Crisis in Turkey deepens as U.S. unfolds war plans
By Cemile Cakir and Frank Neisser
A political crisis has been growing in Turkey. Political
stability there is important to Washington, which is depending
on Turkey to play a big role in its planned war against Iraq as
it did in the wars against Afghanistan and Yugoslavia. Turkey
is currently taking over the military role in Afghanistan that
Britain had been playing.
As of July 11 some 43 Parliament members from Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit's party had resigned, as had seven Cabinet
ministers including Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, Deputy Prime
Minister Husamettin Ozkan and Finance Minister Kemal
Dervis.
Dervis had been a top official at International Monetary
Fund headquarters in Washington. The IMF sent him to Turkey to
impose IMF solutions during Turkey's economic crisis in 2001.
He was subsequently appointed Finance Minister in the Ecevit
government even though normally membership in Parliament is
required for the post.
Before they resigned, these three ministers declared their
intention to establish a new party. They demanded that Turkey
prepare to join the European Union. Speculation abounds in the
capitalist press that the Ecevit government will collapse. The
second-biggest party in Ecevit's coalition government, the
ultra-right-wing Nationalist Action Party (MHP), has demanded
new elections by November.
Because of the economic crisis, the popularity of all
parties in the governing coalition is very low. Polls indicate
a likely election victory by a pro-Islamist party.
Behind the crisis
Immediate causes of the current crisis include U.S. plans to
use Turkey for the upcoming war against Iraq, the economic
collapse in Turkey and the intervention of the IMF. Also
playing a role is imperialist rivalry between the United States
and the European Union, which the Turkish government is trying
to join.
Ecevit, who is 77 years old, has been prime minister of
Turkey three times in all. In his first stint as prime
minister, he initially showed some signs of anti-imperialist
independence. In July 1974 he intervened militarily in Cyprus
against U.S. wishes when a fascist Greek junta had overthrown
the government of Archbishop Makarios and started persecuting
the Turkish oppressed minority. In addition, at that time
Turkey closed its U.S. bases.
The fascist Greek junta was overthrown shortly thereafter,
but the Turkish military refused to withdraw from Cyprus and
the character of the military occupation changed.
Ecevit was imprisoned in 1980 by a military junta that took
power after his first period as prime minister. He later
eliminated all progressives and leftists from his Left
Democratic Party (DSP). In both his administrations since then,
he has faithfully carried out all of Washington's wishes,
including allowing the Pentagon to use bases in Turkey to
attack Iraq and to take part in the war on Afghanistan.
But the Pentagon's current plans for attacking Iraq have
created problems for the Turkish ruling class. It fears the
establishment of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq. Immediately
after Washington's war plans were announced, Ecevit responded
by saying that Turkey didn't want to change the Iraqi state,
didn't want to see the emergence of a Kurdish state and could
not support the economic impact of another Gulf War. After this
statement, the government crisis ensued.
Another key factor is the economic crisis that has engulfed
Turkey for the last two years. The Turkish lira has suffered
20-percent inflation and the stock market has sagged an equal
amount in the last two months. The IMF plans call for austerity
measures that target workers' wages.
Coalition gov't bows to military
Ecevit's party, the DSP, can be described as a
center-right-wing party even though Ecevit himself was the
symbol of the social-democratic movement and anti-U.S. politics
in the 1970s.
The second-biggest party in the coalition government is the
ultra-right-wing Nationalist Action Party (MHP). It is known
that the CIA founded the MHP to fight against the leftist
movement in Turkey. The third party in the coalition is the
center-right-wing Motherland Party (ANAP).
But the real power in the government is the Turkish army,
which acts as a member of the coalition and dictates what the
government will do. The Turkish military enforces U.S. foreign
policy but is afraid a U.S. attack on Iraq might lead to a
Kurdish state in northern Iraq that would inspire the oppressed
Kurdish minority now ruled by Turkey.
When the president appointed Ecevit prime minister in 1999,
his party had only 13 percent of the votes in Parliament. But
then the CIA captured Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the
Kurdish liberation struggle, and handed him over to the Turkish
government.
At the next election, Ecevit's party won the majority of
votes. He became prime minister of the current three-party
coalition government.
Underneath the surface political crisis, there is a deep
social and economic crisis. There has been an intense class
struggle and flagrant human-rights violations, including the
deaths of hundreds of political prisoners on hunger strike. The
Turkish government has continued to suppress and repress the
Kurdish people, who are seeking basic rights and
self-determination.
Historical background
The Ottoman Empire, a Muslim feudal empire, collapsed in
1923. The military leader and general Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
founded a new government, the Republic of Turkey. He described
Turkey as a laic or secular country. Then he led Turkey into
the capitalist bloc. These three points have become the three
main problems for Turkey.
The first issue was the direction he chose for the country.
A socialist revolution had just changed neighboring Russia, but
the new Turkish government kept the country on the capitalist
path, rather than the road to socialism.
The Republican Populist Party (CHP), established by Ataturk,
was the only party in Turkish political society until 1950. Its
ideology was based on government-created capitalism. It took
more than 60 years to create capitalism and eliminate
pro-feudal elements from power.
Until 1950, Turkey was a semi-independent government. But
because this was the imperialist century, to create an
independent capitalist country was impossible. Even though the
Turkish republic was created against the imperialist powers of
Britain, France, Italy and Czarist Russia, its relative
industrial backwardness made it inevitable that it would become
a colony of the imperialist West.
The second problem was the Kurdish struggle for
self-determination. During the independence movement, before
and during World War I, Kurds and Turks fought side by side.
Ataturk promised autonomy to the Kurdish groups at that
time.
But after the war was over, the Turkish government declared
that all peoples who live in Turkey are Turkish, that there are
no Kurds and no Kurdish language--just a dialect of the Turkish
language.
The Turkish rulers said that some Turks live in mountainous
areas. When they walk on snow, their feet make a sound like
"kurt, kurt," and because of this sound they call themselves
Kurds.
Using such ludicrous arguments, the Turkish army, in the
first two decades of the Turkish republic, crushed all Kurdish
rebellions, including in Shih Said, Kocgiri and Dersim.
Next, part two
Reprinted from the Aug. 8, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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