Article

2023-01-31 The Grand Turk

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

What a lovely idea.

by Pavel Bednyakov

[RIA] The process of Sweden's and Finland's accession to NATO has been put on pause. This was stated by Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström. Later, his press secretary corrected her boss, explaining that the process is ongoing, but his fate is in the hands of Turkey. In any case, all Swedish commentators are unanimous in their opinion that no changes in the status of the Scandinavian candidates for NATO membership can be expected before the end of the elections in Turkey, which are scheduled for May 14-28.

Let's take a look at how things unfolded. In May last year, both countries, spurred on by Washington and Brussels , applied to join NATO. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately, in his usual manner, decided to take advantage of the opportunity to negotiate preferences for himself and put forward a number of conditions, including the expulsion of Turkish fugitive oppositionists from Sweden, which was enshrined in the corresponding memorandum of the three states.

The dispute between Turkey and the Scandinavian countries has become even more heated after the leader of the Danish far-right Hard Deal party, Rasmus Paludan, publicly burned a Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on January 21 to protest against the blocking of Sweden's Euro-Atlantic course. Then similar actions were repeated in the Netherlands and Denmark . Paludan said he intends to set fire to the Koran every Friday at the walls of the Turkish embassy in Copenhagen "until Sweden is admitted to NATO."

The Western press immediately rushed to look for a "Russian trace" in all these provocations . As if Russia is sleeping and seeing the early entry of the Scandinavians into the North Atlantic Alliance. And if Western propagandists want to pin the burning of the Koran on Russia, then they should declare the authorities of Stockholm and Copenhagen, who regularly give permission for these provocative actions, and the police there, who ensure the safety of arsonists, to be "agents of the Kremlin".

Yes, and a significant part of the population of Europe should also be classified as "Russian agents" with this approach. For example, De Telegraaf, the most widely circulated newspaper in the Netherlands, recently conducted a survey among its readers: 92 percent of them said that Sweden and Finland should reject Erdogan's conditions. But the most revealing - 58 percent of respondents considered it justified to burn the Koran in protest , while only 32 percent did not agree with this. Can you imagine how many "Kremlin agents" settled in the Netherlands!

Some readers of the newspaper called on European countries to close their embassies in Ankara, to accept Sweden and Finland into NATO, and to exclude Turkey from the alliance. Moreover, the question of Turkey's withdrawal from NATO is being discussed not only by idle Dutch burghers. This topic is also raised in Turkey itself - for example, the deputy chairman of the Rodina party there, Etem Sancak, predicted: "Turkey will leave NATO in five to six months."

But the most symptomatic is an article by former US national security adviser John Bolton in the Wall Street Journal, in which he called on the West to interfere in the upcoming elections in Turkey and exclude it from NATO if Erdogan wins . The explanation is impossibly simple: “Turkish and outside observers agree that Mr. Erdogan will lose the election if the process is free and fair. <…> It will be much more difficult for him to undermine the vote if NATO draws international attention to his efforts under the threat of exclusion.”

Bolton says bluntly: if Erdogan remains in office, Turkey should be expelled from NATO, and the elections should be declared invalid. It doesn't matter if they are democratic. Since some "observers" recognized in advance the need to defeat the incumbent Turkish president, then any other outcome should be called election fraud. Familiar approach, right? We have seen this in Georgia , Serbia , Ukraine and a number of other states where the Americans staged color revolutions or failed attempts.

By and large, what we are seeing in the Western media now is the launch of color revolution technologies in Turkey. The ideological mouthpiece of the liberals, The Economist magazine, did its best, devoting a special issue to an appeal to the West and personally to US President Joe Biden with the aim of interfering in the Turkish elections in order to prevent "Erdogan's dictatorship" there. The magazine echoes Bolton's calls to hit the Turkish President hard on the hands on the eve of the May vote in order to prevent him from neutralizing the main competitors in both the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Such gross interference by foreigners in the electoral process could not go unnoticed in Turkey itself. Erdogan personally stated: "The fate of Turkey will be determined by a British magazine? My nation determines it. What will happen in Turkey is what my people decide."

And a little later, the Turkish president directly accused the Western media of interference, saying: "International media organizations that do not even properly deal with elections in their countries monitor the electoral process in Turkey every day. <…> They try to control the public with their vile headlines and vile articles. Of course, we know what worries them, why they attack us, why they interfere in elections in our country."

