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October 31 2007
Iran has reported that it has documentation of U.$. ties to terrorism.(1) At the moment it appears that the united $tates is sheltering what the Bush administration itself calls a "terrorist" organization called the PKK, a national liberation organization of the Kurds. The U.$.-puppet regime in Turkey is in trouble, because the people of Turkey are fed up with U.$. imperialism, for among other reasons allowing U.$. imperialism to set the Kurds against the Turks.
First it was the attack on neighbor Iraq that the people of Muslim Turkey never supported. Asked to join the war, the Turkish people successfully pressured their legislature to say "no," as polls showed 90% Turkish opposition to Turkish support for the U.$. war on Saddam Hussein.(2) Even before recent events with Kurds and Armenians, the Turkish public only gave the united $tates a 9% favorability rating.(3) It's another example of something which MIM has explained where exploited nations are natural candidates for anti-Amerikkkanism. The fact that the united $tates is Turkey's treaty partner and has bases in Turkey, yet, Turkish people line up so strongly against imperialist war shows what a difference it makes to start with exploited people instead of Amerikans.
Nonetheless, because of U.$. ties to the military elite in Turkey, Turkey plays the lead role in back-up logistics for the Iraq War. "About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey, as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military there."(4) The exploited masses of Turkey do not agree with this behavior by their lackey government.
Turkey joined the U.$. military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The primary benefit to Turkey is that NATO gives Turkey equal standing with Greece in conflicts over Cyprus,(5) an island country in the Mediterranean.
The NATO alliance also opened the way to a close relationship with the I$raeli imperialists. In their September 6 attack on Syria, I$rael made use of Turkish territory to drop fuel tanks from their planes,(6) as if to prove to Syria that it is surrounded. The people of Turkey do not agree with this relationship to I$rael either. The September 6 attack again emphasizes that Turkey is a lackey of imperialism.
There is also an historical issue with Armenia. The Armenians say that World War I era attacks on Armenians by Turks of the Ottoman Empire were "genocide." Turks tend to believe that an Armenian minority was treasonous during World War I, so that the massacres were war-related. One thing we can be sure--the Turkish people did not like to hear about this from the U.S. House of Representatives. A committee in the House voted to name the slaughter of Armenians as an official "genocide."(7) We have yet to hear the same thing from the House about the U.$. bombing of Vietnam that killed millions.
Now we have icing on the cake. Another oppressed nationality inside Turkey, the Kurds are fighting Turkey from bases in U.$.-occupied Iraq. Whenever Turkey asks the united $tates to control the Kurds, the Amerikans fail and the Kurds cross the border into Turkey to launch attacks.
The leading organization attacking Turkey is the PKK, an organization with an ideological history somewhat similar to our own. The PKK is in effect again causing the Turkish people to question their relationship to U.$. imperialism. Turkish chauvinist hatred of Kurds plays into hatred of Amerikans.
In July, a party campaigning for war against the Kurds lost while puppet Erdogan's party won 47%.(8) Then the PKK killed 13 Turkish soldiers on October 7, which caused the Turkish legislature to approve an invasion of Iraq after all, on behalf of Turkey and against the united $tates.(9)
Now U.$. lackey Erdogan will report to his master George Bush on November 5. Bush moved to quell the Armenian resolution in Congress, but Congress has made it clear that it is just a matter of time before the resolution passes.
For his part, Erdogan has to balance his desire to serve his master against stirring up his own people too much by appearing stooge-like. In truth, many problems in Turkey would dissolve if it took up a path independent of the united $tates and had its own social revolution against semi-feudalism.
What ails Turkey is that it is an exploited nation suffering under U.$.-backed semi-feudalism. The anti-Amerikkkan class struggle expresses itself in various forms including complaints ranging from Iraq, to Kurds to Armenians.
The U.$. imperialists see Turkey as a model Muslim nation, because of their tight military alliance. The U.$. imperialists also provide political support for Turkey to join the European Union.
While we are on the subject of the European Union (EU), we will say that the expansion of the European Union is the "nice" way of imperialist politics. The EU may offer Turkey a merger for business, customs and other purposes. It remains to be seen whether the EU will continue with its appeal for Turkey or whether Turkey turns toward the East.
Notes:
1. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aRFSj0VYD.DU&refer=uk
2. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,427343,00.html
3. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/10/20071031-15.html
4. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHDG79AIius7McB6xz3lTQFLIdhQD8SJPPH80 ;
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gnPpwRiOsjgI0z57NytZve0-sHMgD8SBQSIO0
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus
6. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5huUBnG1swmDpqMV6Kk7vOIuZ0dzAD8SIKQPO0
7. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/europe/12turkey.html?bl&ex=1192248000&en=b698745fe9b69c4d&ei=5087%0A
8. http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2795638.ece
9. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0767309620071007