Farmland in Qamish, northern Iraq, devastated by Turkish air strikes (Pic: Middle East Eye /Dler Abdulla)

By Arian Mufid:

Much like the Ottoman Empire, the new Turkish military state is forcing itself on nations in the Middle East by way of bullying and intimidation. Western powers have failed to challenge this and have instead facilitated the Turkish military state’s aggression into countries such as Iraq, Syria, Libya and Azerbaijan. History offers a close parallel between the rise of the modern Turkish military state and the Ottoman Empire. Diplomats and academics, including MPs in Europe, can find some analogies with the current development of Turkish foreign and internal policies. We can hear echoes of the late 19th Century Ottoman Empire. In 1453, when the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople, it entered its height and what is known as the Period of Great Expansion, during which time the empire came to include the lands of over ten different European and Middle Eastern states. But all empires that rise must fall, and six centuries after the Ottoman Empire emerged on the battlefields of Anatolia, it fell apart catastrophically in the theatre of World War I.

Today’s Turkish military state is embarking on a most brutal path. Turkeys’ current state of economy has widened gender gaps and inequalities and increased youth unemployment and the poverty rate. The impact of the current economic climate, has negative consequences for Turkey, further weakening economic and social gains. Furthermore, Turkeys’ futile war of engagement in the west, north and south of Kurdistan, Libya, Syria and Azerbaijan has deepen the economic crises to the extent of the devaluation of the Turkish Lira by almost 35% over the last three years. Turkey has experienced three finance ministers within a short period, including Erdogan’s own son-in-law. Since Erdogan became prime minister in March 2003 after the Gul government ended his political ban, an increasingly aggressive foreign policy has become counter-productive, driving Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to ally against Turkey. Turkey needed and wanted to pursue its goals by military conquest, it is their imperialist strategy. Any European nation that offended Turkey in particular by meeting with Kurdish and Turkish democratic forces, were punished with a freeze in political relations and threats of economic consequences. Thus, Europe got on with pursuing commercial ties with Turkey and avoiding confrontation. The hypocritical behaviour of western nations was akin to a herd of antelopes being savaged by a lion; keeping clear of the immediate area but rapidly getting back to grazing. Turkey’s Imperialism has no doubt drawn the lesson from this period that democracies lack solidarity in the Western world. The Western worlds’ priorities are commercial, and they care little about Turkish aggression in the area and the brutal treatment of the Kurds. If dictators have in their mind a stereotype of a capitalist democratic nation pursuing profits at all costs, we unfortunately can see this is a clear example.