February 26, 2008 at 10:59:12

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Will Turkey be complicit in another war against another neighbour?

By Cem Ertür (about the author)     Page 2 of 13 page(s)

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"Peres was applauded by the AKP parliamentarians for saying 'You don't realize and you don't understand, your real enemy is your next-door neighbour Iran!'. The purpose of his visit was to declare to the whole region that 'There are the two trends in the region: Iran as a sponsor of terrorism and pro-peace Turkey'. He declared it and received applause! Given his interviews, his speech in the Turkish Parliament and the news items on 'intelligence-sharing', it is plausible to argue that the sole purpose of Peres' visit was to explain to Ankara the 'Iranian threat'." [8]

These statements were all the more significant considering that they were made at a time when the US, Israel and their European allies were desperate to get support for the Annapolis Conference in the face of widespread opposition to this initiative across the Arab World. However, this went largely unreported in the mainstream Turkish media. The Deputy Head of the Felicity Party (Saadet Partisi) Mr Sevket Kazan explains the real agenda behind this conference:

"This war against Iran will be launched by the US and Israel with the support of Turkey. Once the power of these two has proved insufficient, the UK, France and finally NATO forces –including Turkey- will also get involved." [9]

US AND ISRAELI SUPPORT AGAINST THE KURDISH SEPARATIST PKK

At a joint press conference with his visiting Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak, Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said:

"We thank Israel for its support to Turkey in the defense industry. We thank Mr. Barak for sending equipment and devices that Turkey uses in the south-east and in cross border operations [against the PKK]." [10]

In the run-up to this visit, alternative website Fikritakip made the following remark:

"For some time it has been striking that every evening Show TV has introduced at great length the 'high-tech' arms and defence systems provided by Israel to Turkey in the latter's struggle with the PKK... This shows that the nationalist circles, which are thought to be anti-Israel, are in reality grateful to this country for its support against the PKK." [11]

The Turkish media reporting on the US support against the PKK was along the same lines and proved to be instrumental in dissipating the anti-American feelings across the Turkish population. In fact, until the US support began late last year, they were being accused by the Turkish mainstream media and politicians of not only turning a blind eye to the PKK's use of violence, but also of providing covert support to it.

In a newspaper article, former parliamentarian Mehmet Bekaroglu asks the following question:

"Isn't it strange that the US declares the PKK 'a common enemy of Turkey, the United States and Iraq', while also encouraging, or even arming, training and providing intelligence support to the same PKK under the name of PJAK, against another country in the region, namely Iran?" [12]

Actually, this is not all that strange considering the divide-and-rule strategy of the US, the EU and Israel across the Muslim world based on the exploitation of all the existing hostilities and divisions. Until recently, they were simultaneously supporting the Turkish Armed Forces, the PKK and its sister organisation PJAK as well as the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. According to the Firat News Agency, the reason behind the US support is:

"An agreement made between the US, Turkey and the Federal Administration of South Kurdistan for the construction in South and North Kurdistan [i.e. Northern Iraq and South-eastern Turkey respectively] of two strategic US military bases targeting Iran." [13]

The base in Turkey is reportedly located in the Yuksekova district at the Iranian border. Needless to say, in the event of a war on Iran, the US and its leading NATO allies will be using all the bases on the Turkish territory at their disposal, including the secret ones. It is important to bear in mind that the notorious US military base in Incirlik (Southern Turkey), which has played a crucial role in all the Anglo-American invasions in the Middle East in the post-cold war period, contains 90 nuclear warheads.

In retrospect, the rejection of the March 2003 parliamentary motion to allow US troops to use Turkish soil as a staging ground for an invasion of Iraq didn't seem to have much of an impact as the US army clandestinely went ahead with its plans anyway.

THE MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM

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