Erdogan is an experienced politician who has repeatedly faced attempts of both coups and color revolutions in his country, always skillfully coping with these challenges. Moreover, he has long since learned to correctly use anti-Turkish actions for his election purposes. This has repeatedly raised suspicions that Ankara itself is behind some of these actions.

Let us recall, for example, how the Turkish authorities deliberately fueled the conflict between Ankara and The Hague in the spring of 2017, when both sides had to mobilize their own electorate: parliamentary elections were being held in the Netherlands at that time, and Turkey was in full swing preparing for an important constitutional referendum for Erdogan, which strengthened his powers. Largely thanks to this, Mark Rutte retained his post as prime minister, and the referendum in Turkey ended in success.

And now the Swedish press calls the noise around the burning of the Koran a competent political technique of Ankara. Svenska Dagbladet deputy editor-in-chief Peter Wennblad writes: "Erdogan needs conflict to mobilize his voters." Therefore, he calls on the Swedes to calm down, not to rush anywhere, to be patient and wait for the completion of the elections in Turkey, after which - the author does not doubt this for a minute - the process of Sweden and Finland joining NATO will go like clockwork.

Most likely, the Swedish journalist is right. We, too, should not be under any illusions about Erdogan's plans to end the elections. But first, he must win them, knowing full well that the collective West will try to do everything to ensure that it is either completely removed from power, or else it is sharply weakened.

The Turkish president is now making active efforts to raise his own rating and at the same time neutralize the opposition. The first one is more or less successful. Last year, after the Turkish lira plummeted, Erdogan's approval rate fell to a record low of 30 percent, while the disapproval rate rose to almost 60. However, by the beginning of this year, the figures were almost equal.

And the current scandal with the burning of the Koran and the harsh reaction of Erdogan will certainly lead to an even greater strengthening of his position. Ankara is clearly not going to de-escalate this conflict with the West, issuing an official warning to citizens with a request, if possible, to refrain from traveling to Europe and the United States in connection with the growing "Islamophobia, xenophobia and racist attacks " there.

The President of Turkey achieves no less success in weakening the opposition, which causes particular panic among Western critics.

Unexpectedly postponing the elections from June to May, Erdogan is forcing his opponents to speed up the selection of a single presidential candidate. Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul , was considered his main rival , but in December a court sentenced him to more than two years in prison for insulting the High Electoral Commission and, most importantly, a ban on participation in political activities. The verdict has not entered into force and, perhaps, will not enter into force - in any case, the White House and the European Union are actively working on this. But the opposition found itself in limbo, not understanding whether to bet on the disgraced mayor or not: too big a risk.

In addition, the Turkish Constitutional Court continues to consider the case on the ban on the third political force of the parliament - the Peoples' Democratic Party, which mainly represents the Kurds. She is accused of having links with the banned Kurdish Workers' Party in Turkey. If she is also removed from the elections at the last moment, it will be problematic for the opposition coalition to resist Erdogan.

And the scandals with the burning of the Koran in Europe are forcing the ideological heirs of Kemal Ataturk, who speak from nationalist positions and refuse to dialogue with the Kurds, to become radicalized. It is from them that Erdogan bites off a significant part of the electorate, tightening his rhetoric about anti-Islamic provocations in Europe.

So it is quite difficult to predict the outcome of the elections in Turkey now. That is why in the West calls for gross interference in this process and even for the need to remove Erdogan at any cost are becoming louder. It is no coincidence that The Washington Post called the Turkish campaign "the world's most important election in 2023." An American newspaper directly writes: "Western leaders will be glad to see Erdogan's back. <...> The United States and Europe would be better off without Erdogan's destructive influence on world events, especially in the context of their confrontation with Vladimir Putin ."

Well, since the stakes are so high, we can expect the most serious provocations in Turkey from the West. Of course, no one is going to seriously discuss its exclusion from NATO - too important a strategic foothold. But interference in elections, undermining the authority of the authorities, economic and ideological sabotage, support for riots - this is the usual arsenal of actions for the West. Even against his official ally.

Posted by badanov 2023-01-31 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11 views ] Top
File under: Sublime Porte

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