destiny.

Pointing to the necessity of struggle for peace, Çetin continued:

We want peace, production and just distribution. But we know that the way to win peace is to stop the aggressor. We know that peace cannot be won by anyone’s charity without fighting for our common security. We remember that every honourable peace has been won through revolutions.

International participation

Jiang Xuebin, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Ankara, also attended and addressed the festival. Noting that May is a month belonging to youth and to hope, the ambassador spoke of the Chinese youth day commemorated on 4 May alongside Turkey’s Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day.