NATO Mindset

The 36th NATO Summit of Heads of State and Government will take place in Ankara, hosted by our country, on Tuesday, July 7, and Wednesday, July 8. We will see what emerges after the praises showered on Turkey before this summit, which will determine the fate of both the region and our country. The US president's statement that he will come with gift packages that will please Tayyip Erdoğan already raises many questions.

Among the topics to be discussed at the summit, the defense industry, new security strategies, increasing military expenditures, support for Ukraine, and the Cyprus issue stand out. The occupation of our Aegean islands by Greece, a NATO member country, is not on the agenda. NATO countries support the PKK terrorist organization, which works for the division of our country. Many NATO member countries have passed laws in their parliaments regarding the so-called Armenian genocide. The withdrawal of Turkish troops from Cyprus and the unification of Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots into a single state are advocated. The US, in particular, imposes an arms embargo on our country.

NATO's, and thus the US's, demands are endless; while we act as guardians of the Black Sea, we will also deploy troops at the multinational corps headquarters to be established in Adana and act as guardians of the Middle East. In addition, our contribution to the common defense budget will be increased from 2% to 5%, and furthermore, NATO will decide how this budget will be used. While all kinds of negativities are openly apparent, trusting NATO, which is the global control power of US imperialism, is heedlessness, perversion, and even treason.

In Ankara, the capital of the Republic of Turkey, founded by fighting against imperialism, the preparations made and the extraordinary security measures implemented even before the NATO summit began have been transformed into a repressive regime that restricts fundamental rights and freedoms. Democratic rights were restricted, public spaces were narrowed, some roads were closed, and public employees were given administrative leave. Many people's homes were raided and many people were arrested on the possibility that they might protest the NATO summit. Fearing the questions journalists might ask, critical media was prevented from covering the summit. During this period, all kinds of meetings and demonstrations were banned.

Turkey's continued membership in NATO, which is not a representative of a democratic and free world, brings no benefit to our country. It is clear that all material and political negativities directed against Turkey originate from NATO countries. When the time comes, when conditions mature, and when our country reaches a certain level of political, military, and economic power, it must withdraw from this imperialist organization.

At a time when the world needs peace, not armament, the future of the world is being attempted to be mortgaged through the NATO meeting, at the behest of imperialist USA. Here, however, opposition parties were more concerned with the measures taken than with the purpose of the meeting. Özgür Özel, criticizing the measures taken for the summit and the arrests, said, “These things are befitting Erdoğan, not Ankara. There's a strange state of emergency that designs hardship for its own people, closes the Parliament, public institutions, and streets just because foreign leaders are coming.” Essentially true, but one should focus on the purpose of the summit and its potential outcomes. For those who pledge allegiance to NATO and the EU, it turns out that rhetoric or showmanship, rather than purpose, is important.

For Özgür Özel and his supporters, who are waiting for a special day to form a new party, there is a Greek idiom, “ná’to kefalí, ná’to mármaro,” which means “here's the head, here's the marble.” This idiom has entered our language as “nato kafa, nato mermer” (NATO head, NATO marble). Its meaning is that some people have heads like marble, and it's impossible to get anything into them. It is also used to describe some people as insensitive, uncomprehending, unwilling to listen, or, in short, 'stone-headed'. This idiom is sufficiently explanatory for those who are trying to abandon the Republican People's Party, a hundred-year-old plane tree that emerged from the Kuvayı Milliye, the Defense of Rights, our National War of Liberation, and the People's Party, and led the liberation and establishment of our country, and for those preparing to form a new party.

Suay Karaman