What are our "Gaza conquerors" doing?

In its relentless occupation and massacres in Gaza, Israel is preparing a "ground operation" against Rafah in the south of Gaza, the last refuge of about one and a half million Palestinians. While Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a 'peace treaty' with Israel at Camp David in 1979, is increasing its military presence on the border to prevent crossings from Rafah, it is warning that such an attack would spell the end of this treaty. Saudi Arabia has called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council over Israel's planned ground assault on Rafah. Even the avowed Zionist Biden, so far the biggest supporter of the Israeli aggression, is trying to stop Netanyahu, who has announced a "ground operation" against Rafah without being able to fathom the consequences for his own regional policy.

It was not the Erdoğan regime, which, in the spirit of Ottomanism and pan-Islamism, declared Gaza to be its "homeland", nor an Arab Gulf state that took Israel's crimes of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza to the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) and made these crimes a burning issue worldwide. It was the Republic of South Africa, renowned for its anti-racist struggle, that filed an international case against Israel's war and genocidal crimes and has shown the most exemplary solidarity with Palestine, despite the fact that the vast majority of its population is Christian.

Well, what have Erdoğan, who declared a "holy" war at his rally on 28 October with the words "We are rising for Gaza", and his partner Bahçeli, who proclaimed at the same time "I will be disgraced if I don't try to protect the children in Gaza", whom he called "an ancestral legacy", done for Gaza or Palestine so far, apart from rhetoric?

While on stage they spew Ottomanist and pan-Islamist propaganda as a complement to the growing popular outrage against Israel's massacres, behind the scenes they have no compunction about maintaining trade relations even in a period of attack and occupation. From MNG to Kolin and Limak to İÇDAŞ, the monopolies that have thrown in their lot with the regime have shown who their real friends are by maintaining logistical support for Israel.

The Ministry of Trade's answer to the claim that the trade relations with Israel have flourished during the period of aggression and occupation is a confession that these dirty and bloody trade relations continue. Leaving aside the reliability of the figures announced, the Ministry of Trade says that trade with Israel, which amounted to $2.32 billion between 7 October and 31 December 2022, fell by 45 per cent to $1.28 billion in the same period in 2023. These figures alone are enough to realise and show that even though Erdoğan proclaims himself to be the "main defender of the Palestinian cause", as he tells the crowds, "Erdoğan says this because Turkey is not indebted to you", he has not dared to cut off relations with Israel like the other regional regimes that collaborate with the USA.

Erdoğan, who is visiting the UAE today, will travel to Cairo tomorrow to meet Egyptian leader Sisi. Erdoğan, who is expected to meet UAE leader Al Nahyan today, is known to have made a series of apology visits to repair relations with the UAE, which he had previously branded as the financier of the coup attempt. Tomorrow in Cairo, Erdoğan will visit Sisi, with whom he had declared "I will never hold talks" for exploiting the Egyptian people's reaction to the Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi to seize power in a coup. Erdoğan is seeking reconciliation with regimes he described yesterday as "hostile" in order to reorient his position in line with regional developments.

The political situation that the events of 7 October have brought to light thus also exposes the claims that Turkey is the "leading country" in the region and that the Erdoğan regime is a "playing power". US Secretary of State Blinken, who has visited the regional countries five times since 7 October in order to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem on the basis of US regional interests, has visited Turkey only twice. And on these visits, where he met with Foreign Minister Fidan as well as Erdoğan, Fidan's priority was the ratification of Turkey's NATO membership and the sale of forty F-16 planes to Turkey in return, not the Gaza issue. Since the US got what it wanted in this regard, Blinken's recent visit to the region did not include Ankara. Thus, despite Erdoğan's efforts to create an impression to the contrary, the US does not consider it worthwhile to consult the Erdoğan regime on the Palestinian issue.

On the other hand, the Erdoğan regime, whose position on the Kurdish problem in terms of international law does not differ much from that of Israel with its attacks and occupations, even if the violence and the extent of the attacks differ, is following a policy of leniency on all these issues and feels obliged to negotiate and cooperate with the US imperialism in order to further its regional expansionist aspirations. Those who claim otherwise have to answer the question why the Erdoğan regime tries to use the purchase of forty F-16 planes for 23 million dollars to create a "spring atmosphere" with the USA when the Palestinians are threatened with a monumental attack at Rafah.

Those who advocate a similar policy against the Kurds while raising their voices against the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people can neither be the friends of the Palestinian or other oppressed peoples nor stand up to the imperialists. Therefore, in order to increase the solidarity with the Palestinian people and to enable the promotion of equal rights and peace for the oppressed peoples of the region, the reactions expressed against the Israeli occupation and massacres must be combined with the struggle against the collaborating regional reactionaries and imperialists.