March 2009
Editorial
New Ottomanism: A Major Threat to the People of the Region
After the demise of the Soviet Union, imperialism declared that it will not tolerate even minor gestures of independency within the “great Middle East” that covers all regions ranging from Balkans to Central Asia. For the last two decades, under the ideological cloak of “globalization”, imperialists have been claiming that national sovereignty has become antiquated.
The US imperialism embarked upon her agression in the “great Middle East” initially by either isolating or plainly invading the countries, which had assured a relatively larger initiativee in regional and international politics as a result of the Soviet Union’s presence. The climax of US agression in the region were the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the isolation of Iran and Syria.
But US imperialism did not only invade or isolate the countries that used to enjoy, though narrow, an elbowroom in the internation sphere, but it also initiated a process of reconstruction in the collaborationist countries of the region such as Turkey.
The disntegration and division of the Ottoman Empire was a main objective of World War I. The Republic of Turkey achieved its independence by means of a war of liberation waged against imperialism, and the new bourgeois Republic owed its very presence to the “new balances” created by October Revolution and the direct support of the Soviet Union. The newly established bourgeois republic played safe against the Soviet Union for a short time, but it immediately turned its face towards imperialism as soon as the bourgeoisie established its political power in the country. Consequently, the progressive steps such as secularism and the emphases put on national sovereignty and indepence were eventually attenuated by the very same social class that led the republic. Hence, reactionary and collaborationist forces were welcome in the new power structure. Yet, the undesired child of imperialism could survive on the basis of the new international balances created by the Soviet Union.
After the demise of the USSR, i.e. in the world left behind by socialism, imperialism has already declared that it will not tolerate the presence of such “undesired” entities. To this end, imperialism sees it as a necessity to purge all historically progressive achievments of the republic, to repulse toiling masses from all fronts they gained throughout class struggle within decades, and transform Turkey into an apparatus of imperialist plans in the region. This step, which clearly has international as well as domestic aspects, has been put into effect by the reactionary AKP (Justice and Development Party) government.
AKP government has been pushing Turkey towards the direction desired by imperialism. For instance, in an effort to generate a new Sunni center in the Middle East to counter the influence of Iran on Shi’ites, the United States and Israel assigned this duty to Turkey. AKP government, which has been attacking the essential features of republicanism in Turkey, declared that it is ready to assume this role under the banner of “New Ottomanism”.
The very concept of “New Ottomanism” itself is an American invention, and it implies a more powerful and integrated attack on the historical achievements, including the republic, of the toiling masses. Apart from being a major dimension of the transformation of Turkey, New Ottomanism entails regional aspects that can be spelled out as providing better diplomatic and military support to imperialist plans in the Middle East by virtue of Islam and the Ottoman heritage.
Obama administration is trying to increase its diplomatic options in the Middle East along with the maintenance of military agression. Indeed, US imperialism perceives the fact that it needs further options so as to carry on their hegemony in the region more or less smoothly. Hence, it needs to accelerate the transformation and disintegration of Turkey to carve out a more suitable apparatus to changing needs.
This process has to be seen as a disaster for the people of Turkey and the region.
The Communist Party of Turkey has been struggling against the disaster for all its worth. The disaster is a nightmare for the toiling masses of Turkey. The disaster is a major plot against the people of the region.
One shall seek the meaning of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “show” in Davos in January within this context. It is not simply an “emotional” moment of the Islamist Prime Minister, it is the declaration of New Ottomanism, which is itself an American construct.
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You may find the full text of the Communist Perspective attached below.