Türkiye joined NATO to survive and will leave it to thrive when time is right

YUSUF KAPLAN, MONDAY, 04 JULY 2022

The phenomenon that determines our forms of belonging is alliances and enmities, the forms of belonging built through ethnic and cultural or civilization identity. Or, geography still determines people’s destiny. Though Lyotard talks about “the end of geography,” though borders are visibly being eliminated, this is the case.

The burden geography places on humanity's shoulders sometimes becomes a civilizational obligation. Of course, civilization awareness is not limited to geography. To put it in a different way: Civilization awareness and belonging supersedes the actual geography, and reaches all the way to mental and cultural spheres, becoming complex and enriched.

NATO’S IDENTITY: A CIVILIZATION’S WAR MACHINE

The first thing you need to know is that NATO is a civilization project. They say it is Western civilization’s “defense shield,” but this definition camouflages the truth.

Then, what is NATO?

NATO is a war machine utilized by the Western civilization-built global capitalist system’s military tyranny order. It is its armed shield. As Noam Chomsky would say, “It is a destruction mechanism used by global tyrants to terrorize the world.”

As for Fernand Braudel, he would identify it as, “The armed peace order’s war and defense device,” because it is the most fundamental defense organization of Pax Americana, which he considers the continuation of the Roman Empire, the founder of the order called Pax Romana.

Friendships and strategic alliances between countries also primarily take shape through forms of cultural belonging. Of course, interests are more determining at first glance. However, what determined “interests” is, in fact, the forms of belonging: Forms of belonging based on culture, faith, civilization, and region.

The horrific difference between the way the Ukrainians who fled their country to escape the destruction of war upon Russia’s invasion were received in the West, and the way Syrians or migrants from outside of Western civilization were received, shows clearly that interests are determined by the forms of cultural belonging.

Besides the attitude toward migrants, we clearly see the discriminatory, marginalizing, and trivializing attitudes developed through forms of cultural belonging in the problems, wars, and massacres in various parts of the world.

PERCEPTION OF THREAT, IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ‘EVIL OTHER’, SILENT RISE OF ‘GREAT EAST’

Let alone, NATO itself is legitimizing its presence through its development of an other, a threat, an antagonization, and perception. Very much the way the West builds its own identity through the other, and in fact, the “evil other.”

It is the idea and perception of an enemy that legitimizes NATO. During the Cold War period, the enemy was Communism. In post-Cold War, as of the 1990s, it was Islam, which was fought against under the guise of terrorism and from outside through proxy wars, inside through post-modern perception wars. Now, Russia has been added to the list of enemies, and China will be added in the future.

All measures are being taken (you can interpret this as, “all sorts of evil is being plotted”) to prevent a China-India-Islam alliance or bloc from emerging.

The question of why China would oppress the Muslims in East Turkestan so much in such an atmosphere is a strategically very important question that needs to be answered.

What about the massacre of Muslims in India, the terrorization throughout India against Muslims in order to drive Muslims out of India in the form of masses, while the world watches along the sidelines?

In the upcoming half- or one-century medium and long term, China, India, Russia, and the Islamic world will join their strategic priorities and interests against the West, and act together. It is difficult to collapse the Western world’s hegemony any other way.

Türkiye will have a key role here. The NATO summit in Madrid proved this once more.

The lords of the global system had Samuel P. Huntington write the “Clash of Civilizations” (first as a paper, later as a book), because they can see this future alliance. A China, Russia, India, and – Türkiye-led – Islam bloc will eventually form in the East against the West bloc.

The lords of the global system saw this. They are taking measures to prevent this from happening by first trying to bring to its knees the Islamic world in the post-Cold War period, and now by attempting to make Russia surrender.

In the meantime, they are working towards souring India and China’s relations as much as possible to drown this alliance before it is even born. Indians are already craving this, as are the Chinese in a way.

However, the burning fact that nobody sees – or does not want to see – is that the British are fueling, preparing, and provoking the anti-Islam sentiment in India, the war against Islam and Muslims. Something similar might happen in China, but we need concrete data regarding this matter: It is very difficult to get concrete, reliable information from China in this regard.


TÜRKİYE’S PLACE IN NATO: CONTROLLED ENMITY ALLIANCE

Türkiye is one of NATO’s oldest members. The main reason Türkiye was included in NATO was the dire need for Türkiye as an “outpost”.

Otherwise, Türkiye wasn’t fully accepted into NATO; the West could not fully digest Türkiye as a NATO member. It became both a NATO member, in other words, an “ally” of the Western alliance and also an arch but covert enemy. Not only were all the coups that took place in Türkiye planned by NATO, but NATO is the one networking and arming the terrorist organizations seeking to divide Türkiye!

What sort of alliance is this?

A theoretical, mind-opening definition and conceptualization of this would lead one to the conclusion that both sides are trying to take control over one another’s enmity by building an alliance picture. In other words, the alliance between NATO and Türkiye is never an alliance of friendship, but rather a “controlled enmity alliance.”

This serves the interests of both sides, but only for the time being, for a certain period. By keeping Türkiye as a NATO member, NATO is stopping it from shifting in a different direction, and from establishing its own Islamic orbit. As for Türkiye, by remaining a NATO member, it is protecting itself from being NATO’s open target. Yet, Türkiye knows NATO plotted the coups, that it supports terrorism, and NATO knows that Türkiye knows all this.

In short, we joined NATO to survive. But when the time and place is right, we will leave to thrive and build a new world. We are undergoing a period of suffering to reemerge stronger.