Turkey's government works for America

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday February 12, 2003 20:54 by DHKC - Revolutionary People's Liberation Front dhkc at post dot com

It treats Turkey as if it were a US state

This is Statement 294 from the DHKC (Revolutionary People's Liberation Front), a Marxist organisation from Turkey. It calls the country's government American collaborators, particularly because of their cooperation with America's planned war of aggression against Iraq.

Date: February 7, 2003 Statement: 294

This Government And This Parliament Do Not Belong To
Our Country Or Our People
THEY BELONG TO AMERICA

Let us step up the struggle against America and its collaborators in our country and for our own power. This is the only way in which we can stop our hearts from aching, restore our wounded national honour, bring independence to our colonised country and free our people who are oppressed.

By decision of those who are in charge of it, Turkey is bogged down in a swamp of pro-Americanism. This swamp means blood and tears for the peoples. This swamp means hunger for the peoples. There is no national honour, national pride or national interests for those who enter this swamp. There are only America’s interests. Those who enter this swamp have no thoughts, beliefs, personality or politics. All they are are collaborationists, and of the crudest kind.
Those who were saying “peace not war” up until three days ago have turned our country into the USA’s headquarters for waging war. No demagogy, no censorship can conceal the fact that Turkey’s soil is to be freely used so America can launch an attack, as if Turkey were a US warship.
They have sold it! They have rolled out Anatolia like a red carpet so the feet of American imperialism can walk all over it. They have made available our roads but, more importantly, our national honour too, so that the combat boots of American soldiers can trample over them.

THEY HAVE SHOWN BY THE DECISIONS THEY HAVE REACHED THAT THEY ARE NOT THE GOVERNMENT OF TURKEY’S PEOPLE!
The decisions reached making bases, harbours, airports, highways and railways available to the USA are decisions that are a betrayal of the people and the homeland.
They are decisions that were reached in spite of the decisions the people have taken and in spite of the people’s will.
The AKP (Justice and Development Party) stresses frequently that it is a government “manifesting the will of the people” as a result of a game involving 34% of the people (note: the electoral support for the AKP in Turkey’s recent elections), but it did not see the “will of the people” manifest in the latest opinion polls expressing the beliefs and demands of 94% of the people (note: the proportion opposing war on Iraq in recent opinion polls conducted in Turkey). By reaching its decisions the AKP has told the people, “I am not your government”. By reaching these decisions the AKP parliamentary deputies are announcing that they are not “representatives of the people”. All these things constitute the collapse of everything the ruling classes have said up to today about “Turkey’s democracy”. These decisions show that under this system there is no democratic rule, and no room for the “will of the people”. American imperialism’s aggressiveness is so far-reaching that not even the facade of the “democracy game” its collaborationists play can remain intact.
We have been saying for decades that it is impossible for democracy to exist or be experienced in a neo-colonial country which is dependent on imperialism; without breaking the chains of dependency which weigh down a dependent country, no power, no will of the people can confront the will of imperialism, and the people’s will cannot be expressed in action.

THE AKP IS THE GOVERNMENT OF THE USA’S 53RD STATE, NOT THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY!
In the economy, the AKP government is a government that has undertaken to behave in accordance with the “global” plans of the US monopolies. The “privatisations”, sackings, the sale of our natural resources and underground riches and renting everything out are not necessary for our country’s interests, but are necessary for the economics of imperialist globalisation. As for politics, at every level American policies are defended and actions are undertaken in parallel with the USA in all international institutions from the UN to NATO, and even with regard to joining the European Union, the government is trying to enter playing the role of “America’s Trojan Horse”. As for the military, the Turkish Armed Forces are gathering at Iraq’s border, shoulder to shoulder with the US Army. In short, almost the only duty of the government today is to help America pursue its policy of establishing its empire throughout the world.
This government views Turkey exactly how the US administration does; it sees Turkey as the 53rd state of the USA. The mentality is no different from when (AKP leader) Tayyip Erdogan endeavoured to get Turkey to join NAFTA, an alliance absolutely under US control.
And those with this mentality act like the AKP government, which in economic, military and political aspects behaves like the government of the USA’s 53rd state.
This government has no work to do other than defending American interests and putting American decisions into practice. Look at the protocol of the meeting of Arab countries held under the cover of a “peace summit”; look at Prime Minister Gul’s talks with Iraqi government representatives; there he openly acted as the spokesman of the USA and the advocate of Bush, he did not play his role in an indirect way or through dropping hints. He undertook to be spokesman of the US administration in an open manner that no US state governor would be able to manage. In the name of the USA, Iraq was threatened. “The game is over” are words heard all over the globe, coming from Bush and from Tayyip Erdogan.
In short, our country and people are guided by the decisions and directives of America. They just play the role of America’s extras.

