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09/15/2020

The German Atlanticists’ hostility toward Turkey

The German Atlanticists’ hostility toward Turkey

Turkey was allied with the Germans in World War I. We entered the war as something fait accompli due to two German ships with Turkish flags (Yavuz and Midilli) in the Black Sea. We fought together on many fronts. We were defeated. We were occupied. They could not stand the fact that later, under the same conditions, the Turks did not surrender, and won the War of Independence with a great rebellion.

When the Republic was founded, the German school, representing strong technology and industry, was still active in the Turkish navy and army. German advisors were used. German Jews, who fled Nazi persecution shortly before the World War II, made a great contribution to the Turkish academia. They caused the whole world to suffer in the great war. As a result, they were punished very heavily. The city of Dresden was bombed to such an extent that British and American bomber fleets practically wiped it off the map: 24,000 of the cities 28,000 buildings were destroyed. The firepower used is said to have been equivalent to the nuclear firepower used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 25,000 innocent civilians died. Their homeland was occupied by the US and the British from the west to the Soviet Union from the east. They hardly found the resources to survive, not to mention to resist.

The Germans are punished

Until 1990, Germany was divided into two, with an ideological, political, economic and geopolitical separation. This became the main front of the Cold War. West Germany was completely occupied by more than a hundred American bases and by approximately 100,000 American soldiers. The same fate was experienced by Soviet forces of East Germany. The Germans accorded legal superiority to the American and Soviet citizens in their territory. The US and the Soviets applied their constitutions to the territories under their control. They were influenced by Americans in the West, and by the Soviets and communism in the east, in every field from art to military service. In every American war movie seen in the last 60 years, the Germans are undermined and humiliated. By taking West Germany to NATO and East Germany into the Warsaw Pact, they were prevented from creating a defense concept of their own free will.

Although it quickly achieved global success in the defense industry with the enormous technological and industrial infrastructure from the past, West Germany was never allowed to turn this power into a military and political power. It was considered a taboo for generations who lived through both world wars to even mention the past. They were forced to forget it. The new political parties were designed unconditionally along the Atlantic line in the West. Until 1990, American and Soviet intelligence had preserved their presence within the country. It was revealed in 2013 that the Chancellor’s phones had been tapped since 2002. Although they are the largest economy of the EU, it has been ensured that Germany does not turn into a military power again.

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Rapprochement with Russia is Forbidden

The most important revolt against American imposition began on October 23, 1983 with an objection to the American Pershing II nuclear missiles deployed in Germany. Hundreds of thousands of protesters held anti-American demonstrations in different cities. These protests led to the signing of the INF Agreement. In 1990, after the integration of the two Germany, rapprochement with Russia was seen as the biggest threat.

Russian Gas and American Oppression

After the integration of the two Germans on October 3, 1990, bringing Russian gas to Germany by the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline on November 8, 2011 was the biggest anti-Atlantic move. They gave limited support to the Neocon-oriented American enlargement policy that started after the attacks of September 11, 2001. They did not support the 2011 attacks on Libya and later Syria. Germans were last exposed to the American pressure through the Nord Stream II, whose project was approved on March 27, 2018. US Congress and President Trump imposed sanctions to prevent this pipeline on December 21, 2019. Trump described the Berlin administration as a ‘prisoner of Moscow’. What is more, in August 2010, three US senators threatened the managers of the port of Sassnitz in Mecklenburg / West Pomerania devastating trade by sanctions if they continued to participate in the construction of the Nord Stream II, Baltic Sea pipeline. In addition to being the only port that can work in integration with Russia, it complements the Northern European axis of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and ensures the energy and product supply security of Northern Europe. The threat of sanctions to the state company that belongs to Germany constitutes an important first.

