Turkey's 9/11 : Reyhanlı

Editor's note: This is a compilation of news items and articles originally published in Turkish. With the exception of the introduction, we do not claim any intellectual nor political credit for the text. All the analyses belong to the authors of the texts referred to at the end of each paragraph. Yet, the mistakes and misinterpretations are due to our misunderstanding of the analyses.

Please read our previous news item on the subject and check the Syria label for further comments.

On Saturday, May 11th, two car explosions were reported in Reyhanlı, Turkey. The first numbers were 4 dead and 20 injuries. The number of deaths later increased to 8, then to 22, and then to 46, and then came the media blackout issued by the government, prohibiting any kind of journalist activities on the matter. In general, such big events cannot be analyzed without a big margin of error due to macro-political secrecies, but this time we do not even know how many citizens lost their lives. There is a widespread rumor, claimed to be reported by local hospitals, that the actual number is 177 deaths, and as for injuries hundred seems to be the significant digit.

This news item aims at separating evidence-based factual information from speculative analysis. This is not to underrate political analysis in any way. Due to media blackout accompanied with auto-censorship in mainstream media, it became especially difficult to reach proper information on the matter. Therefore, we have had hard time preparing a well-designed analysis.

Facts and observations

After the explosions, government officials pointed the Assad regime and so did the media. Vice prime minister Beşir Atalay claimed that the investigations concluded that Al Muhaberat, an organization allied with the Syrian government forces, is responsible for the attacks. Minister of Internal Affairs Muammer Güler confirmed Atalay's statement.[1] On Sunday, 10 people were arrested for investigations. The authorities did not let anyone enter the crime scene, including parliamentarians of the opposition parties. A deputy reported that the excuse was that they were collecting evidence, yet what the deputies observed was that the police was destroying evidence with heavy construction equipment. [2]

The locals are outraged due to the complete indifference in media, as almost all TV channels continued showing their prime time programs, ranging from sitcoms to reality shows. One local, when noticed the camera of a BBC journalist after a funeral, complained “What are you doing? We warned you hundreds of times before, you ignored it. Look, I am an enemy of this state. Let them put me in jail, I hope they do.” Another one reacted “So many people died, no one is sharing our sorrow. TV channels are shouting at us with their entertainment shows. What kind of mourning is this?” [3]

The National Intelligence Service (MİT) claimed that the bombs were loaded in Ar-Raqqah, Syria. This does not seem plausible due to the followings: Since March, Ar-Raqqah is under control of the Al Nusra Front, an organization affiliated to Al Qaida. It is a town that is 300 km away from the Yayladağı border gate, which MİT claimed the cars crossed the border. The area is strictly controlled both by the Syrian state and by the rebels. Furthermore, this would imply that two cars loaded with explosives managed to pass through the border gates of Turkey, which in fact turns out to be the only reasonable part of the narrative. [4]

The government officials repeatedly argued that this was the first time the Syrian civil war affected Turkish citizens. This is plain wrong, recalling the terrorist attack in Gaziantep in August 2012 killing nine [5] (successfully covered up by the government), and the Free Syrian Army militants who tried to cross the borders without passport check and get into a conflict with the security forces on May 2nd, killing one security official in Akçakale. [6]

What is actually happening?

There are two scenarios voiced by the political analysts.

First is that the Syrian regime is responsible for the attacks, menacing the Turkish government for supporting and sheltering the rebels. The aim is to put Turkey's Syrian policies into question in public opinion and therefore isolate Turkey's aggressive interventionist policies with respect to Syria. As Turkey would not get enough support from the US, who in turn is continuing its bargains with Russia, Turkey would have to converge into a more cautious position.

The second scenario is that the attack is a provocation to get Turkey involved in the conflicts in Syria. Some elements in the opposition organized the attacks to create outrage and terror in the public, resulting in a more aggressive policy with respect to Syria. The government, in search of becoming a “regional leader”, may have direct role in the attacks. If it doesn't, it would still use this opportunity with this perspective. In short, the attacks are a kind of September 11 for Turkey, a provocation to make the government take active part in the Syrian civil war. [7]

We observe that the latter scenario is swept away in mainstream media, both Turkish and international. Yet it is voiced coherently among Turkish left, and we therefore want to highlight some of its main features below.

