U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came and went. There was nobody from the U.S. delegation at his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Not even the interpreter. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu did the interpreting.
Why?
When he appeared before the cameras with Çavuşoğlu, we had trouble hearing him make a strong statement like, “Okay, you are right.” We got the impression that he was trying to string out the crisis.
Why?
Through Çavuşoğlu, Turkey said, “Take a step and we’ll see, after that...” in front of the cameras.
Why?
The U.S. is still holding on tightly to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) Syrian affiliate, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG). It is keeping the Fetullah Terrorist Organization’s (FETÖ) ringleader under protection in Pennsylvania.
Why?
Questions, questions and more questions. Here are some of the answers I have:
Tillerson “allowing” Çavuşoğlu to interpret in his meeting with President Erdoğan was presented as “breaking protocol.”
Yet, if we remember the conflict between the statement that came from the U.S. side immediately after the discussion with U.S. President Donald Trump and the statement from Ankara, we can understand why “protocol was broken.”
Because, regarding the Trump-Erdoğan talk, the American side presented matters that were not discussed as if they were. There may have been a doubt that the interpreter may not have been able to convey the matter to Tillerson as is.
Turkey’s persistent demand to stop aid to the the PYD/YPG-PKK terrorist organization, to stop providing arms to them is always being ignored. As a matter of fact, they make trivializing statements like, “We haven’t given them heavy weapons so there’s nothing to take back.”
Because, the U.S.’s long-term strategic goal is to change the borders of 22 countries in the Middle East and include Turkey among these.
There is no indicator that the U.S.’s strategic goal has changed.
Remember, the other day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, “The U.S. wants to stay in Syria forever.”
We want to see a statement that shows that the U.S. understands Turkey. There is a test of sincerity. Çavuşoğlu made the call: “Withdraw from Manbij, we will see after that…”
The U.S. is dragging its feet in this matter. It talks about running a mechanism. It talks about a workgroup. Because, in order to realize its long-term strategy, it is obliged today to make a tactical move.
Remember Raqqa?
During the days the operation to be carried out on the Syrian capital of the Daesh terrorist organization, Raqqa, was being discussed, when Turkey had said, “Leave the PYD/YPG-PKK and let’s enter Raqqa together,” the U.S. refused.
Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu told Tillerson, “Take a step in relation to Manbij so we can see how sincere you are.”
Because there is no consensus on the U.S. side. What one says the other refutes. One suggests one thing while the other suggests something entirely different.
It is not clear whether the White House or the Pentagon is in power in the U.S.
It is not clear whether the state is run by the civilians, politicians or the army.
What’s more, it is not clear whether Trump is a puppet or the president.
If Trump is not a puppet, then what is he? What does he do? What does he say? How much are his words accepted by his interlocutors in the American state?
He couldn’t resist the established order of the U.S. for even a year. Trump surrendered. And, the hawks of the U.S. want to apply, step by step, the strategy they developed on the Middle East in the early 2000s, which also closely concerns us. Therefore, despite being presented with so many documents, information and intelligence, it continues to aid the PYD/YPG-PKK terrorist organization and considers that organization as its partner.
It continues to protect the FETÖ ringleader in Pennsylvania who attempted to stage a coup on July 15, 2016. Because the July 15 coup attempt was also an invasion attempt, as well as the preliminary step of the attempt to divide Turkey into a few pieces. Because FETÖ’s mentor is the U.S.
Though it sacrificed Turkey, which protected NATO’s eastern borders throughout the Cold War, why isn’t the U.S. giving up on the PYD/YPG-PKK?
Because it does not want a Turkey that is no longer “controllable.” Because, its long-term strategic goal in the Middle East is boutique “state-like” structures and to also include Turkey in this.
The “confederalism” idea suggested by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 2004, “like taking a rabbit out of a hat,” was actually the U.S.’s idea.
It is certainly not an “administrative model” he made up himself.
PKK ringleader Öcalan is only the first person to want to apply the idea of democratic confederalism, which was developed by Russian-origin American Jew Murray Bookchin, on “Kurds” – that’s all.
Öcalan’s mentor is the U.S. In other words, the cantons the U.S. wants to establish in northern Syria are the products of this idea. The trench activities in Turkey are the manifestations of this idea. The U.S. is the mastermind behind all these ideas. Unfortunately, some circles in Ankara have both approved this idea and supported it.
Bookchin was an anarchist. He experienced a long transformation that passed through Marxism to Stalinism and then to ecological confederalism. What a coincidence that he went through this entire intellectual journey of his in New York.
What a coincidence it was that PKK leader Öcalan discovered Bookchin in 2004 on İmralı Island!
Look at what Erol Göka said in Yeni Şafak on this subject:
“The similarities between the Democratic Confederalism ideology developed by Öcalan and Bookchin’s ideas on social ecology are not coincidental. While he was in prison in the early 2000s, Öcalan started to read “The Ecology of Freedom” and “Urbanization without Cities,” and soon after declared himself one of Bookchin’s students. In order to understand the ways Bookchin’s ideas might be applicable in the context of the Middle East, Öcalan, through his lawyers, tried to organize a meeting with the radical thinker.” (Aug. 30, 2015, Yeni Şafak)
Let me summarize.
The U.S. and Turkey have very different long-term strategic goals. The U.S. wants to establish “state-like structures” through ethnicity, through sects, through diversities in our region.
It already announced this in 2003 through former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The U.S., which handed over PKK leader Öcalan to Turkey and took him under its control in İmralı, also placed FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen in Pennsylvania during the same period.
Both terrorist organizations and both terrorist leaders became organized with different motifs, but the goal was the same: To tear the region into pieces within the scope of American interests.
Anyone who has any doubt about this, step forward.
