The Imperialist War of Division Continues

“Let them hate, provided they fear.”[1]

The new period ushered in after the collapse of the Soviet Union was marked by the upset of old balance of forces. For US imperialism this period means forcing its strategy of getting an acceptance as the sole hegemonic power. This strategy materializes in the designs of America to mould a uni-polar world by relying on her military power. One of the most important links in implementing these designs was the placing of Bush Junior to the chair of presidency by a doubtful election. After the 9/11 attacks the hawks of American imperialism has gone on the offensive under the pretext of eradicating the “sources of evil”.

In the ideological field, on the other hand, the falsification of the concepts is accompanied by the attack of US imperialism to re-shape the world. For instance, the vision of President Bush who stands for the American imperialist belligerence is presented as “reducing the suffering all over the world and pre-empting to secure the victory of peace and, if necessary, acting unilaterally for the complete reorganisation of the world”. Therefore, what they call the ferociousness of the imperialist death machines is “to reduce the suffering”, the name of the war “peace”, and of the occupation “pre-emptive strike” and finally of the chaos as “new order”!

The capitalist system personified in the imperialist tyranny of Bush and co. ushered in a new period that the glibly fooling of the masses has gradually turned out impossible. Hence, the attempts of the hegemonic power of the imperialist system, the USA, to maintain its rule by stupefying and horrifying the masses. The USA’s ideological apparatus have undertaken to paralyse the masses through creating a general fear and anxiety psychology both within and outside the country and, in turn, to pacify them. The arch-imperialist boasts of having a war machine able to exterminate the lives of millions of people whenever it wishes. With its superior arms technology, the US intimidates all rival or opposing powers that do not want to submit and sends the message to the whole world: “Let them hate, provided they fear.”

The armaments and war expenditures of the USA surpass the next ten countries sum total. For example, the USA in 2002 allotted 329, 1 billion dollars for the war technology, while Russia 65, China 47, Japan 40,3, Britain 35,4, France 33,6 and finally Germany 27,5 billion dollars. Furthermore, with the Iraqi war, the defense expenditures of the USA already increased to $360 billions. The American oil and arms monopolies have long been waiting for their turns to increase their profits. While the world public opinion discuss Bush’s IQ, the so-called hawks, who are situated in the boards of these monopolies, did not push him to the chair of presidency for nothing.

The attitude of the USA, the supreme power of the world capitalist system, displays the psychology of a decadent social formation which has been dragging to the rubbish-bin of history. An “empire” which tries to re-shape the world based exclusively on its military superiority means to have lost its plausibility for the masses. The world is now face to face with ferocious crises of the rulers who have turned into a battle-axe as their unfairness was revealed just as in the fall of the Roman Empire. It is not in vain that the ideologues of the modern Caligula, i.e. Bush, called the operation which blasted Iraq in flames shock and awe operation.

The Iraqi War was the first act of the horror “play” staged by the aggressor American monopolies. In this act, the arch-dictator occupied the lands called Iraq under the subterfuge of the acts of another dictator. This act was rather short but the “play” goes on. It is high time for the actors who are to perform the imperialist war of division called Iraqi reconstruction.

The despot is “dead”, long live the new “despot”!

The main theme of argument before the war was that the war would be a test to demonstrate the military power of the USA to the whole world. Iraq was but a weak link intentionally chosen for the war strategies of the American imperialists in the Middle East. Having already lost its military power in the First Gulf War and also economically exhausted due to the subsequent sanctions, Iraq lacked the necessary power to resist. The Iraqi people have already been wretched due to the war as well as the oppression of Saddam’s regime and the hunger. For example, at least 500 thousand children died for lack of food, medicine, water and care caused by the imperialist embargo since the inception of the First Gulf War.

When the coalition forces started bombing Baghdad in the Iraqi War the international TV correspondents commented upon the intensity of the air raids as “colossal, colossal explosions”. The city was rocked by the shock waves and Rumsfeld remarked that they were open for the negotiations of the surrender of the Iraqi leadership. It is unknown what happened behind the closed doors, whether Saddam and co. truly negotiated with the Americans as alleged by some American officials. But one thing is clear: that the Iraqi War lasted short and Baghdad fell under the intense bombardments by the USA in the twenty-first day of the war. Neither the struggle of the Republican Guard nor any other significant resistance took place against attack of the coalition forces. This was, in the recently popular expression, like a postmodern war. Thus, we could learn nothing about what precisely happened during the war, how many people died, injured, disabled, and what betided to the defeated Iraqi ruling class, specially Saddam.