We start by summarizing an analyis by Hamide Yiğit in Sendika.org.

The explosions were first reported in The Syrian Revolution 2011 website of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The website said “Explosions in Reyhanlı. Tens of deaths.” This does not sound natural, given that Turkish news agencies were yet reporting 4 deaths at that moment.

Yet there is an important detail. Mohamad Damascian who uploaded the video to the page commented “Admin, here is the video. Take it Erdoğan. With Allah's permission, the next bomb will be in Ankara, pig!” After a while when the Turkish media and the Syrian rebels started to state that the attacks were done by the Assad regime, the video was deleted and re-uploaded without the comment.

Yiğit notes that this website consists of heterogeneous members, belonging to a variety of opposition groups. Hence, it is not straightforward to relate a post with a particular organization such as Al Nusra or FSA.

It is well known that FSA and Al Nusra have conflicts of interests, although both are supported and partially controlled by the Turkish government. After the US and France putting Al Nusra into the list of terrorist organizations, it is plausible to assume that Turkey may have put a distance, and that therefore Al Nusra is now attempting to threaten the government.

Lastly, Syrian Information Minister Umran Zubi made a press conference on Sunday and argued that “the real terrorists are Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government”. Zubi firmly rejected any responsibility and relation to the attacks, calling the dead citizens “martyrs”. He also underlined that the Turkish government is trying create an excuse to take the support of NATO for invading Syria.

Next, we highlight some points in an analysis of Hatice Pınar Şenoğuz, published in Bianet.

The article of Şenoğuz highlights that the Turkish state is actually standing firm in its border policies, in a semipermeable way.

The government first called the refugees “guests”, but later, when necessary, did not hesitate to send them back through the mined zone (Kilis, September 2012) or to start shooting at the borders to stop new comers due to lack of space in the camps. (Kilis, September 2012 and Akçakale, April 2013) When the tensions increased in Hatay, the city governor sent the refugees out of town. However, the government did not bother about the tensions caused by the rebels sheltered in the camps nor did it reallocate military camps to less tense regions.

Furthermore, it was reported that the security cameras on the streets were off due to a “system error”. Apparently many of the 73 security cameras were pointed directly at the explosion zones and this system error occurred a few days before the explosions. [8]

Finally, we would like to emphasize that government officials never mentioned a call for a national mournin (although RedHack organized one by hacking the website of Hatay City Governance [9]). This may be considered as a further evidence to argue for the government's intention for increased aggression.

Now we are waiting for the Erdoğan and Obama meeting, it seems only after that will we receive more news/analysis about Reyhanlı according to the needs of this strategical collaboration.

The Imperialist Intervention in Syria to Launch Officially: Turkey Authorizes Military Action in Syria

This short news item is a collection of breaking news from Turkey, reporting the recent developments about the Syrian conflict. Please check the Syria label for further analyses. Turkish references are given by an asterisk whereas English or nonverbal references are embedded in the text.

  Taksim square, Istanbul. October 4th, 19:30

What's happening in Turkey?

Months-lasting efforts of imperialism bore fruit. Practically in the night of October 3^rd and formally in the morning of October 4^th, Turkey declared war on Syria.

There were numerous peace demonstrations all around Turkey in the afternoon of October 4^th. In Ankara, some one thousand protesters were attacked by the police with teargas and pressurized water.

In the Taksim Square, Istanbul, thousands of people gathered upon the call  of socialist parties. The call was further supported by many groups including women's movements, LGBT organizations and popular student movements. The main slogan of the demonstration was “We will not be the soldiers of imperialism. We will stop AKP's war policies.”

The demonstrators stated that they do not want a “war government”. They argue that the recent Akçakale incident happened due to AKP's war policy. As was highlighted by Patrick Cockburn in The Independent, the protesters also state that AKP “has become the chief instrument of American policy towards Syria in the past year.”

