Türkiye is going through the biggest disaster in the history of the Republic.
Thousands of us have lost our lives; we are injured and still waiting to be rescued under the rubble.
Unplanned settlement, lack of infrastructure, institutions incapable of quickly making decisions and organizing… And the political leaderships, both in power and opposition, incapable of bringing society together…
But we have full faith that the Great Turkish Nation will rise again today as in the history.
Another fact that we should not overlook: Water sleeps, but the enemy never rests, as a Turkish saying goes.
It is obvious that there are those who want to exploit our moment of weakness.
Messages of ‘friendship’ from the West
Western countries, discontent with Türkiye’s independent policies, have been issuing threats under the veiled messages of earthquake.
The US was the first. The Pentagon announced that the USS George Bush HW warship is ready to provide “earthquake relief” if Ankara requests it.
The US, which had sent a warship to Türkiye’s shores under the pretext of “earthquake relief”, provided crucial aid to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Syrian branch of PKK, immediately after the earthquake.
Just a few hours after the earthquake and the US announcement of support for SDF, the PKK launched an attack on Türkiye’s Öncüpınar border post from northern Syria.
One did not have to wait long for “Messages of support” from the European Union, another “friend” of Türkiye.
After an arid get-well message, Josep Borell, who leads Europe’s foreign policy, declared they are concerned with Türkiye’s attitude on “possible NATO membership of Sweden and Finland, possible military action by the Turkish Armed Forces in Syria, the normalization process between Ankara and Damascus and Türkiye-Russia relations.”
The Economist, the leading Western propaganda outlet, reported about the earthquake that hit Türkiye and Syria on February 6 with the subtitle: “Poor construction and armed conflicts will increase death toll”.
Given the security challenges surrounding the Syrian refugee population in the earthquake-hit Turkish provinces Hatay and Gaziantep, it is not difficult to understand that The Economist’s emphasis on “armed conflict” does not only apply to Syrian territory.
CIA agent Michael Rubin, one of the US’s “Turkophile experts”, called for intervention on Türkiye in the aftermath of the earthquake, saying “If the Turkish government is unwilling to help, for example, Kurdish towns and villages in the earthquake zone, the US should do so directly.”
The “freedom of expression hero” Charlie Hebdo magazine published a caricature. It was titled “Earthquake in Türkiye: no more need to send a tank. This reflects how powerful the destruction of values is in the West, and does not even deserve to be mentioned at length.
The Western ‘humanitarian’ interventions
Bernard Kouchner, French Foreign Minister from 2007 to 2010 and founder of Doctors Without Borders, introduced the concept of “Humanitarian Intervention” in the 1990s, which aims to legitimize imperialist intervention in terms of international law.
Kouchner proposes violating the provisions of the United Nations Charter on non-interference in the internal affairs of states. According to the his doctrine, if a state, for any reason including natural disasters, fails to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of its citizens, then the “international community” is entitled to intervene.
This method, often used to justify the West’s interventions during the civil war in Yugoslavia, has recently been employed in Haiti. After the earthquake in 2010, the US deployed 12,000 troops to the island under the pretext of “earthquake relief”.
What lies beneath the message in the Western press that “the Turkish state cannot deal with this earthquake alone” is the West’s beloved doctrine of “humanitarian intervention”.
Another Western ‘after disaster scenario’ was enacted in Pakistan.
Following an earthquake near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in 2005 and floods in 2022, the US took moves that plunged Pakistan’s already faltering stability into chaos through Afghan refugees.
Given the high number of Syrian refugees in the provinces of Türkiye hit by the earthquake the US might attempt a similar provocation, if necessary measures are not taken.
Another issue is the possible social unrest and manipulation of it by Western powers in the event that the elections scheduled for May are not held due to the earthquake.
Only by ensuring social consensus and stability will Türkiye be able to eliminate the already posed and other likely to be posed threats from the West. Otherwise, as time goes on the situation could turn dire.
We hope that in the coming days, the government and the opposition would consider a compromise similar to a “Government of National Consensus” that can sustain the social contract.
My condolences go to our country and our people.
Cover photo shows US military plane carrying rescue teams to Türkiye. Taken from: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-military/2023/02/07/us-government-begins-sending-earthquake-aid-to-turkey/