“Peace Spring” Invasion of the Fascist Turkish State and the Real Hopes the Kurdish People Need

Editors Note: For Turkish translation: https://yenikomunizm.com/fasit-turk-devletinin-baris-pinari-isgali-ve-kurt-halkinin-ihtiyac-duydugu-gercek-umutlar/

(Note from editors: what follows is a corrected version of the English translation)

The “Peace Spring” invasion of the fascist Turkish state and the real hopes the Kurdish people need

The Islamist chauvinist clique of the Turkish ruling class, led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, launched an invasion of Rojava on October 9. This invasion, called “Peace Spring”, is being carried out under the pretext of creating a “safe zone” in Rojava, where the majority of people are part of the Kurdish nation. Now the whole world is hearing the footsteps behind the vicious slaughter of Kurds –previously declared as “the forces that defeated ISIS”– by the Turkish army under Erdoğan’s command.

In Syria in 2011, in the wake of the ‘Arab Spring’, masses spontaneously revolted against the fascist Assad regime and as a result, along with deep cracks, the regime’s power over Syria has weakened. The direct and indirect intervention of the imperialists played a decisive role towards the dissolution of Assad regime. In this setting, the relative autonomy which Kurdish forces in Rojava (West Kurdistan) gained did not sit well with the region’s local reactionary states (Iran, Syria and Turkey). However, the instability of this area and the strengthening of Islamic fundamentalists declaring a ‘Caliphate’ within the borders of Iraq and Syria caused the conflict to escalate between religious fundamentalism and imperialism, two outmoded reactionary forces. In order to fight against Islamic fundamentalism in the region and intervene in the contradictions among them, the imperialists saw the Kurdish forces as their ‘forces on the ground’. (Trump’s statement “the Kurds fought for us, but we gave them money and weapons in return” shows how the US saw the situation.) Then, with ISIS’s military defeat, the contradictions among the imperialists deepened. Now, although they appear to cooperate in rehaping the region, they are also at each other’s throats, each fighting for their own interests.

Background and Frame of the Invasion

Erdoğan’s Islamist-chauvinist ruling class clique has long been in consultation with their NATO ally, the United States, for this so-called “Peace Spring” invasion. The US needs the Kurdish forces in the region in order to establish its own reactionary objectives, but on the other hand, the Kurdish conflict with Turkey was pulling the US into a swirl of other contradictions in which they don’t want to be involved. Although the US is disturbed by Erdoğan’s dreams of a “New Ottomanism” and by Turkey’s arrogant posture as ‘the main actor’ in the region, clearly it doesn’t want to create another powerful enemy (like Iran), because of the Kurds. Yet the US wants to limit Turkey, because they don’t want it to act any way it wants. This is what Trump is trying to say in his tweets with his distinctive style. However, he has unleashed a range of reactions of discontent in different sections of the US ruling class, particularly within Trump’s own party, showing they do not fully agree.

The situation is tragic for the PYD and its armed force YPG. In 2014, the PYD/YPG, which received assistance from the US and coalition forces to repel the attacks of the Islamic fundamentalist ISIS in Kobane, was left in the lurch with the murderous massacre by Erdoğan, who is actually another representative of Islamic fundamentalism. While coalition forces launched a series of sanctions against Turkey, the recent invasion and efforts at annexation, has left the Kurds stranded once again. Although this doesn’t mean that the Turkish state will be able to do whatever it wants in the occupied areas (such as genocide), it will no doubt try to push all the boundaries to reinforce its own interests, like uprooting the YPG, destroying militia forces and terrorizing the people who support those militias.

It is good to remember that after the 2016 US election, Trump let Erdoğan proceed with his bloody settling of accounts in the region. Trump has a fascist worldview, a fascist program, and wants to consolidate this regime in the United States, the world’s largest, most powerful imperialist state. US imperialism was founded on the ownership and labour of slaves. The US is the world’s largest war and slaughter machine. Since the end of WW2, the US army has been responsible for the deaths of more than 10 million people and the workings of this imperialist system have made the lives of billions of people a nightmare. The Trump/Pence regime has absolutely nothing positive to offer humanity. This regime should be overthrown before it is consolidated. As such, the fact that people around the world and even those who say they are for the interests of mankind appeal to the US imperialists and to the Trump regime stands in clear opposition to the true general interests of humanity. And sadly, this contradiction is manifested in the Kurdish forces’ reproach that “our allies did not keep their promises”. If people do not understand that one class or another is behind all moral, religious, political and social statements and promises, they will not be able to avoid being the foolish victims of deceit and self-deceit.

While moving to strengthen one of the main pillars of the Turkish state, which is national oppression, the ruling class clique that Erdoğan represents is also expanding its own ambitions on a large scale and is trying to take advantage of the contradictions among the imperialists in the region. By doing that, on the one hand Erdoğan and his party, the AKP, are trying to destroy the Kurdish people’s struggle and desire for a separate state, and on the other they aim to intervene in the sharpening conflicts in Turkey. They are repolarizing the society on the basis of their own Islamic and Turkish chauvinism and even if the Kemalist section of the Turkish ruling class add a ‘footnote’ to this polarization, it is lining up behind Erdoğan. Progressive and “leftist” forces within the “democracy alliance”, who pinned their hopes on the Kemalists in the last local elections –including the pro-Kurd opposition party HDP– are actually part of Erdoğan’s invasion and his annexation efforts today.

People who are in the midst of all these contradictions and who want another kind of society turn inwards in desperation without any direction. If people pin their hopes on one section of the ruling class and believe society can radically change through bourgeois elections, thinking that at least this will push back fascism, they will not be able to avoid falling into the same trap over and over again. Yes, losing hope and any orientation is not only related to the “strength” of the capitalist imperialist system. It also comes from the belief that the system can be transformed by minor changes through reforms, which is part of what led to thinking they must seek alliances with one reactionary force against another one.

Orientation needed for a scientific and revolutionary solution: new communism

Fortunately, there is a fundamental and radical alternative to all this. This is a communist revolution! This would be a society where people won’t say “my interests”, where there will be no borders and classes and in which the relations of production, the old ideas and traditions of these classes will disappear. At the beginning through the forcible overthrow of the existing states a new revolutionary socialist state creates a base area for the world revolution, which is the real hope for humanity. The science, strategy and art of leadership of this communist revolution has been synthesized by Bob Avakian from past socialist revolutions and other positive experiences of mankind and put into the service of humanity as a new synthesis of communism, new communism. Like everywhere in the world, the masses of people in Turkey and Kurdistan who yearn for a world which is completely liberated from slavery, need to learn and follow the New Communism that has been developed and led by Bob Avakian.

Turkish army, out of Rojava and all parts of Kurdistan!

We must not rely on imperialists and reactionaries, but on our own force, on the masses of people for revolution!

For the emancipation of humanity, REVOLUTION! NOTHING LESS!

YeniKomunism.com 14 October 2019