Facts and Non-facts

• On October 3^rd, the bordering town Akçakale was hit by a shell coming from the Syrian side, killing 5 people.
• Contrary to the organized misinformation, it is not yet known whether a howitzer or a cannon shot the town.* While the Free Syrian Army (FSA) might also have howitzers, mass media declares it to be a cannon shell and therefore originating from the Syrian government forces. The question of creating an excuse for the invasion was addressed by an opposition parliamentarian, İlhan Cihaner.*
• The Syrian Information Ministry stated that they started an investigation on the source of the gunfire, sending their condolences to the family and friends of “the martyrs”.
• The US immediately condemned the incident. NATO declared that it clearly takes side with Turkey.* Russian Foreign Ministry demanded Syria to admit that it was an accident and to apologize, yet reminded that the Western countries did not condemn the recent terrorist attacks in Syria.*
• While the Turkish army stroke Syrian targets the whole night, the AKP government prepared a bill for the authorization of cross-border military action.
• The parliament approved the authorization by 320 to 129. The bill was supported by the nationalist party, MHP. As the Turkish parliament has 549 seats, this means that a considerable number of the Yes camp decided to stay away.
• The authorization is for one year and it authorized the Turkish army to be sent and assigned to “foreign countries”, not necessarily restricting the actions to Syria.* This caused controversies in the parliament.
• The parliamentary discussions were closed to media and public attendance. The government MP Nurettin Canikli asked to the opposition whether they are on Assad's side or on Turkey's side. The opposition MP Muharrem Ince responded “To hell with Assad” and added: “Are you on Turkey's side or on Obama's side?”



NOT MY WAR!

• Selahattin Demiraş from BDP, the most radical left-wing party in the parliament at the moment, commented that the Akçakale incident seemed like a hurriedly organized massacre to legitimize attacks on Syria.*

 

Political background

For a long time, the camps the Turkish government established for Syrian refugees were highly controversial. Especially Apaydın Accommodation Facilities near Antioch, where the militants of FSA are sheltered, raised public concern and heavy criticism. Parliamentarians and journalists were not allowed to visit the camp. It was claimed that Syrian rebels were working in collaboration with Turkey. This claim was later confirmed by a commander of FSA, who said they were receiving battle trainings on the Turkish border.

The locals from Samandağ have been disgruntled. Peace demonstrations in the region were oppressed by local authorities on the ground that they could not protect the demonstrators from FSA militants. It was further observed by the locals that the so-called Syrian dissenters included militants of Al-Qaeda, Taliban and the Muslim brotherhood. The locals also spotted another group called “The Soldiers of Damascus”, which is a hired army controlled by the Turkish government. They further reported their concerns about blond, blue-eyed English-speaking men swarming around like inspectors.

As was observed in the last crisis in June when a Turkish aircraft was claimed to be shot down by Syria, the propaganda of the Turkish government did not suffice to form public consent for another war.

Yet the ruling class in Turkey has already made its mind to make Turkey an active regional leader in the Middle East; the translation of which to our language is that Turkish government would play a leading role on behalf of imperialism, instead of being a passive country that just allowed soldiers pass its land, as it has been in the Iraq war. If this is what is meant by “development”; yes, Turkey has developed quite a lot.

 

Very close to Syria – Ragıp Duran

This article is a shortened translation of the Turkish original “Suriye'ye çok yakın...” by Ragıp Duran, published in Birdirbir.org on 11 July 2012. We mean this translation to be a continuation of an article series about Syria, which you can follow using the Syria label.

In Antioch, Iskenderun or Samandağ, the people are sticked to a single subject. Journalists, intellectuals, artisans... all are disgruntled. Instead of the tourists who came here or who passed through, they now have “weird Syrians” around. And those other things who speak English...

I saw and heard about it when taking the plane in Istanbul: This time, the Antioch passengers were different. English-speaking middle-aged men. They pretend to be locals but are obviously foreigners. They put some Turkish or Arabic words in-between when they talk. Officially, they are journalists, officials of humanitarian help organizations, Redcross personnel etc. but that they are unofficially something else is crystal clear as if it was written on their faces. I have seen many of them in the 1991 operations in Nusaybin, Cizre, Kamışlı and Duhok.

They were talking about the situation in the refugee camps. They were complaining about translation shortages. One was explaining that his report was not taken seriously. It seems there are not only reconnaissance aircrafts scouting in the Turkey-Syria borders...

