The agreement that has long been debated on the purchase of S-400 air defence batteries from Russia has been officially announced. According to Russian and Turkish officials’ explanation, Russia's shipments to Turkey in exchange for $ 2.5 billion for selling the four S-400 batteries will be held in 2020. The purchase of the S-400s has been presented as an anti-imperialist victory, as evidence of the indigenous and national power of the government.
Well, is it really like that?
Let's take a closer look at the agreement to find the answer to this question.
Turkey wanted to be given the electronic code of the S-400 system that she will purchase. Russia rejected this request. So the installation and maintenance of this defence system will be done by the Russians. It is not just that. The batteries that will be installed in Turkey will function according to the radar that will be established and controlled by the Russians. Therefore these defence systems cannot be used against the places/countries where Russian radars are not coded as threats.
What a great victory, is not it?
We are giving Russia a ‘base' with the hand of the government in exchange for 2.5 billion dollars!
There is more than that.
It is well-known that Turkey is a NATO member country.
It even sent Turkish troops to war in Korea that it even couldn’t have shown the location of it on a map in 1950 to become a member of NATO, a military alliance that led by the US and western imperialists formed against the Soviets, but then proven that Turkey, in 1952, was a NATO member. Today, including İncirlik and İzmir air bases in Turkey, Konya Main Jet Base Command, NATO has 28 bases and all the equipment modernization and defence systems of the Turkish army have been dependent on NATO (mainly the US) since 1952. That is to say, Turkey, which is the southernmost member of NATO functions as an 'outpost' for NATO.
After the collapse of the Soviets, NATO's "threat" assessment has changed over time, especially with respect to US priorities.
So, which country or whom do you think is the biggest threat for NATO today?
According to NATO's "Warsaw Summit" in July 2016, "the most important threat" is Russia!
In fact, in this summit, where Turkey was represented by a delegation led by President Erdoğan, the decision that NATO to place AWACS early warning system had already been made in order to monitor Russia’s activities in Syria.
Another question is that “What happened back then that Turkey became close enough to Russia, which was declared as the "biggest threat" at the NATO summit, in order to buy defence system from?”.
To answer this question, it is necessary to look at the events at the region (Middle East-especially Syria) in the last two years.
In September 2015, Russia's active intervention in Syria provided substantial liquidation of jihadist groups supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia and enabled the Syrian regime to breathe in that period. At the same time, the US took steps to increase its business alliance with the Kurds (SDG-Syrian Democratic Forces) since there was no other power to support its effectiveness in Syria. However, when the love of overthrowing Assad became a dream, to destroy the Kurds' achievements in Syria became a question of existence and non-existence for Erdoğan’s power to pursue a policy of liquidation inside. Nevertheless, the efforts of Erdoğan's power to persuade the United States (especially for the Rakka operation) were inconclusive.
It is exactly one month after the NATO summit in July 2016, in which Russia was declared as the biggest threat, Russia gave permission to Turkey's Euphrates Shield operation to prevent the merging of Kurdish cantons in Syria (Kobane and Afrin). Russia used Turkey's Kurdish sensitivity to make it away from NATO-US axis and to attract it to its side. Erdoğan embraced Putin, helplessly. And after Astana summit, and the removal of the jihadists from Aleppo, 'observer' mission in İdlib was given to Turkey.
Finally, this cooperation was moved to a new dimension with the S-400 agreement.
To sum up, the situation is this: Turkey is a NATO member. NATO sees Russia as the biggest threat. However, Turkey, whose all the defence system is dependent on NATO, is buying a new defence system from Russia (SR-400). But it leaves the control of this defensive system to Russia. And NATO is opposed to the S-400 because it is not compatible with its own system.
When we say that we have to get rid of the NATO scourge that we have been in for 65 years, the government is bringing the Russia scourge which is NATO's biggest rival. It makes the country a playground for these two imperialist powers.
Thus, the anti-imperialism and nationalism of the powers that have created itself with the cooperation of imperialism up to now are only to approach another imperialist from the previous one.
As a final word: to get rid of the imperialists and become a truly independent and democratic country, first of all, we need to get rid of the powers whose horizon does not go beyond cooperation!
Yusuf Karadaş
Ceren Sözeri
Aras Coşkuntuncel