THEY CAME ON THE SCENE CLAIMING “WE ARE DIFFERENT”; BUT THEY ARE NOT ANY DIFFERENT! BECAUSE THEY ARE DIRECTED BY THE SAME HAND!
The AKP came to power saying, “we will be different”. But all of Turkey and the whole world has seen that they are “no different” from what there was before.
And it is “natural” for them to be no different. Because it is America that guides them. This is a reality that has never changed, whatever party was in government. And under the same guiding hand, carrying out its orders and decisions, the practical effect will always remain the same whatever differences there are in appearances and in the statements that are made.
No bourgeois government is able to deviate from America’s decisions and will not be able to in the future.
Nor can the AKP deviate. As we have seen and experienced, it continues hunger and tyranny with methods that are even more exploitative and tyrannical. It continues to lie and deceive.
The deaths continue in the prisons. Protesters continue to be attacked and arrested in the city squares. Prohibitions continue. The Kurdish people continue to be oppressed. Prices continue to rise. All the evils of poverty, from prostitution to theft, continue to grow in scale. Our national honour is dragged along the ground... Really, there is no need to list it all; it is enough to ask “what has changed?”. What has changed in the three months of the AKP government? There is not a single person who can answer the question by saying, “things have changed”.

WE CANNOT SAVE “OUR HANDS FROM CONDEMNATION” IF WE DO NOT BREAK THE CHAINS OF DEPENDENCY!
It is not a secret for anyone that our country is not independent and democracy does not exist in our country. Even the politically blind are forced to see the truth, namely that the AKP is taking decisions that slipstream behind America’s attack. It is America that is creating dependency. The governments are collaborationists working for America.
However, America can be resisted for the sake of an independent country governed by a free people. No other type of government has a chance of resisting America. Governments that are part of the system all bow down before America, it does not matter whether they call themselves right-wing, left-wing, Islamist or whatever.
We reject the system, and rejecting America means rejecting the system. The stance of those who oppose America without rejecting the system is an empty one. In order to make our country independent and our people free, it is necessary to resist American imperialism and the collaborationist governments that are its representatives in our country. It is necessary to resist for the sake of independence and democracy.
Today the AKP does the work of deceiving. Tomorrow it will be another government. And so it goes on. Until the cycle is broken.

THOSE WHO DO NOT RESIST THEIR OWN TYRANTS ARE ALSO NOT ABLE TO RESIST THE BOSSES OF THE TYRANTS!
America burns and destroys. America leaves people hungry. There is petroleum in Iraq, in Turkey there is boron, thorium and other riches under the ground, while other countries possess other things. If there are such resources present in the ground, then that makes every country into a “market” for the imperialist monopolies. American violence will be directed at all countries, all peoples without exception. This is the policy of imperialism. The American empire is kept on its feet by gigantic military force and by collaborationist neo-colonial governments. The AKP is one of these governments.
Those who come out in opposition to the American attack and America’s imperialist war cannot expect help from its collaborators (whether they are “civilian” collaborators like the AKP, or the General Staff). Collaborationists cannot be advocates or a means of defending peace and opposing the imperialist war. This is why it is those who pursue the struggle for independence and democracy as well as peace and fraternity who are able to defend it. To maintain the contrary is a lie and a deceit. Of the kind the AKP practises today.
While hunger and tyranny continue on the soil of this land, those who shy away from confronting it, those who hold back are not able to oppose American imperialism. They should not deceive themselves or others. If we do not continue the struggle for independence and democracy in our own country against the collaborationist government, then we are not able to defend anything. The truth is clear and simple; those who do not oppose their own tyranny and collaborationist government cannot oppose America.
Those who do not struggle against their own tyranny and for independence, democracy and solidarity are unable to do anything else. Struggling against your own tyranny is also a struggle against America. The tyranny practised against us is the result of America’s decisions. It defends the interests of America. To strike a blow at our tyrants is also to strike a blow at America.
This is what defending peace means. This is how to defend the fraternity of the peoples and solidarity.
This power, this government, this parliament cannot represent our country and people. They cannot be defenders of values like peace and fraternity. These values can be defended as part of the struggle against imperialism and the oligarchy and for independence and democracy. We have been defending these values for decades and paying a price for it, as part of the struggle for democracy as opposed to fascism, and independence as opposed to imperialism.
Wherever you are in the world, there is importance and value in carrying out even the smallest action to stop the imperialist war. Throughout the world, the city squares are full of people shouting slogans against America, and they represent the hope of the world. But to stop American imperialism once and for all, to bring about real peace in the world means that one must not ignore the truth revealed by history. This shows that the only realistic way is to bring down all the neo-colonies and destroy all blocs of imperialism and oligarchies, and establish revolutionary people’s power. The struggles against imperialism and against collaborationist governments are linked to each other and form a unitary whole, and their importance and life are derived from this.

THE PEOPLES OF TURKEY OPPOSE AMERICAN IMPERIALISM,
THE PEOPLES OF TURKEY OPPOSE TURKEY BECOMING A MURDERER OF IRAQ’S PEOPLE,
OUR ANTI-IMPERIALIST PEOPLE FEEL AS IF THEIR HEARTS ARE BEING TRAMPLED ON WHEN THE COMBAT BOOTS OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS TRAMPLE ON THE SOIL OF ANATOLIA!
Let us step up the struggle against America and its collaborators in our country and for our own power. This is the only way in which we can stop our hearts from aching, restore our wounded national honour, bring independence to our colonised country and free our people who are oppressed.

DOWN WITH AMERICAN IMPERIALISM!
OUR COUNTRY WILL BE INDEPENDENT, OUR PEOPLE WILL BE FREE!

Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi
(Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front)