The Antioch society is overly unhappy. They took down CHP (Republican People's Party) after Mrs. Iris and gave the city government to AKP (Justice and Development Party), and they also sent a local to the Ministry of Justice. Yet, thanks to the incredible policies of Erdoğan-Davutoğlu, the border gate in Cilvegözü, the former window of friendship, is now a frozen photograph. No one gets in, no one gets out. And the Uzunçarşı (the Long Bazaar) shopkeepers are deeply grieved.

Until now, I read more and deeper analyses and news on Syria in French, English and American newspapers than in Turkish press. In our media there is not even a Syria expert. We do not even know if anyone else other than Davutoğlu is actually interested in the Syrian issue. On the other hand, in Antioch, there are lots of journalists and experts who know Arabic, who studied in Syria and who are quite familiar with Damascus. Of course this group is never on stage as they think differently than Davutoğlu.

The only topic of conversation is Syria here:

• So-called Free Syrian Army!... If one fights for democracy, then one doesn't take shelter in the neighboring country or in the Americans, one stays in one's country and fights together with the people.
• The refugee camps are a complete ambiguity... We are not able to go see our own relatives. Blond, blue-eyed men are swarming in there like inspectors.
• What kind of dissident democrats are these! Thievery, they've got. Harassing our girls and women, they've got... And I don't get this, there are some guys around with some North African accent of Arabic, Libyan I guess...
• I did not see it with my own eyes, but they are sending armed men down at nights.
• The aircraft thing was apparent since the beginning... Erdoğan called the American newspaper “cowardly” but they turned out correct. I don't like Assad particularly, but Erdoğan proved him right...
• Aleppo is the decisive one there, and Damascus too. Hamas revolts since old times. Look, the Kurds still did not get into the main opposition there.
• Assad is secular, to begin with. And all the minorities, the Christians, Armenians, Assyrians, Jews... They all are supporting Assad still. However artificial, there is a comprador bourgeoisie , and they are also on Assad's side. The democracy front is both weak and unorganized. Since they don't have a political or ideological opposition tradition, the opponents of Assad are easily getting under the control of Ankara or Washington.
• Assad has Iran, Russia and China on his back. The American experts also realized that Assad will remain the short-term, even in the middle-term.

Let us empathize to understand better. Is this example enough?

• “The friends of the Turkish people group” in Damascus published a declaration saying that the Prime Minister Erdoğan should immediately resign unconditionally.

Antioch is melancholic in the hot summer. When was it that Antioch joined the national pact, 1938 or 1939?

Syria issue. Samandağ reflections: Zero neighbors, zero ministers, lots of problems – Ragıp Duran

This article is translated from the Turkish original “Samandağ izlenimleri: Sıfır komşu, sıfır bakan, çok sorun” by Ragıp Duran, published in Birdirbir.org on 18 July 2012. We mean this translation to be a continuation of an article series about Syria, the first of which can be found here.

We went to Samandağ¹ for the “Evvel Temmuz” festival. While locals explain, you understand that, beyond minor harms, the Erdoğan-Davutoğlu Syria policy has destroyed the social fabric. The Peace Demonstration that couldn't be done, the Syrian camps, the incredible classiness of Samandağ people...

• I personally went to talk with the Chief of Police. I am responsible for the Organization Committee. We'll make a demonstration against war. As İHD (The Human Rights Association) and other organizations, we make our preparations. We are against an intervention to Syria. We want good neighbor relations. You know what the Chief of Police told me?
• What did he say?
• We cannot ensure your security under these circumstances.
• What do you mean, the Turkish police is not able to ensure your security within Turkish borders against whom?
• At first he didn't say anything, tried every cunning way, but then spilled the beans. The Free Syrian Army would oppose such a demonstration!

The İHD responsible told me these before our panel in Samandağ. However unbelievable it is, as a result of Davutoğlu-Erdoğan diplomacy, the Samandağ society cannot organize a demonstration for peace because of a militia located in camps in their homeland. Because that state does not allow them to.

This is not the whole story.

• At nights, under cover of bringing the wounded, they bring armed men back and forth by the ambulances.

There is a huge traffic(ing) in all the bordering region, especially in the camping areas. Foreign press also wrote about this.