The American media broadcast the war live according to their interests. Even after the fall of Baghdad they kept on reflecting the events according to their fiction. According to the story, the Iraqi people grinned a welcome in the streets as they were unyoked from Saddam the despot, and tore down the Saddam statues which were the symbols of a tyrannical dictatorship. Thereafter, the people plundered many ministries, museums, (why! excluding the strategic points like the ministry of oil protected by the American soldiers!) consulates, shops and stores. All these events were recounted to the world by the news media under the direct control of the US and British armed powers. Once the colonialist ruler of the world, England, now, collaborated with the arch-imperialist of the modern times, USA, and seemingly undertook to devastate the history of the oldest cradle of the civilisation, Middle East and a cultural and historical loot. While the historical artefacts in the Mesopotamian museums were plundered by the imperialist smugglers, the utterly impudent “white men”, moreover, accused the Iraqi people of plunder! They declare that the Middle Eastern people are “primitive and backward creatures” and they are claimed to be the champion of the “clash of civilizations”. The related materials on TV was but a “film” co-produced by the US and British imperialists to brainwash with the ideological motives.

We watched this film before! Remember, at the beginning of the film the Western general proclaims that the Iraqi people will hail them with flowers. Nevertheless, towards the end of the film the very same general realizes that no matter how the Iraqi people hate the Saddam regime they deem the occupiers as they are, not the “saviours”. Following the scene, some Iraqi walk-ons are hired to smile the American soldiers alongside the Baghdad streets in order to hide the reality. The title of the film is “the Empire of Lies”!

However, the truth is that the head of the Baathist regime in Iraq, the tyrannical despot Saddam was overthrown but ushered in a period of occupation and tyranny which, according to the plans of the American imperialism, will last for a long time. The head of the coalition forces, the duo of Bush and Blair, try to fob off the masses with the illusion that it is the “launching of the period of freedom in Iraq”. They try to abuse the inability of the Iraqi people to resist the imperialist occupation to underscore their distortions. However, the case is quite different. It is entirely related to the character of the despotic dictatorships which have been the distressing reality of the Middle Eastern countries. Having long been outside the political life, oppressed under the consecutive regimes of the shrew dictators in unconscious and unorganized circumstances, the masses cannot take the initiative and come to the fore to determine their own destinies. On the other hand, the dictators that ban all sort of opposition and maintain their rules by repression of the masses realize that there is not but a person to support him when the “last scene” starts. Therefore, it is hardly odd that there was not any significant resistance during the fall of Baghdad, including the Republican Guard which once did not even let the birds fly near Saddam. Furthermore, the history has demonstrated many times that the despots like Saddam, in order to survive, bargains even with the “devil”.

The most important element of the imperialist ideological attacks following the fall of Baghdad has been to compare them with the destinies of the bureaucratic regimes collapsed one after another after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They try to capitalize the given state of affairs by using the fall of the despotic dictatorships in the Middle East as a pretext to attack Marxism and socialism as it was during the process of the 1990’s. The imperialist ideologues identify the regimes in the Middle East with the bureaucratic formations in the Soviet Union and the kind, adding, moreover, a label of “socialism” too. Other than having nothing in common with socialism, the despotic dictatorships in the Middle East are not quite similar with the bureaucratic regimes formed around the Soviet Union in the past.

In the past the Stalinist ideologues used to term the socio-economic formation in the Middle East as non-capitalist course of development. However, these countries bear the similar features with the disintegration process (with the effects of world capitalism) of the Ottoman Empire which they are a historical extension of. The characteristic of these processes is not a break from the capitalist system, but on the contrary a belatedness in their integration to the world capitalist system, which arises from the Asiatic-despotic formation in their history. In such countries the capitalist line of development is entirely different from the classical process in the West. In these countries which are historically based on Asiatic formations, the state played a direct and fairly important role though the old despotic state and its former ruling state class wasn’t overthrown. The socio-economic structure retained an unwieldy and utmost bureaucratic state capitalism character arising from the intense étatism during the process of capitalist development. Briefly, on the one hand these countries experienced a peculiar process of capitalist development; on the other hand, the preservation of state organization of a kind of despotic dictatorship, a relic of the past, is the main reason of the intensive contradictions in the region of an Asiatic history.

The attempts of the imperialists to slander socialism relying on the despotic features of the dictatorships in the Middle East are precisely what one may expect from the mentors of the “Empire of Lies”. However, the bourgeois ideologues skip a quite important point when they enumerate the destinies of the similar dictators with an analogy to Saddam’s fall. The truths of life cannot be removed by fabricating fairy tales on the basis of the demolished statues of dictators. Let the imperialists bother themselves, to no avail, with extending their propaganda of the overthrown dictators from Saddam to even Lenin. What they should remember is that they will never be able to reduce the importance of the revolutionary Marxist leaders like Lenin who had always hated the Asiatic despotism and struggled against all sorts of tyrannical dictatorships, to a demolished statue.

