DELEGATES representing 52 communist and left parties met in Nicosia, Cyprus, yesterday to discuss the rising threat of fascism and reactionary forces across the world.

Opening the international conference, Cypriot party Akel general secretary Andros Kyprianou was quick to draw the parallels between the battle against fascism in the 1930s and ’40s and that of today.

“Seventy years since that victory, international developments are forming conditions similar to those present before the outbreak of the second world war,” Mr Kyprianoi warned.

“A deep capitalist ­crisis, the strengthening of ­racist and anti-immigrant forces, rising conflict between imperialist countries and hostility to communist and socialist forces.”

“Cyprus suffered from the consequences of the fascist coup d’etat in ’74. It suffered from imperialist interventions including, of course, the invasion and occupation by Turkey of half of our homeland, which continues today.

The Tudeh Party of Iran’s Navid Shomali, pointed out that reactionary and fascistic governments were not just a European phenomona.

“We have for nearly 35 years lived under a fascistic, reactionary government, supposedly ruling in the name of Islam, where repression, torture, execution of political opponents and barbarism are part of daily life,” he said.

“Five thousand communists and socialists were executed in ’88 in just three months — the entire leadership of our party — because they refused to accept the diktats of the theocratic regime. And the repression continues today.”