The camps are problematic in several aspects: First off, they are located along the borders, within the range of artillery from Assad. You cannot control the runaways. But if you aim at infiltration through the borders, of course you should put them near the border.

Another local who is interested in the issue reports:

• A migration seminar was held here, so we were able to visit the camps. Also, we have family on the Syria side. There are people going and coming back, they also tell a lot. We follow Syrian newspapers and watch Syrian television. The majority of the people in these camps are the elderly, women and children. But of course these families have their men too. We spotted five different groups in the camp population.
• The criminals in Syria. Like thieves, rapists, some people who have a criminal record but not sentences yet. They expect to join the opposition and when the Assad regime falls to return to homeland as heroes.
• Militants of all kinds of radical Islamist groups, especially Taliban, Al-Kaida and the Muslim Brothers. Even their high- and middle-ranking officials. They come and go, they are trying to administer their insider militants from here.
• There is a group called “The Soldiers of Damascus”, this is totally a hired army. They are also known as Davutoğlu's men. It's a small group, but the most money and support goes to this group.
• We encountered, another small group, the real democratic dissidents. They were many in the beginning; but in the camps they were treated very badly by the Turkish authorities and these fundamentalist groups, the ones who could afford fled to Europe, and the rest fled to Ankara or Istanbul.
• The fifth group is a bit floating. We first thought they don't belong to any of the parties, they seemed to accord with whoever is more powerful in the camp. Then we learned that there is some internal feud. The ones who were exposed are liquidized, and the rest ran away. These were Assad's agents...

As a matter of fact, Samandağ has an incredibly peaceful, calm, easy-going and cheerful identity. It has a strong and deep left-wing culture. It is also very rich in terms of religious, ethnic and language diversity; and these different sections have really positive interrelations. It is like a modern mosaic museum. It has everything, everything gets along well with everything else, all different, all equal. Moreover, they have amazing kebab and marvelous boğma-rakısı. However, Erdoğan distorted this atmosphere:

• We are not Assad-supporters or anything.
• Nusayri² is now used as an insult. I mean, we are very uncomfortable.
• Who is fighting for what, anyway?
• The people in Ankara do not know anything about Syria. And they want to become regional power, this and that...
• Even Americans are more cautious than Erdoğan...
• Not a single proper journalist came here... They came for that aircraft occasion, and those just took some records on the coast and left immediately...

If you listen to local people's evaluations, you easily understand why the eminent Turkish media does not emphasize Samandağ, Antioch, and the Syria issue. Almost every single detail experienced here moment-to-moment refutes Erdoğan's words. In any case; most probably there exist decent journalists and authors who can write the state of mind and the problems of the local society; but we have a problem of finding place to publish them.

With all these in my mind, we started the panel “What to do against this media?” with Nazım Alpman in Akdeniz Cafe along the Samandağ coast. It is 5 pm. The temperature is somewhere around 30-35 degrees Celsius. All the chairs in the outdoors cafeteria are occupied. The elders, the youth, women, children; really crowded. It was such a beautiful panel. Especially in the question-answer part we had very nice discussions, and the way the questions were posed were so elegant and deep that we were fascinated... For instance, we made a comparison between Orwellian and Huxley-like societies. In this cute town Samandağ of our sad and lonely country.

1 Samandağ is a town and district in Hatay Province in Turkey. It is geographically to the south of Antioc, near the Turkey-Syria border.

2 A Syrian Shiite sect.

Turkey: From Iraq to Syria – Bülent Kale

This article is translated from the Turkish original “Türkiye: Irak'tan Suriye'ye” by Bülent Kale, published in Bianet's Turkish website on 5 July 2012.

Nine years ago in 2003, when Turkey applied to NATO in accordance with Article 4 before the Iraq Occupation; NATO sent five Patriot air defense systems and three AWACS aircrafts to Turkey in order to provide defense against “Iraq's non-existent chemical weapons”.

At that time, the relations were not as good as today. NATO played hard to give these systems, and even then gave them temporarily. In any case, the Turkish Parliament ended up not giving permission to 40.000 US soldiers passing through Turkey.