If they desire to specify the names of the dictators on the same page with Saddam the names are self-evident. Though we cannot term them as despotic in the scientific sense of the word we should add the names of Bush and Blair to the list as a representative for the leading imperialist dictatorships of modern times. And, moreover, the history of the proletariat will absolutely register the fall of these despots too. The prettier side of the coin is that the period of all modern “despots”, all kind of class exploitation and tyranny will culminate with the consignment of the imperialist rulers to the rubbish-bin of history!

Imperialists’ need to reconstruct the Middle East

For the imperialists the Middle East must, in general, be reshaped not only for the interests of the arms and oil monopolies but also to get the capitalist system out of the recession. During the presence of the Soviet Union the region, which affected by the balance between the two super-powers, could not rightly integrate to the capitalist system. The imperialist monopolies deemed the Middle Eastern countries as unprofitable and unreliable area of investment. For years the imperialist powers accepted the area as almost a source of oil and arms market.

However, the capitalist system must have reorganized the region safely enough for capitalist investments in order to overcome the long-term recessions like the one in 1974, which was then called “oil crisis”. Nevertheless, it would never be possible as long as the influence of the Soviet Union sustained and, in turn, the despotic dictatorships peculiar to the Arab states existed. The capitalist monopolies, to make considerable investments, always seek for political structures that they will be able to control and also political stability in the same line. But the during the period of the Soviet Union these countries, like Egypt, Syria, or Iraq, responded to the clashes with the imperialist powers with the nationalisation of the oil sources –the most important source of income– and the other national sources.

The reason for the survival of these regimes for many years in these countries was etatism and a dynasty rule based commonly on oil income. Consequently, they gradually underwent a process of regression due to the inertia caused by the very structure of the system. The economic fall and stagnation in these countries are astounding. For example, national income per capita in Saudi Arabia, the richest country in the Middle East, has dropped by 60 percent since 1980. The unemployment rate in these countries is incredible, the people have become more and more impoverished. The public funds, within the despotic-state controlled structure of the Arabic realm, are squandered for public constructions serves for naught and for the purchase of useless materials or construction of nonfunctional roads. The oil dollars cannot be transformed to the investments that would strengthen the economical development in these countries; but, instead, used for making the private accounts of the ruling dynasties and statesmen in other countries swell. The governments have long kept the toiling masses under extremely backward conditions for the preservation of their rules and intentionally have not developed the education and health system. They have used the religion factor to pacify the people for years. They, when suited their interests, paved the way for many large and small radical Islam organizations which used an anti-Western rhetoric.

However, such formations, henceforth, obstructs the world capitalist system and must ultimately be liquidated. Having long maintained their rules in the Middle East, these formations once again signify an important reality for Marxists: The nationalisation under a state rule organised in the form of despotic dictatorships have never benefited the proletariat and the toiling masses. On the contrary, state property in such regimes mean but to reinforce the despotic rule of the ruling class or the dynasty that controls it. For example, the Iraqi people had day by day been impoverished during the 25-year reign of Saddam and national income per capita dropped from 10 thousand dollars to below one thousand dollars.

The imperialist monopolies had to wait for the collapse of the Soviet Union to re-shape the Middle East. Just as the liquidation of the so-called socialist bloc was a necessary precondition for the integration of the Eastern European countries into the capitalist system, so was the case for the Middle Eastern countries in a sense. The imperialist powers gilded the mobilizations for the Eastern bloc countries during the collapse of the Soviet Union with the motives of “freedom and democratisations”, the capitalists, in the same way, carry out the same plans for the Middle East. Hence, the statement in the 2002 report of the United Nations concerning the development of the region: “The wave of democratisation that had transformed a greater part of Latin America in 1980’s, the Eastern Asia, the Eastern Europe and the Middle Asia in 1990’s has yet reached the Arab states.”

What marks the difference in the process ushered in with the Iraqi War is that: Alarmed at the decline of economy, the USA wanted to re-prove its hegemony basing itself on its military power. Therefore, the mobilization aimed at the Middle East was hastily introduced in an extremely unrestrained and tactless manner and, in turn, singled out the rival powers. Then, the ambitions of the German-French bloc which did not support the military intervention of the USA or the other imperialist-capitalist powers are no less than that of the American imperialists.

“Seven Sisters” at work

One of the most tangible expectations of the United States in the region is undoubtedly to control the oil production and the oil prices. Due to the economic crisis, demand of cheap energy and, in turn, use of the oil sources in the Middle East for the interests of the USA economy is a vital prospect for the American monopolies. Hence, the Iraqi War is viewed as an “oil war” in the world public opinion and the American imperialists as invading oil looters. In order to balance the dissenting voices, Powell seeks refuge in cheap lies. “If we occupy Iraq, the oil will be used for the interests of the Iraqi people”

However, the main goal is to annul the oil agreements with the Russian, French and Chinese corporations signed during the Saddam period and, in turn, to put pressure on OPEC and subsequently threaten the other oil producer countries. Remember that the Russian oil company Lukoil had agreed with Iraq before the Iraqi War and the Chinese state company was about to come to terms several months before the war. According to a report by the Counsil of Forign Affairs of the US, the oil production in Iraq which has the second biggest oil reserves, will probably rise from nearly 2,5 million barrels per day to 4,2-6 million barrels. However, it is obvious that it would hardly suffice to reach the capacity of Saudi Arabia which is over 8 million barrels per day and, therefore, Saudi Arabia is also in the list of targets of the USA.

