A faithful ally of
Washington
ON SEPTEMBER 5, at the behest of President Turgut
Özal, Turkey's parllament voted through a law authorizing the despatch of Turkish troops abroad. The parliament also agreed to permit the stationing of foreign troops on Its territory.
Both these measures are evidently meant to open the way to Turkish participation in the
Imperialist crusade in Saudi Arabia. Despite to ride the popular bandwagon. Yet many a shared interests with Iraq's Saddam will be inspired by visions of a socialist
Hussein in repressing the Kurds, Turkey is taking its habitual stand as a resolute supporter of imperialism in the Middle East.
Activists elected
The following article looks at the history of
Even among the large new flock of NDP
Turkey's postwar pro-western alignment.
MPs, some 25 — one third of the total - have been active in the labour movement, and there are several left wing local movement activists who accepted nomination never expecting to be elected.
We may include in this latter groups several of the 19 NDP women MPs - a record high for female representation by any party in the Ontario legislature. The
NDP left will soon have a wider audience.
Not just inside, but outside the party as
The commercial media will be only too happy to amplify internal as well as external criticism of the NDP government — so it is important that left critics couch their criticism of the NDP leadership in the framework of criticism of the capitalist system and the forces of big business and
Nonetheless socialists must maintain a critical and independent stance while agitating for socialist policies and parliamentary mass action inside the
In the period ahead there will be much better opportunities to build a class strug gle current inside the NDP and the unions.
Such a current, also drawing on leading activists from the other social movements, will furnish a broader basis for the revolutionary alternative to social democracy.
But those forces on the left which, on the one hand, abstain from the struggle to forge this alternative inside the NDP, or on the other other hand, dissolve into the
NDP without maintaining an independent socialist structure and programme, will both miss and weaken the greater possibilities that the new situation presents. * producing regions after World War 1, imperialist domination of the Middle East did not meet any major problems until the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948. The awakening of Arab nationalism over the Palestinian question, the eviction of the traditional Arab leadership by a nationalist petty bourgeoisie, the entry onto the scene of the Soviet Union as an ally of such regimes, and the replacement of Britain by the United States as the main imperialist great power changed the rules. The issue of control of the oil supply became the occasion for a series of crises and complex struggles, which demanded of imperialism a series of new and changing
Neutral during the Second World War, Turkey was drawn into the Western fold during the Cold War. Under the "Truman doctrine", Turkey became a beneficiary of US aid from 1947 onwards, benefiting from the Marshall Plan and seeking to join NATO (founded in April 1948). Greeted cautiously at first, Turkey's candidacy was looked on with more favour after the Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh nationalized the oil in 1951. Turkey finally became a member of NATO at the start of 1952, after sending 4,500 troops to Korea as its entrance fee.
The supposed function of Turkey in NATO was to combat the "Soviet menace." In reality, it found itself more and more required to defend Western interests in the Middle East, undertaking in particular to defend British interests. Indeed. before Turkey joined, the British had vainly supported the creation of an armed intervention force for the region.
A first step in this direction was taken by the Baghdad Pact, which brought
FUAT ORÇUN together Turkey and Iraq before being signed by Britain, Pakistan and Iran. The US was content to participate as an "observer", partly because Israel had been excluded, partly to avoid extra friction with the Soviet Union. The pact guaranteed British military bases in Iraq.
Turkey at the Bandung conference
After the establishment of the Baghdad Pact, Egypt and Syria founded a unified military command, while Saudi Arabia signed agreements with these two countries. Turkey was despatched to the Bandung conference in 1955 of Afro-Asian countries by the US to put the pro-imperialist line to an audience from countries seeking a "third way" between imperialism and the Soviet bloc. Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Libya were on the Western side at Bandung, while Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia took a neutral stand - the Saudi attitude being above all determined by a dynastic conflict with Jordan.
However, the Baghdad Pact did not survive its first real test. In 1956, France and Britain intervened militarily in the Suez canal to oppose the nationalization of the canal by Egypt's Nasser. None of the members of the Baghdad Pact, apart from Britain itself, supported the Western inter- 21 vention in Suez, and they took the Arab
given to Britain. As an Integral part of the Bassorah province in the
Ottoman Empire, most of which was subsequently to be included in
Iraq, Kuwait came under British control in 1913. Meanwhile the Emir of Mecca was defeated by the Saudis and the Kingdom of Hedjaz gave way in 1932 to the Saudi Kingdom. *