Rumors said that the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan let the MPs loose and the negative answer coming from the parliament was a shock to everyone including the governing party, but the parliament was “people's will”. There is another rumor. According to this version, the bargaining didn't go well. Turkey demanded 25 million dollars for 40.000 American troops for passing through Turkey to enter Iraq, the US did not accept, and in the end the US had find other ways. You know the rest of the story: Bags, scenes, incidents...

In fine, a lot of water has flowed beneath the bridge. Once submissively watched its foundation, the Kurdish Autonomous Region has today become Turkey's biggest trade partner. And Turkey is not anymore a passive country to let soldiers pass through its land, but a strategical partner.

If this is what is understood by development; yes, Turkey has developed quite a lot.

Because now, they don't need to send missile defense systems to Turkey; paramount systems had just placed to Kürecik last summer when the partnership agreement was declared. And in connection to that; the central control station of the missile defense systems, the Monterrey US battleship, anchored to Iskenderun; the predators were deployed to Incirlik and are not working towards Syria and not towards PKK; the ties with Iran were broken; unlimited air operations were allowed to Kandil; Roj TV was closed down; Abdullah Öcalan is under segregation since one year; the oppression of the Kurdish has gone wild; and Turkey does not care at all about any kind of foreign pressure...

You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. The power elite are in action for dirty business for Syrian people's democratic demands as well as the Kurdish people's basic rights.

Let us come to the point. No one actually showed interest as to how the aircraft was shot down in Syria. Even the Wall Street Journal news item was nothing but a warning to Turkey. NATO made a statement without bothering to ask what has happened: “The allied forces will follow this incident very closely, if it is repeated, NATO will take action.” After this statement, Turkey made the following statement: “Turkey will take the necessary steps to implement its rights coming from international law against this injustice, and will decide the place, time and method by itself.”

And this more or less means the following: Turkey, the only NATO member which has a border to Syria, declared publicly that it accepts the offer. Turkey will go first and wait with fingers at the trigger. Meanwhile, “The Friends of Syria” will work for no-flight zones, buffer zones, and an operation permission from the UN. When the US-NATO give the sign, a preplanned friction will occur. Islamist militia supported (by air force and by rear guard support) by Turkey and NATO will gain grounds. This is how it looks on paper. Yet we never know how it will turn out in reality. Plans don't work out as in the Phantom story. Something happens, and you can't find NATO on your back. You end up with a society in front of you, who has no other option than fighting till death.

There are many things to say but these two developments – the Geneva meeting of the war merchants and the Cairo meeting of the political beggars – once again underlined an important point: The structures that are promoted to us as Syrian National Council and Free Syrian Army are a total mess not promising any trust even for their supporters.

Despite all the make-up and presentation, despite all the strategical, economical and media supports; they are incorrigibly fragmented. They are much more dispersed than they seem. This means: It seems impossible for Syria to remain as a single country if Assad falls.

And Turkey's calculation – together with many other calculations – is not to watch this breaking-up as in the case of Iraq but be an active participant of it. It says “It is not enough to ignore the Kurds in Turkey and deny their basic human rights; we should ignore the Kurds in Syria and deny their rights too.” It says “We cannot allow another Kurdish Autonomous Region in Syria after Iraq.”

Turkey is excited, Turkey does not want to remain passive, Turkey wants to manipulate regional developments for its benefits. It supports, directs and manipulates the Syrian National Council. It hosts, trains and arms the Free Syrian Army. What is Turkey doing? Let us have a look at the conjuncture:

Much blood was shed. After nine years, the Iraq invasion accounted for the death of more than 1 million people. Iraq is not liberated, neither is it democratized. The US, with blood up to its neck, abandoned the country in 2012. Why did it leave, actually? Seeing that the next target was Syria, why did the US leave Iraq and gave the leading role to Turkey?

The US, the servant of benevolence and peace, changed its war strategy. The US soldiers in Iraq were cleared up. The 90.000 soldiers in Afghanistan are to be reduced to 20.000 by 2014. From now on, it will distribute benevolence and peace via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

These UAVs can be launched from nearby bases, controlled from really far away, and they can see and shoot the target. There are subcontractor armies that are quite willing to do the job of the 40.000 US soldiers for much cheaper. There are huge Muslim masses, who are of no use but to fight and die but could be trained to do these.

And most importantly, there is a neoliberal system where money is valued and respected much more than humankind.