It is stated in Newsweek that the American and British oil corporations called “Seven Sisters” would get the greatest profit after the war. Thus, the companies including Exxon Mobil, ChevronTexaco, Shell and BP will have regained their privileges that they had lost 40 years ago during the nationalisation of the Iraqi oils. It is also stated that these companies would sign a deal for sharing the production with the new Iraqi government and utilize all sorts of exemption based on its share oil fields. Briefly, the imperialist oil monopolies will share in the stocks of the oil fields and be exempted of the national laws like national tax, environmental laws etc. until the consumption of the oil fields. The American and British imperialists, who waged the Iraqi War, do never want the rival imperialist powers to get the bigger lot in the division of the so-called reconstruction that will be carried out after the war. The American corporations are definitely expected to get the biggest share of the contracts for the reconstruction of the energy, communication, transportation and other sub-structural works adding up to billion dollars. That’s why the British ally is said to be offended.

Despite the statements that the Coalition will have difficulty to carry out its responsibilities on its own, such statements are but tactics that serves to dispel the post-war tension. As a matter of fact, Bush and co. made fun of the situation saying that the UN will be given the role of “vital walk-on” and the other countries may contribute by supplying food, medicine, humanitarian aid or proposing some candidates for the transitional government. An outspoken ideologue of the aggressive imperialists of the US, Richard Perle made statements like “the UN fortunately collapsed, we have NATO at our disposal”. Briefly, the case is a dog fight which apparently will aggravate, between the two imperialist powers. France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, in a mini summit held in Brussels, decided upon the reinforcement of the European defence and the establishment of a headquarters for the emergency power of intervention by 2004. The US carries out the preparations to shift the units of NATO in the Western European countries, particularly in Germany, to the Eastern European countries. The “new favourites” inserted into the EU as the Trojan horses of the USA are considered apt for the operations in the Middle East and in Africa. Moreover, it is planned to shift the forces of the United States in the Mediterranean to the Western Africa. Having re-shaped at the own discretion of the US to preserve its position as the unarguable boss of the imperialist system, our world keeps on the prolongation of its “orderly” sequence, quite abundant of “freedom” and “democracy”. It’s too much for words!

The American ideologues give examples from the post-WWII process to point out that the American monopolies are not destructive but “constructive” powers. An American undersecretary states that they do not steal from other nations and that this war is not, and cannot be, a means of gaining profit: “We did not plunder Germany or Japan; on the contrary, we aided to the reconstruction of these countries”. The undersecretary often reminds of the statements of the President Bush that “we left them constitutions and parliaments, not armies of occupation”. Though Iraq now seems to be an American state governed by a “general governor” called the general Franks, it is probable that the US establish a government gathered from the various Iraqi sections as in Japan following the rule of General MacArthur in the past or today in Afghanistan with the government of Karzai. The relations will hardly calm down in short run in Iraq or in the Middle East. In fact, these are the characteristic of the imperialist expansionist stage of capitalism. The international expansion and exploitation in the imperialist stage of capitalism realizes in the shape of such “constitutions, parliaments”, “aids for reconstruction”. And swear to god that the hegemonic power of the imperialist-capitalist system, the USA, has acquired nothing from the imperialist expansion since the Second World War and did everything for the sake of world!...

One, Two, Three, more “Philistine”!

The commentators closely know the reality of the Middle East says that the USA will entirely settle in Iraq. It is correct. Having gathered its military forces in the Gulf region under the subterfuge of the First Gulf War the USA have not still withdrawn its forces after a decade. The USA possesses various bases situated in the Arabic sea and lands. Now Iraq has almost completely been transformed into a military base for the occupying Yankees. Though the American general was deposed from its position in Iraqi administration and replaced by a pro-American Iraqi government the intention of the Coalition forces is to use Iraq as a military base to attack the other “evil countries”. Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia are among the countries that the US imperialists (which carrying out its plans to settle in Iraq after the Iraqi War) intend to change the political regime of and, in turn, initiate the reconstruction works. Therefore, Bush and co. had initially stated that the war would last long before he declared war against the countries of the “axis of evil” after September 11. Likewise, as soon as the Baghdad fell the military staff of the Coalition started the preparations for the attacks against Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia etc. Specialized in making up bizarre names for the imperialist attacks the US ideologues term their plans for attacks in the Middle East as the thesis of democratic domino. Having two goals in their minds the imperialist specialists not only compels the other countries to surrender without resistance like the defeat of Iraq but also brainwashes the Arabic people with the tale of “the movement of democracy” who were fed up with the Baath-type oppressive regimes.

