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Global Research Fundraising: Stop the Pentagon’s Ides of March

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When we look at the general political and economic course in the world and in Türkiye, the picture that stands out is; political instability, economic turmoil and a trend towards global migration and war. Türkiye is right in the middle of all this turbulence.

The Western-oriented neoliberal economy is in an extremely bad point. For example, while the economy of warring Russia is standing, the economy of non-warring Turkey is in a very bad situation.

Economic programs based on imports and hedge funds are heading towards complete bankruptcy due to both domestic political-economic collapses and external deteriorations. Reducing the legal system and state order to a single party also negates policies based on imports and foreign investment.

Politics, on the other hand, is turning towards complete religious totalitarianism.

After the local elections, the governing party AKP’s plan is to consolidate its power with a new constitution. A pivot to the USA and new concessions are on the horizon in order to get permission from the Western system to do this.

When these developments are combined with the latest situation in global great power competition, we are faced with an extremely dangerous situation for Turkiye.

There is an increasing pressure for war in the world. The United States and its allies do not want to accept defeat in Ukraine. Europe is suicidally preparing for a war against Russia under the umbrella of NATO. The war, whose seeds were sown and harvested by the USA in Ukraine, affected European economies extremely badly.

The Israeli genocide in Palestine is waiting for an opportunity to evolve into a regional war.

This crisis, which the USA did not actually plan, contains the potential for a series of chain reactions that will drive it out of the Middle East and West Asia.

While the far-right government in Israel wanted to impose its own agenda on the United States, it actually undermined the White House’s forward-looking plans.

The USA’s next target after Russia would normally be the People’s Republic of China via Taiwan.

The USA advanced its infrastructure work and took action to establish new alliances in order to continue the NATO structure in the Pacific.

The collective West’s concern was global hegemony slipping from its grasp. The reason for this is the great economic performance of developing countries, especially China, over the last 40 years. Asian powers, led by China and Russia, do not have difficulty finding allies in Africa, South America and even Europe. Because Asian powers represent a multipolar alternative to the decaying unipolar world order of the United States.

While China and Russia are creating a global communication scheme with new sea and trade routes, the West, led by the USA, is establishing strategies to prevent them.

To put it very simply, the East (or global south) represents peace and cooperation, while the collective West brings war and instability to the table.

The role assigned to Turkiye in the new global architecture formed after the Second World War was as an outpost in the Western camp.

This positioning, which was designed as NATO membership and then being connected to the EU door, turned Turkey into a self-sufficient, externally dependent and satellite country, deviating from Atatürk’s goal of modern civilization.

Periodic breakthroughs were suppressed by military and militia elements in the NATO order that took over the state. The military coups of 12 March 1971 and 12 September 1980 are clear examples of this.

The hot-money loving comprador bourgeoisie and the business world, which could not go further than being a Western agency, became the strongest supporters of the system.

After the anti-Communism; policing implemented since the 1950s, the second role that the USA assigned to Turkey after 1980 was the “Green Belt” (moderate Islam). The entire nation state, along with labor and national capital, was targeted, and the political, social and cultural system was aimed to be religious and to ensure that Turkey remained underdeveloped and could be governed by a single authority.

Today, both the world and Türkiye are at a very critical crossroads.

Let alone regional and civil wars, we are at a moment when World War III is likely to break out.

Türkiye, on the other hand, resembles a ship that is being tried to be sailed with a so-called ‘balance’ foreign policy in this environment of turmoil.

However, the ship takes on water in the Western camp and is gradually sinking.

Luckily there are new alternatives in the East/South camp; Like BRICS+ and the like. Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were added to China, Russia, Brazil, India and South Africa as of 2024.

It is stated that 25 countries, especially Nigeria and Mexico, are candidates for the secret to become a member of BRICS. BRICS+, which is the harbinger of a new world order that is not based on hegemony and the dollar, but is egalitarian, win-win type of infrastructure, commercial and industrial cooperation, is a lifesaver for Turkey in this stormy ocean.

The only way for Turkey to take its rightful place in this new world order is to quit being the satellite of the West and leave NATO and the EU Customs Union.

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This article was originally published on ATASAM.

Hasan Erel is a Turkish journalist-writer. He worked as a diplomacy and foreign news reporter and editor in TRT and other media for 30 years. He is a frequent commentator of Sputnik News radio and CRI Turk in Turkiye.    

Featured image is from ATASAM