Türkiye in Pieces: Terrorism and Internal Crisis Sink Erdogan's Imperial Ambitions (Despite BRICS Embrace)

(To Gino Lanzara)
24/10/24

In Russian, and immune to any international criminal jurisdiction, Kazan, in a moment that should have been celebratory, Turkey has rediscovered its vulnerability. The imperial investiture of the BRICS does not protect Ankara from internal crises and their periodic explosion. A few hours after the death of Fethullah Gulen, condemned by the history of the country to go from Erdogan's mentor to diabolical deus ex machina of the anti-reis conspiracies of 2016, terrorism hits hard, once again, a country that aspires to sultanal dimensions but that is forced to settle accounts more and more often with a complex history and a present woven by a regime that, precisely because it is in power, is frantically seeking events that distract the masses from the enormous economic and social difficulties

Beyond the earthquake that devastated the district of Erdemil and Alessandretta in 2023 and which forces the Anatolian government to plan and budget for a difficult reconstruction, terrorism continues to bloody the Turkish scene with sensational actions that cannot fail to shake the internal and foreign political spheres. From 2016, to stay in more recent time frames, Ankara has suffered incisive and bloody attacks, which have become increasingly better organised and capable of polarising attention. From the attack on the Blue Mosque in 2016 we have arrived at the explosions in Istanbul in 2022, to the attack on the Ministry of the Interior in 2023, to reach the assault on the 23 October 2024 to one of the symbols of Erdogan's power.

5 victims, propagandistically defined as "martyrs" by a president who lumps together in his adverse fate those who voluntarily lend themselves to death for an ideal and those who are unfortunate enough to unknowingly find themselves on the wrong ballistic trajectory, and (at the moment) 22 wounded, constitute the balance of an incursion destined to leave its mark

La Turkish Aerospace Industries of Kahramankazan near Ankara, an expression of Turkey's National Initiative Technology, producer of the KAAN, the first domestically produced fighter aircraft and former producer of crucial parts for the F-35, helicopters and drones. ANKA, the licensed manufacturer of the US F-16, will long remind the executive that a country's politics cannot be based only on foreign affairs and demagogyIt is useful to recall here both the various disputes that followed the approval of Scandinavia's entry into NATO, where Turkey intended to assume a political position as a destabilizing final decision maker, and the ambivalent diplomatic involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, as well as the decisive positions taken pro Palestine with statements aimed at drawing attention to an alleged hostile Israeli war intent. 

TAI is therefore a major international player in the development of advanced military technologies, unpopular with groups expressing policies contrary to the Anciran war posture as in Syria and Northern Iraq. It is useful to draw attention both to the fact that a trade fair for the defense and aerospace industries will be held soon in Istanbul, in which the CEO of the Turkish defense industries and the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha will participate, and to the fact that the defense sector represents 80% of the national export revenues. Attacking the TAI therefore seems to want to affirm a precise will to attack the State through one of its most prestigious symbols..

As always, while waiting to evaluate more certain and probative elements, if it will ever be possible as the Ergenekon affair has taught, the PKK has already been translated into the dock, with Kurdistan between Iraq and Syria the immediate recipient of an inevitable air retaliation on 32 targets, Kurdistan as a political subject that however should not make us forget how in the past the Islamic State and militants of the extreme left, have carried out equally significant actions. Erdogan, even in this juncture, has aimed to stigmatize the existence of an axis of evil against which Turkey finds itself having to fight, while still waiting for the outcome of the American elections and perhaps keeping an eye on the GOP.

Never before have axes, corridors and transversality characterised the foreign and security policy of the Middle East as in recent years. Generally speaking, for each attack it should be underlined the need to understand what the actual intentions pursued may be, in light of the extremely delicate institutional and above all economic situation of Ankara.

Net of the catwalk offered by the BRICS, the economic and financial issues remain on the table for which the need for positions supported by certain and consistent cash inflows is becoming increasingly urgent. The celebratory acts of the hoped-for new order, even if ennobled by the presence of the UN Secretary General, remain in fact an impalpable appearance where not supported by financial support that, at the moment, seem to be elements of widespread suffering at a global level and not very functional to the projections of power.

Photo: Kremlin / brics-russia2024.ru