As an introduction to the "Biji Obama" arguments

02.12.2014 Habertürk
Translated by: Turgay BAYINDIR /
Orjinal Metin (tr-11/17/2014)

It must have been in 2006. One of Egypt's most prominent liberals, Saadeddin Ibrahim was talking in a non-profit organization in Washington DC. Ibrahim was repeatedly persecuted by the Hosni Mubarak regime; he was tried several times and imprisoned for the activities of the Ibn Khaldun Center in Cairo that he founded. One of the foremost accusations directed towards him was that he received financial support for the center from the West, particularly from the US.

When a pro-Mubarak Egyptian spoke at that conference and criticized him for receiving American financial support, Ibrahim said, "Today, the Egyptian State is leading the list of countries that receive the most amount of aid from the United States. US financial support is ok when Mubarak accepts it, then why is it bad when I accept it?"

ENEMIES UNITED

Is it even necessary for me to say that I brought this anecdote up in the context of what has been happening in Kobane. It is widely known the effective bombing of IS(IS) targets around Kobane by the international coalition, military assistance to the defenders of the city through air-dropping of weapons, arrival of Peshmerga support from Iraq and many other developments are directly or indirectly connected to decisions made in Washington DC. It is accepted to such a degree that even the copresident of KCK, Cemil Bayık said that the US can very well be involved as a third party in the resolution process.
What is interesting is, those who are bothered by these developments (their number is quite high, including not only representatives of the AKP government that has no problem in doing "strategic partnership" with the US, but also people who are close to the Gülen movement that is the government's prime enemy, and of course, people from all sorts of Turkish-nationalist ideologies) blame the Kurdish Political Movement (KPM) rather than, or more than the US administration.
               
THE GROUND PREPARED BY THE GOVERNMENT

Leaving the rest aside for now, the accusations of the government either indirectly towards the US through statements such as calling it the "mastermind", or directly towards the KPM are far from being credible. The AKP government needs to first evaluate its own policies and mistakes regarding the issue of Kobane. From the very beginning, Ankara left Syrian Kurds to their own fate by making such statements as "Kobane can fall any minute" or even that "other cantons will fall next". However the resistance fighters proved that Kobane was not destined to fall to IS(IS) at all despite what the government in Turkey thought. 
That is to say, in essence, the Turkish government prepared the ground for the direct involvement of the US in the issue of Kobane. This was so strong that even the US administration at first credited Ankara's predictions and saw Kobane as a "hopeless case". However, when the victory of the resistance fighters emerged as a possibility, the US embraced Kobane as an opportunity to deliver to IS(IS) the first major blow of defeat.

ÖCALAN'S STRATEGIC MANEUVER

Some people who primarily insist on defending the government while appearing to support the resolution process have been trying to separate Öcalan from their criticism when they put the blame on the role of Qandil (KCK/PKK) in the increasingly greater involvement of the United States in the Kurdish question (or to be more accurate in the "Kurdistan question"). This is a repetition of the hackneyed "Imrali is good, Qandil is bad" ploy. Doubtless, Öcalan cannot have direct communication with Americans in Imrali but at the same time we know that he is following the developments in the region closely and updating his strategies and tactics. In other words, it is quite normal for Öcalan to understand without direct communication that the US will exert greater influence in the Kurdish question in the coming days and to reshape KPM's policies accordingly.
There is a lot more to say on the subject. Let us end it now to continue the discussion later and add: regardless of who wants to be involved or gets involved in the process, the future of the Kurds will be determined first and foremost by Kurdish people themselves and the peoples who live with them. For this reason, those who complain about the involvement of third parties should in the first place avoid preparing ground for it.

Destek olmak ister misiniz?
Doğru haber, özgün ve özgür yorum ihtiyacı
Bugün dünyada gazeteciler birer aktivist olmaya zorlanıyor. Bu durum, kutuplaşmanın alabildiğine keskin olduğu Türkiye'de daha fazla karşımıza çıkıyor. Halbuki gazeteci, elinden geldiğince, doğru haber ile özgün ve özgür yorumla toplumun tüm kesimlerine ulaşmaya çalışmalı ve bu yolla, kutuplaşmayı artırma değil azaltmayı kendine hedef edinmeli. Devamı için

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