{"id":65210,"date":"2015-10-19T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=65210"},"modified":"2015-10-18T05:36:23","modified_gmt":"2015-10-18T04:36:23","slug":"after-ankara-why-erdogan-and-natos-strategy-is-in-ruins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/10\/after-ankara-why-erdogan-and-natos-strategy-is-in-ruins\/","title":{"rendered":"After Ankara: Why Erdogan and NATO\u2019s Strategy Is in Ruins"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tariq<\/a>

Tariq Ali<\/p><\/div>\n

15 Oct 2015 – Onur Erem: Last weekend we experienced the biggest bomb attack on civilians in the recent history of Turkey. Around 100 people died (exact number is unknown) and all of us lost many friends. This attack came after the unsolved bombings of Diyarbakir (just before the election, on a Kurdish gathering) and Suruc (which killed 33 young socialists).\u00a0 The opposition in Turkey have been warning the AKP government about their involvement in Syria and opening the Syrian border to radical Islamists. Now we have ISIS cells in Turkey, which have been attacking in Diyarbakir, Suruc and finally Ankara bombings. What do you think about the role of Erdogan and AKP\u2019s Middle East policy, in the recent terrorization of the streets in Turkey? What is your opinion on the Turkey\u2019s involvement in Syria and its relationship with various jihadist organizations?<\/em><\/p>\n

Tariq Ali: Turkey (leaving aside the Gulf States for the moment) was the principal promoter of ISIS as a new force to bring down Assad. Without this support ISIS could not have proceeded so far, so fast. It\u2019s true the Iraqi army and its corrupt officer caste refused to fight ISIS and fled rapidly. The Syrian Army did fight back as did the Syrian Kurds, but there was a stalemate that was finally broken by Putin\u2019s recent demarche. ISIS, we must never forget, is NOT simply a stooge army of Riyadh or Ankara. It shares some aims with both, but its proclaimed goal of a Sunni Caliphate is not favored by any state in the region. Who is using who? Both are using each other. In return for Erdogan\u2019s support, the jihadis seem to be \u2018helping\u2019 him by killing AKP\u2019s opponents. The extent to which the AKP\u2019s \u2018secret state\u2019 collaborates with ISIS is a question I could not answer. There is no evidence so far but it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if this turned out the case.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: \u00a0President Erdogan, Prime Minister Davutoglu and many AKP Parliament Members have been telling that in Turkish population choose chaos instead of AKP single party government, so the massacres that we\u2019re experiencing is a result of not voting for AKP. What do you think about this logic? How can a democratically elected government threat its own population by saying \u201cif you don\u2019t elect us, there will be chaos\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n

TA: It\u2019s no big secret that Erdogan was shaken by the AKP\u2019s failure to win an overall majority and the HDP\u2019s sensational entry into parliament. A rational bourgeois leader would have been pleased that the PKK were prposing a truce and were prepared to work inside existing parliamentary institutions [like the IRA and ETA before them]. Instead, Erdogan took this as a threat to his prestige, a challenge to his power and began to behave like a tin-pot dictator, a process that had begun after the huge protests all over the country following the assault on Gezi. That in itself highlighted the rifts inside the AKP and its dependence on the building industry. If your own face is pockmarked with corruption, why blame the mirror? In fact, it is the AKP\u2019s arrogance and adventurism that has destabilised the country.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: \u00a0AKP government passed a \u201csecurity bill\u201d this spring which allowed them to arrest left wing or Kurdish people who attend demonstrations for \u201creasonable suspicion\u201d, which was a definition heavily criticized for its vagueness. However yesterday Prime Minister Davutoglu said: \u201cWe are a state of law. Although we have the names of the potential suicide bombers of ISIS, we can\u2019t arrest them before they take action\u201d. This was a shocking declaration for us. Another shocking declaration came from Interior Minister Altinok, as he said \u201cNo security lapse contributed to the Ankara bombing\u201d. Human Rights Watch\u2019s Turkey Researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb reasonably asked \u201cWhat does that mean? Things went as planned? By whom?\u201d, but she couldn\u2019t get any reply. What is your comment on these declarations?<\/em><\/p>\n

TA: The lack of concern for the lives of its own citizens by an elected government is not new but is shocking nonetheless. They know who the suicide bombers are but there is no evidence (i.e., they haven\u2019t yet committed suicide and killed innocents) and taking them into custody would have been premature. \u00a0This is such incoherent rubbish that I\u2019m amazed these two jokers are still in the government or is this Erdogan\u2019s position as well? If this is the case,\u00a0a cover-up is taking place.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: \u00a0When you were interviewed by BBC two years ago, about the debate that Turkey could become a country like Pakistan as Syria turns into Afghanistan, you said that the main difference between the two countries is that there are not many Turkish members in ISIS. Two years passed and today there are many Turkish ISIS members. Dozens of them were arrested two months ago, but released in a few days. Prime Minister Davutoglu announced\u00a0that they have a list of Turkish ISIS suicide bombers, which is around 20 people. ISIS is making Turkish broadcasts, publishing in Turkish journals and organizing in the country. So what do you think about the same debate today?<\/em><\/p>\n

TA: \u00a0I underestimated the ISIS presence in Turkey and their appeal to former Erdogan supporters who have become disillusioned and moved in the direction of jihadi fundamentalism. So Turkey is not immune to the virus. Clearly official support for and tolerance of ISIS made it easy for them, but they cannot be defeated exclusively by force. Turkey needs a popular government that breaks with neo-liberal economics and NATO-encouraged interventions.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: \u00a0Turkish government has been threatening Russia by shooting at their planes if the approach the Turkish air space. But after 2 breaches, we have seen that these threats are not working. The West has also been accusing Russia for its recent bombings in Syria. How will the Russian involvement in Syria affect Turkey?<\/em><\/p>\n

TA: If the Russian succeed in their aim, which is the military destruction of ISIS in Syria and the preservation of the regime with or without Assad, it will be a political defeat for Turkey, Saudi Arabia and NATO with repercussions for the whole region. But that\u2019s\u00a0a big IF.<\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

This interview was conducted by\u00a0Onur Erem for\u00a0BirGun newspaper.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tariq Ali<\/em>\u00a0is the author of\u00a0<\/em>The\u00a0Obama\u00a0Syndrome<\/a>\u00a0(Verso).<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 counterpunch.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tariq Ali: Turkey (leaving aside the Gulf States for the moment) was the principal promoter of ISIS as a new force to bring down Assad. Without this support ISIS could not have proceeded so far, so fast. A stalemate was finally broken by Putin\u2019s recent demarche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east-north-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}