Ali Duran Topuz

Ali Duran Topuz

The Turkish opposition is for peace –but not for the Kurds and Armenians!

“When it comes to war and one side is Armenia, it is impossible to distinguish between the opposition and the government; nobody cares who is right and who is wrong"

In Turkey, it has long been a crime to say, "no to war," while calling for "peace" is a crime among crimes, i.e. terrorism. At the very least, they will condemn you to "civic death." Saying no to war constitutes a crime, because war is the main instrument in the hands of the government. At the core of the Erdogan-Bahceli alliance, war has long been used as a means of achieving economic goals, and of consolidating power and retaining it.

Syria is not the only front; last year, he did not hesitate to join the war against Armenia alongside Azerbaijan, and recently he made the march slogan of paramilitary fascist commandos the motto of his international relations, with the statement that reads "we may suddenly show up one night" to threaten neighboring Greece.

THREATENING YOUR NEIGHBOR WITH WAR: NO OBJECTIONS!

And yet, certain leaders or spokesmen of opposition parties, as well as some smart-mouthed ideologues who have taken on the role of forming opinions for the opposition do not hesitate to say with conviction that the government may even try to start a war to delay the elections.

Yet, when the government threatens Greece with war, those who mutter such laudatory remarks with anxious but knowing utterances, those who cling to the slogan "peace at home, peace in the world" to denounce the government, turn out to be either militants awaiting orders to head for Athens like suicide bombers, or they do not consider the threat serious enough.

In his criticism of the threat to Greece, CHP Chairman Kilicdaroglu did not focus on peace, but recalled the Cyprus war and the then Prime Minister Ecevit with the subtext of "don't talk about it, do it, if you are a man." The opposition, with their leaders, spokesmen and supporters, criticize the government's policy towards Syria arguing that "we used to be neighbors" and so on, but they can also blame the same government for not repatriating those coming from Syria and, wait for it, for not fighting well enough in Syria.

IT'S ALWAYS A JOY WHEN THE ARMENIAN IS THE ONE GETTING HIT

While relations with neighbors remain dangerous, when it comes to Azerbaijan-Armenia relations, the opposition suffers from an urge to appear more hawkish than the government. Thus, the opposition tries to compensate for the sorrow of falling behind in the government's efforts to cooperate with the war apparatus of the Azerbaijani oil and gas oligarchy with a race of tears and lamentations about the martyrs of our "Azerbaijani brothers."

The democratic chatterer, trying to impress with his analysis "Putin backs Erdogan, everything is expected from them," does not want to see Putin's role in the recent Karabakh war, is not interested in the connections between the aggression of the Azerbaijani oligarchy in this recent war and his words, and starts saluting and chanting war anthems like a private on command. When it comes to war and one side is Armenia, it is impossible to distinguish between the opposition and the government, nobody cares who is right and who is wrong, and when it is Armenians who are hit and when it is Azerbaijan that hits, it is a joy for politics!

THE INTEGRITY OF THE TABLE TO POWER AND THE CHP

In fact, the four factions of the opposition (i.e., the Table of Six) are in fact already the soul mates of the government: the Good Party, the isotope of the MHP; DEVA and Future, clones of the AKP, suffering from some of its weaknesses and dreaming of a bygone era. Felicity is already the ideological and historical origin of the AKP; here is a case where the apples have not fallen too far from the nationalist-conservative and militarist-aggressive political tree. And the DP is just a watered-down version of all of them.

And what about the CHP? It claims to be the main opposition, claims to be social democratic, claims to be a member of the Socialist International, claims that it will stop the slide towards dictatorship, claims to believe in universal values, claims that it is not racist and will not participate in anything based on race, claims that identity is a delusion and that it opposes identity politics; however, in the war between two neighboring countries it does not go around saying "no to war" and "peace in the world," it is not concerned about the evils of war, instead, it comes up with a rhetoric along the lines of "strength for one side, mercy for its dead, and let the other side suffer whatever." In other words, it declares along with the government that it is on one side of the war.

Then we talk about the upcoming elections and say if the government wins again, the situation will be very bad and so on. When the social democrats are in a race with the government in making heroic speeches (a government which stirs war, supports those who cause war and threatens neighbors with a sudden night-time attack, arranging meetings filled with laughter with Aliyev) on the basis of “kinship” instead of demanding an immediate end to the war and offering solutions other than war when there are people who suffer, people who have much in common with your people, what hope could it have against the government?

Even if the opposition wins, what will it change in terms of the hopes for democracy, peace, equal citizenship and justice?

Or are you saying, “peace at home, except for the Kurds, peace in the world, except for the Armenians?” Do you consider the Azerbaijani government very democratic and justified? If so, what exactly do you have against Erdogan?

That proposition you like to pronounce, namely, "peace at home, peace in the world," has been corrected by him into "militarism at home, militarism in the world," since he has never ceased to militarize the economy and politics. What you call corruption is the natural consequence of this sort of politics, is it not? How are you going to act as an integral part of the government in all these matters and put an end to corruption? As corruption is an integral part of this policy, you are an integral part of this government.

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