Editorial, 29 November 2015
Armenians who follow Armenian/Turkish politics and particularly the Armenian goal to recover all or part of Western Armenia and Cilicia are split into three general groups: the first believes Armenians can recover their lands only through military means probably through a major international conflict; the second group hopes that by helping Kurds they can recover some of the Armenian territories when Kurds gain independence; the third group counts on a peaceful resolution. According to the last school of thought, as Turkey becomes progressive/democratic and gain unfettered access to the historic truth about the horrific injustice they inflicted upon the Armenians they would return the Armenian lands.
The third and possibly the second group received shock as a result of President Erdogan’s overwhelming electoral victory on Nov. 1.
The Erdogan victory underlines the obvious: he knows Turks better than the progressive forces inside and outside Turkey do. The Turks progressive forces were counting on to wake up from their racist, ultranationalist, and obscurantist frame of mind returned to power an Erdogan who is far more powerful than at any time in his controversial career. The Turkish voter, with his eyes wide open, boosted the power of a man who:
- Is partly responsible for the Syrian Civil War;
- Is partly responsible for the death of more than 250,000 Syrians, injury to more than 2 million Syrians, and the flight of close to 5 million Syrians;
- Is partly responsible for the presence of 2.5 million destitute Syrians in Turkey;
- Is partly responsible for the countless Syrian refugees who continue to flee to Europe;
- Is partly responsible for the $7 billion or so Turkey claims to have spent to “accommodate” the Syrian refugees;
- Is the closest ally of the murderous IS/ISIS/ISIL/Da’esh.
- In the past three years Erdogan has armed and trained ISIS;
- Provided the fleeing terrorists with sanctuary;
- Provided free R & R (rest and recreation) plus medical services at Turkish hotels, hostels, and hospitals to ISIS and related psychopaths;
- Provided air cover for ISIS forces to kill Syrians—Arab or Kurd;
- Helped ISIS in the destruction of Kobani;
- Supported the ISIS office in Istanbul which offered welcoming service for the nascent international terrorists and hoi polloi who wanted to join in the ISIS bloodbath;
- Allowed that same Istanbul hospitality office to provide money, advice, transportation services and safe crossing from Turkey to Syria;
- Who did a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to “refugees” headed to Europe to terrorize the people there;
- Who sheltered Chechen, Uighur, Jabhat el-Nusra (the Al-Qaida chapter in Syria) and other Islamic terrorists whose bloody trail extended from Western Europe to Thailand;
- Who helped ISIS flourish financially by buying the terror group’s ill-gotten Iraqi oil. By doing so contributed to ISIS’ ability to perpetuate further atrocities and destruction;
- Who facilitated the theft of antiques in Iraq and Syria by allowing art thieves to use Turkey as transport channel to Europe;
- Who is an ally of one of the most primitive, corrupt, violent, and anti-human rights countries in the world: Wahabist Saudi Arabia;
- Allowed the Dokumacilar Unit of ISIS in Turkey to recruit terrorists (of the 400 recruited from Adyaman alone, 60 were trained as suicide bombers);
- Collaborated with ISIS suicide bombers who killed 98 Kurds and allied peace activists in Ankara on October 10. As Kurdish leader Sallahetin Demirtas wondered aloud: “How in a country where a bird can’t fly without the knowledge of the intelligence services did the killers acquire the bombs, travel freely to the demonstration site and merge with the Kurds without the knowledge of the Turkish authorities?”
- Sent toxic sarin gas to Damascus (which killed many civilians) so as to draw the Americans into the Syrian Civil War;
- Backed false flag operations in Syria;
- Told the Islamic terrorists to target Armenian neighborhoods in Aleppo and to attack Armenian Kessab in northern Syria;
- Frequently banned or blocked Internet, Twitter and other social media so as to control freedom of expression;
- Imprisoned scores of journalists and harassed media which did not march to his drum beat. Among his major victims: Zaman, Hurriyet, CNN Turk;
- Announced he would increase the budget of the intelligence services by 47%. This at a time when the lira had lost 25% of its value within a year;
- Allowed the budget of the Directorate of Religious Affairs to be larger than those of 12 ministries;
- Whose government arrested 12-year-old boys for “insulting the president”. The punishment for such offense is two to three years in jail;
- Built a 1,001-room Presidential Palace at a time when the economy was in a downward spiral (the building has a staff of 2,700);
- Who is a billionaire whose path to fabulous wealth is a state secret;
- Boasts about his vile language and is responsible for such quotes as “Ben buyuk tasakiera var” (I have big balls);
- Admitted “democracy is like a trolley—you ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off”;
- Who is intent at replacing parliamentary government with an executive president—a sure path to dictatorship in his case;
- Whose intelligence services killed Kurdish women activists in Paris and journalists Serena Shim and Jackie Sutton. Shim’s crime was to report on Turkish military activities in Kobani. Sutton, a former BBC reporter, was found hanged at an Istanbul airport washroom. She was the director of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting in Iraq. She was on her way to Irbil. Her predecessor was killed a few years ago;
- Who interfered in the domestic policies of neighboring countries, particularly Egypt, a country which has been a long-time friend of Turkey.
The above rap sheet of Tayyip the Terrible is by no means comprehensive.
The murderous buffoon, the psychotic clown, the scourge of progressive forces certainly understands the Turkish psyche. Otherwise how to explain the ringing victory the electorate gave him in early November?
How did the Mussolini of Mendacity achieve his victory? He first created a false Kurdish threat by attacking them. When the Kurds refused to fall into his trap and didn’t retaliate, Wily Erdo tried to provoke them once again: his intelligence services sent deranged ISIS murderers to kill the Kurdish marchers in Ankara. The jumped-up Machiavelli of Ankara hoped the outrage would finally force the Kurds to hit back. Erdo then scared the electorate by claiming Turkey’s existence was threatened and that the only way to maintain the country’s cohesion was to choose his ultranationalist and rejectionist path.
An electorate which had these facts at its finger tips but rejected to accept them is not one which inspires hope or confidence. An electorate which is willing to be hoodwinked is a long way from seeking the truth about itself, its ancestors, and its history.
Have progressive forces been taken on a ride as to the possibility of healthy change in Turkey? Are the Turks who said “We are all Hrant Dink” the useful idiots of Erdogan? Are they the unaware fig leaf of a reactionary Turkey?