Leaders of various leftist movements in Europe advocated this Friday in Athens for disintegrating NATO and promoting an alliance of non-aligned countries as the only way to achieve a stable peace.

In the so-called Athens Declaration, the Progressive International, the European left-wing movement DiEM25, and its Hellenic section, MeRA25, asserted that “lasting peace can only be achieved by replacing all military blocs with an international security framework that de-escalates tensions, expands freedoms, combat poverty, limit exploitation, pursue social and environmental justice, and end the rule of one country over another .”

The statement was presented at a press conference by the former Minister of Finance and Secretary-General of MeRA25, Yanis Varufakis; the former leader of the British Labor Party Jeremy Corbyn, and the Turkish journalist and writer Ece Temelkuran, who like other critics of the Ankara regime, opted for exile and lives in Zagreb.

” We reject the division of the world into military blocs, for this reason we invite all the democrats of the world to join forces in a non-aligned movement, ” Varufakis began.

The statement makes it clear that the signatories are on the side of the Ukrainian people, “as we are with all peoples who are suffering invasions, uprooting, and occupations.””

For this reason, they demand an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops, and a comprehensive peace agreement guaranteed by the European Union, the United States, and Russia under the auspices of the UN.

Temelkuran explained that this initiative is intended to be a “call to logic”, which comes at a critical moment in the war in Ukraine, in which “we are closer to a full-scale war than we think.”

Corbyn expressed his concern that the language in the European Union is one of war and not peace and criticized the United Nations for not having been involved before the outbreak of the armed conflict.

“We had an opportunity in 1991, with the disintegration of the USSR, to leave the big military blocs and we missed it, but now we can have another opportunity,” said the Labor MP.

Varufakis argued that the existence of large military blocs “generates insecurity and increases tension” in certain regions, and therefore considered that the shipment of weapons to Ukraine contributes to the increase in deaths and the escalation of a conflict that ” Ukraine is not going to win “.

The Greek leftist leader also rejected the idea of a European army, something that in his opinion would require a political union, now non-existent, and consequently an answer to the question: “Who would command those troops?”

He even described as “theft” the recent proposal by the EU Foreign Affairs representative, Josep Borrell, on the possible confiscation of Russian money for the reconstruction of Ukraine, something that the United States already did at the time with Afghan money.

For his part, the British deputy reflected on the double standards that apply to refugees who do not come from the war in Ukraine.

“The support and attention we offer to the Ukrainians are very good, but the same support is not received by the victims of the conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, or Palestine,” he stressed.