The Turkish state’s armed interventions in Syria and Libya, its attempts to get control of the oil and gas resources of the Eastern Mediterranean and its abuse of refugees, fleeing wars its own policies helped to create, demonstrate a volatile and dangerous element in the Middle East. As Erdogan’s government flounders in the quagmire of Northern Syria it resorts to threats and extortion against the European Union (EU). Seeking Russian acquiescence to its war against the Kurds, the Turkish government angers its US backers. Meanwhile, the EU describes Greece as its ‘shield’ for driving thousands of desperate people from its border, people encouraged to go there by Turkey. A catastrophe is unfolding along Turkey’s border with Greece and on the Greek islands holding refugees in camps. TREVOR RAYNE reports.
With US dominance over the Middle East declining, different powers have moved to assert their influence. Turkey and Russia are among them. While Russia would like to lever Turkey away from NATO, and has collaborated with Turkey to achieve this, Russia has shown that it will not allow Turkey to threaten Russian forces or Russia’s partnership with the Syrian state.
Clashes in Syria
Turkey has supported jihadist militias against the Syrian government since the civil war began in 2011. They fought against the Syrian Arab Army and the Kurds. Erdogan’s government seeks to restore the regional influence of the Ottoman Empire to Turkey. The militia, including Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda offshoots, have been armed and paid for by the Turkish state. They are integral to Erdogan’s ambitions and serve as an adjunct to Turkey’s armed forces. As Syrian state forces fought back, with backing from Russian warplanes, so these militia retreated to Idlib province in northwest Syria.
In September 2018 Russia and Turkey agreed on a buffer zone in Idlib on condition that ‘radically-minded rebels’ withdraw from the zone. Exactly who these ‘radically-minded’ militia were, as distinct from supposedly moderate opponents to the Syrian government, was unclear. Russian and Turkish forces were to patrol this buffer zone. In December 2019 Syrian government forces launched a push towards Idlib city. On 3 February 2020, at least eight Turkish soldiers were killed by Syrian troops in the bloodiest clash since the civil war began. This was against a background of 220 airstrikes by Syrian and Russian jets on Idlib. On that same day, during a visit to Ukraine and before a guard of honour, President Erdogan shouted, ‘Glory to Ukraine’. This is a nationalist slogan, associated with anti-Russian sentiment. On 4 February, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared, ‘We stand by our NATO ally Turkey in the aftermath of the attack.’ Russia accused Turkey of violating international agreements and not disarming the radicals and said that its military airbase in Hmeymim in Syria had been bombed by Turkey.
When 12 Turkish military observation posts were attacked by Syrian government forces Turkey sent three armoured brigades into Idlib and on 26 February they recaptured the strategically important town of Saraqeb. Russia said that its warplanes were fired on by portable anti-aircraft weapons located at the observation posts. On 27 February, a column of Turkish troops was attacked by Syrian or Russian warplanes or both, killing 34 Turkish soldiers and wounding over 70. A senior Russian officer warned that Russia ‘cannot guarantee the safety of flights for Turkish aircraft over Syria’. This threat had the desired effect. Turkish forces pulled back and Russian military police occupied Saraqeb. At least 58 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib from the beginning of February to the first week of March. Without air cover, Turkey’s troops and auxiliaries are vulnerable.
After the 27 February killings Turkey launched Operation Spring Shield targeting Syrian troops and their allies. According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights 74 Syrian soldiers were killed. On 28 February Erdogan called an emergency session of NATO but received little practical support. Turkey asked the US for Patriot missiles to shoot down Russian and Syrian jets, but none were forthcoming. The US formally withdrew its offer of Patriot missiles when Turkey bought the Russian S-400 missile defence system for over $2.5bn in 2019.
Erdogan’s response was immediate and outrageous: he told the approximately 3.7 million refugees in Turkey that they could cross the border to Greece and that if European countries wanted a solution to their problem with migrants they ‘must support Turkey’s efforts for political and humanitarian solutions in Syria’. In other words, Europe and NATO must back Turkey’s occupation of Syria.
Rejected by the US and NATO, President Erdogan met Russia’s President Putin in Moscow on 5 March. They agreed a ceasefire in north western Syria and a security corridor for civilians fleeing military clashes, to be jointly patrolled by Russian and Turkish troops from mid-March. Erdogan insisted that Syrian forces withdraw to de-escalation lines that Turkey and Russia agreed in 2018, yielding territory in Idlib that Syria had recently taken, but Russia refused this. Erdogan said that Turkish forces have the right to strike back if attacked. On 19 March, Turkey said two more of its soldiers had been killed in Idlib, the first since the ceasefire. The 5 March deal allows Turkey to retain a foothold in Idlib, but for as long as Russia backs the Syrian government it remains on a collision course with Turkey.
President Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have made support for Turkey’s occupation of Syria a test of loyalty to Turkish nationalism. Erdogan said that ‘Idlib is as much homeland as Canakkale.’ Canakkale is on the southern coast of the Dardanelles, about 146 miles from Istanbul. Addressing the AKP on 4 March, Erdogan reinforced his expansionist ambitions: ‘The Turkish nation knows that the defence of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya, Trabzan, Erzurum and Sanliurfa starts in Afrin, Idlib, Manbij, Jarablus, Ain al-Arab, Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ain, Qamishlo, Northern Iraq and even Libya.’ All the towns and districts listed are in Syria and several of them have majority Kurdish and other populations. Pupils and parents in Turkey are being forced to donate money, supposedly to help Syrian refugees, in a campaign called ‘We are together with Idlib.’ The organisers are linked to jihadist groups in Syria. Erdogan’s support for the Turkish presence abroad is support for the jihadist auxiliaries. Cemil Bayik, co-president of the Executive Council of the Union of the Communities of Kurdistan (KCK), explained ‘Turkey does not want to lose the jihadists in Idlib because it needs these mercenaries for its Ottoman expansion plans … Turkey says that if Idlib is lost, we will also lose Hatay [a province in Turkey] … in fact what it would lose would be Afrin and the Kurds, it is something Turkey cannot say, so it speaks of Hatay.’ The AKP government fears the Kurdish struggle in Syria and Turkey.
Cruel use of refugees
Since December 2019, close to one million people in Idlib have been displaced and more than one million are trapped along Syria’s border with Turkey. Refugees in Turkey do not have basic human rights, they do not have access to health services, do not have work permits, live in chronically overcrowded conditions, suffer from racist attacks and if they get work do not have legal safeguards. Many refugees have frozen to death in Turkey’s winter. The Turkish government intends to resettle refugees in a ‘safe-zone’ in Syria and in the predominantly Kurdish parts of Syria, like Afrin, which Turkey has occupied.
When the Turkish troops were killed in Idlib on 27 February, Erdogan told the refugees that they would not be stopped from reaching Europe. With refugees desperately trying to enter Greece, Erdogan said ‘You are now taking your share.’ Some 35,000 people massed along Turkey’s land border with Greece. Many originated from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. After four days, approximately 800 refugees landed on the Greek island of Lesbos and another 200 on the neighbouring islands of Chios and Samos. Lesbos contains over 20,000 refugees, including over 1,000 unaccompanied children, surviving in turmoil, with diarrhoea and vomiting rampant, now threatened by COVID-19. By the second week of March more than 10,000 people were trapped in the border area between Turkey and Greece. At least six refugees had been seriously injured by Greek border guards and soldiers, using live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas. On 2 March a BBC World Service journalist reported that Syrian refugee Ahmed Abu Emad, from Aleppo, had been shot dead by Greek border guards, as he tried to cross into Greece. Refugees trying to cross the Aegean Sea in dinghies and boats have been fired on. EU interior ministers declared ‘Illegal border crossings will not be tolerated.’
Currently, Greece has suspended the asylum process, in contravention of human rights law, and the EU and Turkey are wrangling over a deal to manage the refugees. In March 2016 they reached a deal whereby the EU would provide Turkey with six billion euros to prevent refugees leaving Turkey for Europe. The Turkish government claims that it has not received all the money and that funds should go directly to it, rather than to projects inside Turkey. Turkey also wants visa rights for its citizens to travel to Europe and says the EU has failed to resettle refugees from Turkey. Erdogan demands that the EU back his plans for a ‘safe zone’ in Syria. The British government is backing Erdogan; Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the House of Commons on 17 March, ‘we must hold the Syrian regime and the Russian government to account for the brutality of the fighting, which is causing the refugee flows.’
Libya and the Eastern Mediterranean
Libya, or Tripolitania, was one of the last outposts of the Ottoman Empire, until the Italo-Turkish war of 1911–12. Turkey agreed to support the interim government in Tripoli after securing an agreement with it granting Turkey access to oil and gas resources in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey began transporting mercenaries out of Syria to Libya in December 2019. The Levantine Basin, in the Eastern Mediterranean, is reckoned to hold enough oil and gas to meet European demand for decades. The Turkish state intends to control this resource, but it faces rivals. Turkey plans to drill for gas off the west of Cyprus towards the Greek island of Crete and down towards Libya. The Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum was formed in July by Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Italy, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, excluding Turkey. France and the US have asked to join.
Turkey’s claims to Eastern Mediterranean resources depend, in part, on Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus. Only Turkey recognises the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkish war ships drove off a party of Italian drillers but backed off when a US company arrived, accompanied by a US destroyer. In January 2020 French warships were sent to the Aegean Sea and France announced a French-Greek military alliance. French President Macron denounced Turkey’s intervention in Libya. Turkey disputes Greece’s maritime borders. Greece and the US have recently agreed to build new US military bases in Greece. US Secretary of State Pompeo said that the US needs them ‘to help secure the Eastern Mediterranean’.
Turkey’s unemployment rate is officially 13.2% and its inflation rate is over 12%. The US has threatened Turkey with sanctions from April if Turkey deploys the Russian S-400 anti-missile system. Erdogan and the AKP government’s regional belligerence, their clashes with the US and Europe, the constant and unwinnable war against the Kurds and the removal of constitutional restraints on President Erdogan, have produced fractures in the political establishment. In recent months former AKP government minters have left the party to set up their own parties. Each promises better economic management and a return to parliamentary democracy. The reality is that Turkey could not have invaded Syria or backed jihadist forces there without NATO backing, including arms supplies, and without imperialist finance propping up Turkey’s economy. They have produced a Frankenstein monster which will have to be destroyed.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 275, March/April 2020
