As this article was being prepared for publication, it was revealed that the U.S.had secretly sent troops to Jordan to “assist” the Jordanian military in dealing with crisis in Syria. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged the move in Brussels at a NATO meeting Oct. 10.
On Oct. 3, cross-border mortar fire from Syria resulted in the deaths of five Turkish citizens and injury to nine others in Akçakale, a Turkish town on the Syrian border. While it was not clear whether the mortar shells were fired by the Syrian army or opposition forces armed by Turkey itself, the Turkish government was quick to hold the Syrian government responsible and used the incident as a pretext to launch an artillery attack into Syrian army positions.
A statement released from the office of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan, from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said: “This atrocious attack was immediately responded to adequately by our armed forces in the border region, in accordance with rules of engagement. Targets were shelled in locations identified by radar.”
Since the start of the conflict in Syria, Turkey has been sheltering, training and arming the Free Syrian Army mercenaries. The Turkish border with Syria has served as a shelter and staging area for FSA to launch attacks against Syrian civilians and government forces. Akçakale, the town where the mortar incident took place, is a border crossing on one of the key supply routes into Syria for the FSA fighters. Heavy clashes between the FSA and the Syrian army have been taking place on the Syrian side of the border as the FSA tries to secure control of the supply route into Akçakale.
US, Israel and EU express support for NATO member Turkey
In their usual tone of arrogance, imperialist governments and their client states rushed to condemn the Syrian government for the incident. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed the U.S. government’s outrage that the Syrians had been shooting across the border. She also added that it was a “very, very dangerous” situation, and that she would be discussing the best way forward with the Turkish foreign minister.
The EU foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, urged the Syrian authorities to put an immediate end to the violence and fully respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all neighboring countries.
Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary-general, issued a statement very similar to the EU’s, urging the Syrian government to respect the territorial integrity of its neighbors, while simultaneously choosing to ignore the violations of international law and Syrian sovereignty committed by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in providing shelter, funding and arms to the terrorist groups fighting against the Syrian government. The U.N. Security Council also released a statement condemning the Syrian government in the strongest terms.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Yigal Palmor, expressed support for Turkey: “This is how Israel took a position in every similar incident. Turkey’s reciprocation to Syria was right and justified according to international laws.”
It is not surprising that these statements by the representatives of the imperialist governments, their regional client states and their mouthpieces in the U.N. completely ignore the role NATO member Turkey has been playing in escalating the civil war in Syria. The ultimate aim of imperialist diplomacy is not to resolve the conflict by peaceful means but to achieve regime change in Syria by any means possible.
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations insisted that Syria was not seeking an escalation of tensions with Turkey or other countries, and that the Syrian government had a key interest in maintaining good neighborly relations with Turkey. He called for both sides to act wisely and rationally, adding that “undisciplined, armed terrorists” operating on the countries’ shared border posed a threat not only to Syria but the greater region.
Turkey passes a mandate to authorize use of armed forces outside its borders
Confident of the support of her imperialist allies, on Oct. 4—the day after the mortar incident—Turkey’s parliament, in an emergency session, passed a mandate that authorizes the Turkish armed forces to launch cross-border operations and strike at Syrian targets for a period of one year.
The policies of the Turkish parliament setting the ground for military intervention are in total contrast with the public sentiment in Turkey towards the war with Syria. Despite continuous anti-Syrian propaganda from the mainstream media, the vast majority of the people in Turkey oppose war with Syria.
Turkish people say NO to war
Right after the mortar incident of Oct. 3, the people of Akçakale took to the streets and marched to the mayor’s office in protest of the AKP government’s policies towards Syria, forcing the mayor to flee the town for the day. The police dispersed the crowd only after using excessive force.
The parliament’s decision to authorize the use of armed force against Syria triggered massive demonstrations all over Turkey, in İstanbul, Ankara, Adana, İzmir, Çanakkale and many other cities.
In İstanbul thousands took to the streets, carrying signs and banners that said “No to imperialist war!” “AKP, get your hands off Syria” while shouting slogans “We will not be American soldiers!”, “Murderer NATO, collaborator AKP!” A protester captured popular opinion with the following words: “We are going through an ugly provocation of war. The Turkish and Syrian people are not enemies, but the ruling AKP government is trying to drag our country into a war with Syria in compliance with the imperialist interests of the U.S.”
In Ankara, a large and militant demonstration attended by the public, members of anti-war organizations, unions, political parties including the Communist Party of Turkey, and the Party of Freedom and Solidarity gathered in the city center to march to the Prime Ministry. The police blocked the crowd from marching, using teargas and water cannons to disperse the protesters.
Addressing the crowd, one of the organizers of the Communist Party of Turkey said: “We have taken to the streets to say no the war against our brothers and sisters in Syria. The tear gas of the AKP government that targets the socialists, the revolutionaries and the people here today is the rehearsal for their bullets that will be targeting the people of Syria tomorrow. This is proof that the destiny of the revolutionaries in this country as well as the rest of the world go hand in hand with the destiny of the peoples of the world.”
On Oct. 7, three days after the initial demonstration, Ankara hosted about 150 ,000 protesters from all over Turkey for another mass demonstration against AKP policies. Organized by the Federation of Alawite organizations, the demonstration had been called before the recent escalation of the crisis with Syria and it was intended to protest unfair government polices against the Alawite population of Turkey and demand equal treatment but in light of the recent events, the pending war with Syria became the prevalent theme.
Although distinct from the other Shiite sects in the region, Alawites in Turkey make up about 25 percent of the overall population. Members of the Alawite community from all over Turkey, most of the left political parties including TKP, workers’ unions, anti-war organizations and thousands of non-Alawite people participated in the event. Some participants carried Syrian flags to show solidarity with the people of Syria. Thousands of banners reading “Enough is enough, no to war, no to imperialism!” and “AKP, get your hands off Syria!” were carried.
Addressing the huge crowd, the president of the Federation of Alawite Organizations, Hüsniye Takmaz, referring to the AKP government, said: “They want to start war with Syria. Will the sons of the parliament members enlist for this war? We do not want to participate in this war. We want peace at home and peace in the world.”
NATO preparing the ground for military intervention through Turkey
It is becoming clear that the opposition forces are not going to be able to overthrow the Syrian government using the FSA alone. The imperialists hoped that a prolonged and bloody civil war would eventually wear out the Assad government and its base of popular support, but the government continues to maintain its mass base.
The horrendous sectarian violence and terror at the hands of FSA is simply not succeeding. According to a recent New York Times report, the opposition is resorting to desperate measures to recruit new fighters: threatening, drugging and kidnapping military men and their families to get them to change sides, or at least stay out of the fight. There are also recent reports of defections from the ranks of FSA to rejoin the Syrian army.
With the recent Turkish aggression against Syria, it is obvious that U.S.-led imperialism and its clients are seeking to prepare the ground for a NATO intervention in Syria, to finish the job FSA mercenaries have so far not been able to accomplish. According to recent reports, the Turkish military has deployed additional forces including missile launchers, tanks and soldiers in the Suruç district of the eastern province of Şanlıurfa, opposite from the Syrian town of Ayn al-Arab.
To date, it has been the militant resistance of the people of Turkey against war with Syria that has disrupted the imperialist plans for the region. The people of Turkey know too well that a NATO-backed war initiated by the AKP government of Turkey would not only be a war against the people of Syria but against them as well.
Hands off Syria!