The ruling imperialist powers have always pursued the policy of divide and rule. The fragmented structure of the Middle East, the unresolved Kurdish question or the Palestinian question is precisely the result of the plans of the Anglo-American imperialists to incite and play off the peoples in that region. Now, these imperialists are allegedly to resolve the Kurdish question and Palestinian question in the Middle East within the framework of their plans. The realisations of these plans on its own constitute a major problem owing to the multifaceted balance of forces. Nevertheless, the American imperialists leaning on the military superiority employs themselves with various road maps, led by the one for the solution of the Palestinian-Israeli question. This “map” is a good example for what the imperialists solutions imposed to the peoples in this region mean. The Palestinian question is asked to be solved by the interests of the Israeli big bourgeoisie which, in turn, is an offshoot of the US ruling circles. Nor the destiny of the Kurdish groups that assigned with the solution of the reconstruction of the political regime in Iraq is hardly obscure. We should remember the years-long bloody chaos in Lebanon created by the imperialist powers due to their attempts to resolve the question in the Middle East. Likewise, it is obvious that the imperialist impositions like the “Oslo Treaty” shall not endure the realities of life and that the Palestinian people have long suffered.

In the light of these realities, the long-term war plans of American imperialists obviously serves but to create more than one “Philistine” in the region. Though the imperialist monopolies need appropriate solutions to develop the capitalist market, one must bear in mind that what is involved here is the Middle East! And it is quite hard to bring an end to the war of division and stabilize the region. Most of the Middle East history is marked with the wars waged for the division of the natural resources by the ruling powers. Now the copper and tin wars were replaced by the oil wars and is said to be waged for the water resources in the future. Therefore, as long as the capitalist system exists, there is almost no hope for a salvation from wars in the Middle East. The propaganda conducted by the imperialists that would usher in a pax-Americana period is but a sheer lie. The Middle East shall have peace and freedom only if the proletariat and the toilers fight for that.

Turkey to fall out of favour?

What the position of Turkey will be in the context of the new world correlations has been a major problem. The relations with the EU are quite important for the big capital circles for they want to reinforce the existing commercial and economic relations with the European countries. Moreover, the relations with the USA are hardly ignorable which constitutes a strategic importance for the Turkish bourgeoisie. Furthermore, the USA, being a super-power, inevitably meddles in every equation. In addition to all these factors, Turkey geographically is precisely in the midst of a vast area including Russia, the Middle East, Caucasus and the Balkans which is right in the heart of a region of instant strives that continuously takes place between the imperialist powers. The ruling bourgeoisie of Turkey which strategically constitutes a touchy place in the region, carried away with early and unfounded expectations for the crystallisation of its position in the “new world order”.

Following the establishment of the AKP government an optimistic mood overspread. With the support of the USA it would be possible to advance on the path of the EU and, moreover, have a word for the imperialist re-division around the sphere of the lands of Turkey. On the other hand, that the military-civil bureaucracy, the traditional focus of power in Turkey, could not tolerate the AKP government was a constant potential for a political crisis. Yet, there were still hopes that these conservative circles would offer a full support to the strategy of big capital to go for good relations with the EU and the USA, and, thus, Turkey would be freed from obstacles in its course. Furthermore, the USA also, to legitimize its actions in the eyes of the Arab states, marketed Turkey as a paragon for the countries in the region which has a moderate Muslim government. The belligerent USA had great expectations from its strategic ally, Turkey. However, things did not at all go along as planned before.

According to the recent analyses of the American imperialists, the Turkish military staff and the AKP government did not execute the tasks that the USA expected before and during the war as well. Though the tension was portrayed as a controversy on the government motion or money bargains, the underlying reason was the question of the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in Northern Iraq. On this question the traditional focuses of power in Turkey, chiefly the military staff, cannot reach an agreement with the American plans. Establishment of an independent Kurdish state in Northern Iraq will whet the appetite of the Kurdish people in the Turkish Kurdistan has been the sempiternal fear of the Turkish military and civil bureaucracy. On the other hand, the Turkish big bourgeois circles argues for the globalisation for years considers the Kurdish and Cyprus problem as an obstacle and have been tired of the official theses of the traditional state power which has been adamant on the upholding of the question. The official ideology of the state, Kemalism, which consisted of a fierce hostility towards communists, Kurds and religious people throughout the history of the Turkish Republic, fetters the expansion process of Turkish capitalism and this fact is explicitly stated in the reports of the imperialist associations.