Russian Opposition Leader and German Atlanticists

The Atlanticist front in Germany seizes every opportunity to disrupt Russian-German relations. Finally, after Germany accused Russia of trying to assassinate opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the subject somehow changed to the Nord Stream II. Navalny was brought to Germany by the request of his family and Putin’s consent. While Navalny was receiving treatment in Germany, the biggest debate was over the cancellation of the Nord Stream II project. Even the opposition and Merkel’s party were able to discuss this incident for the cancellation of the Nord Stream II, which was under construction. This is the strength of the Atlanticist fraction in Germany.

The German Atlanticists are against Turkey’s Blue Homeland

Germany is also against Turkey’s defending its rightful maritime zones in the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Sea. Stopping Oruçreis NavTex dated July 21, 2020 in accordance with Merkel’s demand, Turkey received a recompense for this good faith with the delimitation agreement between Greece and Egypt signed on August 6,2020. The Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Dendias himself declared that the US had planned this. “We went to Egypt to discuss four 4 different issues. US Secretary Pompeo called Egyptian Foreign Minister and the agreement was suddenly signed.” With this move, the US targeted both Turkey and Germany. Germany, who acts as a mediator for the EU, lost a great deal of prestige, as did the EU indirectly. After these developments, media organs such as Spiegel, ZDF and Die Welt, exhibited intense opposition against Turkey. Die Welt produced false reports, suggesting that ‘President Erdoğan instructed Admirals to sink at least two Greek Battleships.’

The German Media’s Ethical Problem

Der Spiegel and ZDF presented the doctrine of the Blue Homeland as a new form of Ottomanism and expansionist offensive strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean, even though they knew that the doctrine was defensive against the seizure of Turkish maritime zone illegally and unjustly.  The German media creates such distortions and false news, much like the Taraf and Zaman journals of the Ergenekon and Balyoz periods in the early 2010s in Turkey. We can now speak of neither the credibility nor the objectivity of German intelligence-controlled media such as Der Spiegel and ZDF.

The Geopolitics of the Rimland

The Atlanticist front understands the strategic importance of Turkey and Germany in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea respectively. It cannot tolerate the rapprochement of both countries with Russia. With the rapprochement of Turkey and Germany with Russia after the defeat caused by Russia-China partnership, which from now on dominates the area from the Norwegian Sea to the Bering Strait and from Chukchi Sea to the sea area that reach the maritime boundary between India and China (excluding the Korean peninsula) for the first time in history in the Asian continent, the Atlantic front faces losing control of the Black Sea/Turkish Strait and the Baltic region. The Atlanticists does not want both countries to separate and compete in these oceans and seas. That the German Atlanticists are pitted against Turkey in the crisis of the Eastern Mediterranean, that Turkish expatriates were urged to separate on the ground of micro nationalism and religious differences, and that Germany embraced the FETÖ traitors who fled abroad after July 15, can only be understood with this in mind.  Unfortunately, the occupation of Atlantic imperialism continues in Germany. The time has come for the German people to show the Atlanticist Germans the door. This is the call of the spirit of the time as the global order is changing. This is the only possibility for the country to move forward.

Cem Gürdeniz
Admiral Cem Gürdeniz graduated from Turkish Naval Academy in 1979. As a deck officer, he served in different in destroyers and frigates. He assumed the Command of guided missile frigate TCG Gaziantep and the Third Destroyer Division. He completed his education in Turkish Naval War College and Armed Forces College. He holds two masters degrees from US Naval Postgraduate School and Université Libre Brussels (ULB) in personnel management and international politics respectively. He was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral (lower half) in 2004 and upper half in 2008. He served as the Chief, Strategy and Agreements Department and then the Head of Plans and Policy Division in Turkish Naval Forces Headquarters. As his combat duties, he has served as the commander of Amphibious Ships Group and Mine Fleet. He retired in 2012 as a result of the Sledgehammer Bogus Case. He is the founder and Director of the Istanbul Koc University Maritime Forum. In addition to his native Turkish, he is fluent in English and French. Admiral GUrdeniz is the writer of numerous publications in multiple languages languages including ‘Bluehomeland Writings.’ He is a columnist at Aydınlık Daily and Yacht Magazine.

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