Turkey: The Military, The Parties,

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.etext.org>
Subject: Turkey: The Military, The Parties, And The 12th Of September

Turkey: The Military, The Parties, And The 12th Of September

By M. Ali Baran

The discussions about a military coup will go on for quite a
while. There have been such discussions before, all at times when
the oligarchy was in a serious crisis. The threat of a coup is aimed
at freeing the oligarchy from such crises. But for an actual coup, the
external and internal conditions have to be right, and support is needed
from the imperialists and monopolists. Only then can a military coup
fulfil its salvage mission. Otherwise the imperialists and the
collaborating economic monopolies would get into an ever deeper crisis
because of a military coup. Instead of a military coup, they try to
contain the growing revolutionary wave of the people's masses by
reforms within the oligarchy, building a front against the
revolution. 

The oligarchy and the imperialists fear the revolution. They know they
cannot defeat the revolution by a coup. The contradictions within the
ruling forces have increased because of Susurluk, the fear among the
front of the oligarchy for the revolution increased. Broad segments of
the population are discussing the state and the system. Fear is
compelling the powers that be to hasty actions. After Susurluk, the
state definitely lost any legitimisation in the eyes of the masses, and
its situation has become unstable. The efforts to present a clean
state and the "democratization plans" from TUSIAD, the media and the
military did not show the desired effect. Campaigns and propaganda 
to "clean up the state" and exchanging several figures
weren't able to get rid of the filth, it could not be covered
up. Everybody is seeing that the ruling forces are stuck in this
quagmire. 

The state is shaking. TUSIAD and the military are trying all they can
to save the system and to stop the people's demand for
accountability. The ruling forces know that neither a coup nor new
elections or a new government can soften the crisis and stabilize the
system. To discipline the parties, discussions were launched in the
media about the danger of "Islamization" and a threat against
secularism. Although a new government of "national consensus" will not
be able to realize a new policy, it could serve to soften the crisis
by selecting the Refah Partisi [Welfare Party of Islamist prime minister
Erbakan - ATS] as a scapegoat, thus disciplining the
other parties. To do this, the military will have to strengthen its
hegemony over the quarrelling bourgeois parties, which are stuck in
this filth up to their necks, and demonstrate its power by a
intervention policy. No other force is capable of showing the strength
which is necessary for such an operation. But the military cannot
seek refuge in the method of a classical coup. Unlike 1980, the 
conditions are not right.

In September 1980, the power of the military was laid down in
law. According to the putchists, measures were to be made possible to
intervene, preventing a new "accident of democracy". Therefore the
military was guaranteed to right to intervene politically and
economically at all times. Of course, an army which possesses such a
guarantee will not feel the need for a coup. It will rather make use
of its right to intervene in case the system gets into an unstable
situation. And this is exactly what is happening now. The right to
intervene, laid down in the constitution, is still valid. It was
strengthened and expanded by other laws, institutions, and
practices. Therefore the National Security Council is not a coup
instrument, it's an instrument of the known right of intervention. The
democracy game, which started on September 12, 1980, goes on. The
pieces of this game are TUSIAD, the media, the bourgeois parties, the
organizations of the civic society, parliament, the government, and
institutions like elections. 

The military and the state president play the role of king in this
game of chess. At the present time it can be seen once again that the
bourgeois parties do not have the intention at all to defend their
identity against interventions by the military. Instead they compete
to show themselves as willing servants of the system. And despite all
the propaganda against the junta, the bourgeois parties once again
bowed without any resistance. Not a single party resisted the open
threat of the military - "when you do not as we want, we will use
pressure" - by claiming to be a force elected by the people. This
means they have surrendered to the ideology, the politics, and the
morals of the September 12th junta, continuing its "democracy". The
"democracy" of the junta is fascism. This form of fascism,
characteristic to our country, is colonial fascism. The conditions for
this were created by the junta. 

In a situation where there are no more means available to the junta, a
fake democracy is presented by holding elections and establishing new
governments. But in reality nothing changes, oppression and violence
continue. Because the government is hindering the existence of the
system and because the strength of the bourgeois parties in weakening
and they can thus not present a solution, the military uses quite
openly its right to intervene to protect the system and the state. This
reality is part of colonial fascism in our country. Today, the
conditions for a classic coup are not present. The right to intervene of
the military of September 12th opens the possibility of far-reaching and
lasting intervention on all levels. Colonial fascism secures these
possibilities. The military openly carries out its interventions, they
want to show them, especially to the bourgeois parties. The bourgeois
parties can resist these interventions, or they have to surrender. The
attitude of slavishness is proof of the continuation of the dominance
of the military over future governments. 

The discussions about the "Islamists" or the "enemies of progress",
whose representatives are supposedly preparing an armed rebellion,
were recognized for what they were: they were meant to prepare and
legitimize the intervention by the military. The small Islamist groups
which propagate armed struggle are not capable of gathering large
groups of supporters and are therefore ineffective. The real purpose of
the intervention by the military is to restore the stability of the
rule of the oligarchy, delivering blows to the revolutionary struggle
and destroying the growing people's movement. The fact that the state
believes in the propaganda of a Islamist threat shows the system is
collapsing, that the rulers are not capable of governing the state.
None of the Islamist groups is really against the system. Except for a
few exceptions, they denied the facts which were revealed by Susurluk
and they even took sides with the state, defending the burned out
system against the revolutionaries. The imperialists support the
Islamist tendencies as well, using them against the
revolutionaries. Even the forces of the contra-guerrilla consist of
Islamists, in addition to the MHP fascists. 

These tendencies are supported by the imperialists and their
collaborators, and they are integrated into the system and used to defend
the ruling powers. The "progressive forces" among them are in no way
dangerous for the system. The oligarchy has only one fear, the
revolution, and all its interventions, all its plans are directed
against the revolution. All its institutions, its measures, the
founding of parties, elections etc. are valued according the criteria
of whether they offer protection against the revolution, whether they
defend the system, or not. Not only oppression, cruelty, and the
violation of law are applied for that. They also initiate reforms,
political and social measures, if these promise a stabilization of
the system. That's why the military is talking about not using the
methods of the anti-terrorism struggle, but using social and political
reforms instead. The military thus imposes its stamp on the policy of
the bourgeois parties and the government programme. The real inventors
of this policy are the imperialists.. The open interventions by the
military cannot be seen apart from the policy of the imperialists. 

Under the present circumstances, it's impossible for the bourgeois
parties to free themselves from these dogfights, they are not capable
of realizing policy. In this situation, the interventions are carried
out in a co-operation between the imperialists, Demirel, and the
military. That the interventions will not offer a solution for the
crisis, that they deepen the crisis instead, that's no secret
now. Under the circumstances in which a state apparatus is not
fulfilling its functions to a large degree, in which the dogfights
among the rulers are becoming unbearable, the military, with the aid
of the media, tries to present itself without success as a clean force
which offers a solution. But the military is stuck in the filth
itself. No force can deny this situation in the end. The interventions
are only deepening the contradictions within the oligarchy and even
the military cannot save itself from being dragged into this and
getting affected.

-- 
DHKC Informationbureau Amsterdam
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ozgurluk/dhkc1.html
mailto: dhkc at dds.nl
KURTULUS HAFTALIK SIYASI GAZETE: http://www.kurtulus.com


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