During the Iraqi War the Turkish generals embarked on independent moves despite the discontent of the USA. However, the Turkish General Staff is dependent on the US imperialists via NATO. Nevertheless, they leaning on the notion that the strategic position of Turkey is indispensable exaggerated their importance and tried to oppose the USA. And then, we ushered in the period that the American-Turkish relations gradually relapsed. The imperialist powers, in such regions like the Middle East where they established their hegemony, have no tolerance for the self-acting of the countries like Turkey and Iran which have relative potentials to expand. Indeed, the US imperialists keep their eyes on Turkey and Iran.

That the traditional nationalist powers of state in Turkey took no account of the political offers of the big capital organisations like TUSIAD for the solution of the Cyprian and Kurdish problem has long blocked the political life in Turkey. That is the main reason for the AKP government wear out in short run though it was initially greeted with enthusiasm by the big business circles. The revival of the economic importance and the strategic role that the big bourgeoisie has tried to attach to Turkey in the eyes of the USA and EU will be impossible unless the question is solved. A most striking example is that the once significant position of Turkey for the means of energy turned out to be questionable. Just as the USA introduced the plan “B” to indicate that they can maintain without the help of Turkey it has alternative plans that would prove the diminishing role of Turkey for the means of energy too. For example, with the possible founding of a Kurdish state in Northern Iraq, the US wants to create new alternative routes over this possible Kurdish state and Armenia, which runs counter to Turkey’s energy policies. In addition to this, it is said that the Turkish military power will lose its influence in the Mediterranean since Cyprus is yet in the hands of the EU. The big bourgeois circles are quiet worried about all these possibilities. While they try to use the chance of the EU without severing the ties with the US, the spokespersons of the military, often spread the possibilities of getting closer with Iran and Russia.

Just as the US imperialists, with the example of Iraq, intimidate the Arab states in the Middle East which did not submit to their power their attitudes to Turkey has gradually toughened. The US rulers never condone Turkey to brag and become haughty independently in the region. Remember that, the Ankara government, on the one hand, refused to give the US permission to move its troops through its territory, and signalled on the other hand that the Turkish corps, in order to prevent the establishment of a Kurdish state in the Northern Iraq, could soon be sent to the region. The US authorities, now acclaiming the Kurdish groups in the Northern Iraq as the “strategic ally” in the process of Iraqi reconstruction, are determined to put the Turkish rulers, specially the Military staff, in their place. Paul Wolfowitz said that “the Army should have claimed the leadership during the debates on the government motion and explicitly advised the support for the USA”. As in the latest statements of Wolfowitz the USA even did not hesitate to scold the president of the Turkish Military Staff and use every sort of means like the economic sanctions, political threats and military dissensions. The generals that boasted of being the strategic ally of the USA and endeavoured to facilitate their war groundwork in the American bases situated in Turkey before the Iraqi War now seems to have been down in the dumps. The Army staff which has become as bold and strong as a “lion” in the Kurdish problem, has entreated earnestly for the USA remain in the Incirlik Base[2] claiming, when the USA proclaimed that the powers be removed to prove that Turkey has fallen out of favour, that it would be against the bilateral agreements.

Because of the ruined relations with the EU and the constant intimidation of the big brother, Turkey is led almost to a process of introversion. The conservative powers of state, moreover, tense up the political relations indoors. They, once again, have been trying to find excuses to re-introduce their conventional and unique regime, the policy of repression. The relations of the AKP government and the traditional powers of state have intensified as much as cause a huge political crisis at any moment. Bearing in mind the dethronement and the abolition of the similar antecedent parties, the AKP leaders give concessions to calm down the process. However, the state in Turkey is accustomed to invent crises under the pretext of a book of constitution or the covered (wearing a head scarf) wife of politician.[3] The reason is that the political correlations of Turkey which went through an immense capitalisation process, nevertheless, still can hardly be determined only by the plans of the big capitalist circles. The military and civil bureaucracy in the state formation of Turkey, inherited from the Ottoman Empire, is still influential.

The bourgeois section which initially fattened by the state thanks to the state capitalism existed for a long time in Turkey, has now grown enough to claim evidence of his maturity. However, the bourgeoisie has yet not been able to break loose altogether of the wardship of the traditional core of the state. In point of fact, the big bourgeoisie passionately advocates expansion, modernisation, globalisation immediately calls for help of its “sublime” state when it is time for the class warfare indoors. The coward and cruel Turkish bourgeoisie immediately hopes for help from the repressive state against the possibility of the proletariat gain strength and present itself as a political alternative for the society. Thus the peculiar character of Turkey remains unchanged. Briefly, though the leaps and bounds development of capitalism in Turkey especially since 1960 has quite made a distinction between Turkey and the other Muslim countries, it is still overshadowed in the political stage by the despotic tradition of state inherited from the past.

