An overview on why the coup attempt of the 15th July 2016 in Turkey; opposing the invasion of Syria by Erdogan’s generals
1. Imperialism capitalist cannot tolerate a situation of prolonged disequilibrium in any state; this is because the prolonged disequilibrium could spread to the neighbouring capitalist regimes or indeed to any other part of the world; this is especially true as all the capitalist regimes worldwide are facing a crisis of legitimacy and are under greater threat than any time in the recent past; thus it appears that US imperialism is preparing to formally back Assad directly;The UN envoy to Syria, Staffan Mistura, confirmed as much in an interview on Sat 24th Sept where he stated that they had learnt from their mistakes in Libya when they disbanded the Libyan army, in Syria, they agree that the army must be maintained. As Assad is the head of the army, this implies that they now openly agree that Assad should remain. [In other words, they realise that they should have supported Gaddafi to remain in power and have drowned the revolution in blood;]
2. This is why imperialism instructed the Erdogan regime to mend ties with Russia and with Israel; imperialism was preparing for an open alliance with Russia against the Syrian masses; These very steps placed Erdogan himself under increasing isolation from his own base; imperialism needed a new means of control before the masses went into open and active opposition to the regime;
3. The problem is that there are at least 3 million Syrians in Turkey as well as a sizeable base in the working class that is sympathetic to the Syrian masses and who is hostile to Assad;
4. the base of the AKP is partly, the more backward worker and the problem imperialism had is that in order to crush resistance to its plan to re-impose Assad, it needs an open dictatorship; Erdogan, by nature of his support base, was forced to pose anti-Israel and anti-Assad, even though the regime is in reality pro-israel and pro-Assad;
5. Imperialism thought that they could do the same in Turkey what they had done there in the past and as what they did in Egypt and that the masses would passively accept another coup. imperialism failed to draw the lesson that in Egypt, very rapidly the masses rejected the coup and this was reflected in the less than 10% turnout in the recent elections; Egypt has lost its equilibrium and the state is once again under continuous threat from the masses;We remember that in certain voting stations there were only 2 votes and voting had to be extended by a day, in order to shore up some sort of legitimacy for Sisi. imperialism had not drawn the lesson from imposing a dictator in Egypt; they thought they could continue the history of coups in Turkey; they miscalculated and were defeated by the masses; Imperialism pulled back as they were facing a possibility of a split in the army, with another Libya-type split and armed masses and soldiers; this would have immeasurably strengthened the masses in Syria as there would now be an armed force that could openly support them (Turkey has the biggest army in Europe).
6. Imperialism plans to partition the north of Syria and part of the South of Turkey to use the Kurdistan regional govt (which is allied to israel) as its new means to divide the Syrian and Turkish masses and regain control of the region, while at the same time re-installing Assad.
7. This is in line with a trend that we see that imperialism is trying to generalise, namely, increasing fascist methods;
8. What imperialism did not calculate on, was the refusal of the masses and the rank and file soldier to accept the coup (part of the army is based on conscripts and thus closer to a proletarian base than a professional army).
9. The defeat of the coup was thus a massive defeat for imperialism and opens up the possibility of greater support for the Syrian resistance from the Turkish masses, this time on a much higher level;
Thus, the call should be for workers and soldiers committees, direct elected leaders in the army, subject to instant recall; expulsion of the Nato bases; cutting of ties with israel; cutting of ties with Russia; direct support for the Syrian resistance, by all means necessary; down with isis, al nusrah and the fsa leaders; unity of the Turkish and Syrian masses; for a workers' government in Turkey and Syria, for the right of self-determination of the Kurdish masses;
On the Turkish army invasion in northern Syria
Erdogan knows full well that US imperialism was behind the attempted coup against him. If the coup had succeeded it was likely that the army generals would have had him and his family locked up, tortured and killed. Over 200 of the poor and lower middle class gave their lives to defeat the coup.
Despite all of this, Erdogan continues to turn his back on the masses by continuing his austerity policies against them; at the same time, instead of shutting down the US military bases and expelling the entire imperialist armed forces from Turkey, he not only takes no action against them, he orders a military invasion of northern Syria, in support of the very imperialism that tried to kill him. The planes that were used in the attempted coup, took off from the US military bases.
The important lesson here is the spineless and subservient nature of the upper middle class. They are total slaves of monopoly capital, imperialism.
Erdogan knows who his real boss is, US imperialism, not the Turkish masses.
Erdogan’s army, together with about 5000 fighters of the FSA (Free Syrian Army) invaded northern Syria and pushed towards the Kurdish region. The aim was 3 fold: first it was to draw FSA soldiers away from the areas that Assad and the Russians had besieged, so that the resistance would be weakened; secondly it was to help impose an obstacle to prevent the progressive sections of the Kurdish masses from joining up with the rest of the Syrian revolutionary masses; in this way the Turkish regime helped to save the Assad regime and at the same time, weaken the resistance to the regime. Thirdly, the state of war in Turkey made it even more difficult for the masses to rise up and oppose the rule of Erdogan and US imperialism; it created the necessary terror among the masses and Syrian refugees to enable imperialism and their forces to go ahead with their plans of extermination of the resistance to the Assad regime.
This was the backdrop against which the so called peace deal between US imperialism and the Russian mafia state was made.
We call on the Turkish masses, together with the Syrian refugees to set up joint committees of struggle, to shut down the US military bases, to expel the US army from Turkey and from Syria; to take all measures, breaking from the control of Erdogan’s generals and their US imperialist handlers, to join hands with the Kurdish masses, to organise masses protests against US imperialism and their deal with the Russian mafia, to mobilise support far and wide against the Russian and Assad offensive against the revolutionary masses in Aleppo and other areas where the revolutionary masses are under attack by the forces of genocide; to expel the US and Russian military presence from Turkey and Syria, to expel the Isis mercenaries, and to help support a concentrated effort of all the resistance to march on Damascus, to definitively defeat and dismantle the Assad regime.
For workers and poor peasant councils in Turkey and Syria; for the right of self-determination of the Kurdish masses. For workers’ governments in both Turkey and Syria (and if the masses so choose, in independent Kurdistan)- the relation between these 3 should be determined a council of delegates from grassroots level, one delegate per 10 000 people, including all the refugees; for the freeing of all political prisoners.
For mass protests in Iran and Lebanon to demand the withdrawal of the Hezbollah mercenaries. For mass protests in the imperialist centres and all over the world against the genocide against the revolutionary Syrian masses.
Did the over 200 Turkish masses die so that Erdogan can support a military dictatorship in Syria and for him to establish links with the genocidal Zionist state? This impunity must end.
Workers International Vanguard Party
WIVP 25.9.2016
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