Coup Attempt in Turkey:
Crisis in a Key U.S. Ally
July 18, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The interests, objectives, and grand designs of the imperialists are not our interests—they are not the interests of the great majority of people in the U.S. nor of the overwhelming majority of people in the world as a whole. And the difficulties the imperialists have gotten themselves into in pursuit of these interests must be seen, and responded to, not from the point of view of the imperialists and their interests, but from the point of view of the great majority of humanity and the basic and urgent need of humanity for a different and better world, for another way.
Bob Avakian, BAsics 3:8
On July 15 and 16, sections of the Turkish military attempted a coup d'état to depose the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (pronounced ERR-owan). The Turkish Parliament and the Presidential Palace were bombed and tanks deployed outside major airports. Turkey is a critical U.S. ally in the Middle East, and for 24 hours, who was in charge of ruling the country was up in the air.
At this writing, Erdoğan’s government claims to be back in control of the country—and is moving to tighten its rule. Thousands have been arrested, and 2,700 judges dismissed, as Erdoğan and his party tighten their grip on power. Both sides in the coup attempt are thoroughly reactionary—representing different approaches and forms of enforcing exploitation and oppression.
Turkey is a regional power in a region of intense conflict. It is a large country of more than 75 million people that forms a bridge between the Middle East and Europe. It shares a long border with Syria, and plays a major role in fueling the hellish reactionary war in that country, and Turkey is a major route for millions of desperate refugees fleeing Syria. Today, the Islamist Erdoğan regime is implementing increasingly ominous oppression of women, and ratcheting up a reign of terror against the oppressed Kurdish people within its borders.
A whole range of global, regional, and domestic conflicts are factors destabilizing Turkey, not the least of which is the fact that Turkey is situated right smack in the middle of the global conflict between Western imperialism and fundamentalist Islamic Jihad. We will be addressing the implications of this coup attempt and its aftermath as developments unfold.
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