The US imperialism as expected from all the imperialist powers abuses this reality. The US rulers, when it suited to their interests, will never hesitate to compare Turkey with Iraq under the pretext of the significance of specially the military bureaucracy in the political formation of Turkey. It would be unsurprising if the US soon plans apparently to bring “freedom” and “democracy” to Turkey too, comparing the political role of the traditional powers of state in Turkey to the Baathist regime in Iraq! Consequently, they seem to be preparing the grounds for the upcoming tactics in this direction. The US imperialist powers will never eschew from stirring the conditions in Turkey which is surrounded by the countries that should be taken note of in the war of division and with potent states like Russia and Iran.

The Turkish rulers in a sense have lost what they have in their hands in the effort to acquire further. Whereas they dreamed of holding sway, with the endorsement of the USA, in the Northern Iraq they missed the opportunity of a more influential role in Iraqi reconstruction for they quite exasperated the USA due to their paranoia in the Kurdish problem. Though the Turkish companies have undertaken intense activity to get their share of the loot, the big boss stipulates absolute submission. A big capitalist, Sabancı, whose brother was killed a few years ago since he seconded the “political solution” report of the USA opposing to the paranoia of the state in the Kurdish problem, now reproach that “we missed a big chance”. The American authorities disclose that they have got quite angry at Turkey. They command that Turkey should make an outright apology, the Military utterly alter their conducts and, consequently, to behave as a loyal servant in the new attacks of the US imperialism in the Middle East.

We are hardly stunned. The “rulers” that want to have a role of sub-imperialist in its own region taking advantage of the influence of a big imperialist power like the USA, should also execute the given role of servant. In order Turkey to be the strategic ally of the USA in the region, all sections of the Turkish bourgeoisie should properly execute the given work. Then, the answer of the question that “whether Turkey has fallen out of favour”, is closely connected with the execution of this necessity. However, above all, the problem which will directly impinge on the class war in Turkey is entirely the internal problem of the bourgeoisie. The revolutionary powers of the proletariat should never choose one of the bourgeois options or support the Turkish rulers whose “national honour” (!) injured due to the pressures of the imperialists. It would be utterly wrong and a class-collaborative attitude. No matter how passionately the political circles that considers leftism to reinforce the Turkish nationalism through following along after the bourgeoisie, yells as “This country is ours”[4], the destiny of that very “country”, as long as the capitalism survives, will remain in the hands of the imperialist bosses and their native allies. This is the main question. And only the organised proletariat provided with the internationalist revolutionary theory started to move to throw off the capitalist yoke in all countries starting from the lands they inhabited on.

We should be alert against the liberal lies

How, when and where will the second part of the imperialist war in the Middle East start? Though we cannot answer accurately in advance, a matter is quite clear for us. Whatever country becomes the new target of the coalition forces Turkey will directly be influenced from both the preparatory and executive process of the new attacks. The pressure of the Anglo-American rulers upon the Turkish political circles dictates unconditional and unrestricted obeisance for the given provisions. To become an influential power in the region, they should submissively execute the role given by the US imperialism in the preparations of the new attacks and abandon the plans like fine relations with the neighbour states. Nobody should be misled by the first part of the imperialist war in the Middle East come to an end. The imperialist war of division continues. We are in a period that the insidious preparations are carried out in order to stage the new episodes of a series of wars which, from the beginning, is said to last long.

The Turkish proletariat must be fully alert against the campaigns of lies often conducted by the liberal circles. Just as the new earthquakes are expected in Turkey which geologically situated on the lines of fault, the new political crises and turmoil could be imminent due to its geo-strategic significance. It is but a liberal palaver that would usher in a period of consistent and lasting democracy in Turkey with the membership to the EU. Even the destiny of the EU itself is unclear due to the strife with the USA and the expansion that occurred during the war of re-division. Turkey has always had an extremely incomplete bourgeois democratic formation thanks to its unlike position from the European countries and the difference of its historical-political conditions. The restricted bourgeois parliamentary periods in this country has always been curtailed by the military dictatorships and the extraordinary political regimes. In this sense, this is all the character of the “democratization” process that the Turkish proletariat could experience under capitalism. The history of the representative bourgeois democracy which is considered to broaden through interaction with the West has developed in a way such that one step forward, two steps back since the Tanzimat, as it is in the marching style of the traditional Janissary Band which was inherited from the Ottomans.[5]

The AKP government that gave the impression that it would easily pass the “democratization” packets from parliament aimed at the EU membership, soon changed its policy and began to act in the same way the preceding governments did. The anti-war movement and the limited rise of the proletarian struggle caused by the new amendments in the labour act were sufficed to bother the ruling powers in Turkey. The traditional powers of state under the banner of laicism seemed resolute to put pressure upon the government under the pretext of their Islamic hue which in effect intends to intensify the domestic oppressions. Moreover, they also seem determined to fold up and render the “laws of accord” practically null which were introduced for the EU criteria. We should, however, also bear in mind the reality that the AKP government is in the last analysis the expression of the bourgeois power regardless of their claims that they are different from the other governments. Every stirring in the class war, every reaction by the people against the capitalist order will annoy the AKP government as much as did the other bourgeois governments. Likewise, the existence of the AKP government made no difference when the impoverished people, in the Bingöl earthquake, attempted to call to account of the deaths of their children caused by the unstable structure of the boarding school of state. The policemen of the bourgeois state and the commandos of the private team jumped on the people preoccupied with their own anguish. Finally, the prime minister of the AKP government, Tayyip Erdoğan, accused the public of provocation!

Furthermore, against the ongoing imperialist war plans in the Middle East we should never give credit to the liberal anti-war stance that would retrograde the struggle. The US imperialism will make up new pretexts and gather new forces in the next period. We should remember that every war includes a phase of ideological attacks as well as of the military attacks. Now, the policy pursued by the American imperialists is to calm down the anti-war movements intensified all over the world against the Iraqi War. The clearest indication is the “low-intensity” war news on the pro-American news media that intends to drag the public opinion to the languor of almost a “summer vacation”. Moreover, as in the example of Bush’s last statement, they take pains not to proclaim the outcome of the Iraqi War in triumphant cries. Contrariwise, at the inception of the war, their decision to go to war against the “countries of evil” had been accompanied by the war drums.

Paying attention to their mentors Bush’s gang advances insidiously as if the war had never accompany occurred in order to make the anti-war movement wizened. Thus, the shock and terror operation in the military field has been supported by the bewilderment campaign in the ideological field. The pundits state that the Iraqi War culminated but could not be deemed a victory since the ultimate outcome could not be gained. Bush’s gang, on the other hand, is contented that, for now, the prediction of the anti-war movement that Iraq would be the new Vietnam swamp proved wrong. They use, just as it was in the post-Afghanistan War process, this argument to have psychological superiority through accusing the anti-war movement of vain exaggeration. However, we know that history doesn’t repeat itself in the same way at all time. Moreover, it is wrong to compare the example of the Vietnam swamp that occurred in the existence of the Soviet Union, with Afghanistan or Iraq of today. Furthermore, we should remember that a wrong means used in the psychological front of war may, in turn, weaken your position.

We don’t know accurately what will happen in Iraq or in the other Arab states in the forthcoming process. However, it is a reality that the war technology of the USA has greatly changed since the Vietnam War. Therefore, we are hardly left with only a choice like the comparison of the Iraqi War with the Vietnam War to expose the impasse of the imperialists as they are an unjust, occupying power. Indeed, the bare and bitter reality is self-evident in Afghanistan or Iraq. The imperialist, going on a campaign pretendedly to introduce civilisation to the underdeveloped countries of the world, could hardly proliferate lives; on the contrary, they annihilated many lives. The allies continue their campaigns in new areas leaving behind their biological and chemical arms, nuclear wastes, and depleted uranium powder that will poison the posterities and almost all the future of our planet. We could say that the quality of the atrocity and evil which are the products of class societies have so matured that the humanity has come up against a point that could truly be termed either annihilation or socialism. We are nearly on the edge of an abyss. The great menace will never cease to exist unless the oppressed and the exploited people rally under the banner of the revolutionary proletariat and demolish the imperialist-capitalist system which drives them to the abyss of “extermination”.

We should never be perplexed and overcome by languor due to the war break which extends between two campaigns in their operation conducted in the Middle East by the imperialist barons of war. Such war intervals can help us to distinguish between the genuine anti-war mass and the pseudo-oppositions. One cannot be either a true socialist, pro-peace or a real environmentalist unless she/he fundamentally opposes to the imperialist-capitalist system. In order to get rid of that system which precipitates human being to destruction and our planet to a catastrophe, we need an organised militant workers’ movement that can sustain its vigour and combativeness under any circumstances, not an inconsistent petit-bourgeois oppositionism that blossom and withers periodically. To reinforce the internationalist communist attitude which can assess the hot war periods as well as the war breaks to raise the banner of struggle against the imperialist system, forward!

[1]   12-41 A.D., Roman Emperor, noted for his cruelty and tyranny. Said to be his favourite phrase.

[2]   A military base in Mediterranean used by the US dating back to 1960’s.

[3]   The author refers to the events on the 19th of February in 2001 (the so-called February 19 crisis) wherein the deputy prime minister of the former Ecevit government “threw” a book to the president in response to his offensive attitude towards Ecevit.

It is prohibited to wear head scarf (“turban”) in the official institutions lest it would incite the fundamentalism!

[4]   The author refers to a watchword of the TKP (Communist Party of Turkey –not the traditional party which does not exist now) which draws upon a poem of the Turkish communist poet Nazım Hikmet (1902-63)

[5]   Tanzimat: The political reforms made in the Ottoman state in 1839.