Akit and Aydinlik are two Turkish newspapers usually diameterically opposed. Akit is pro-government, and Islamic fundamentalist, while Aydinlik is the paper of the nationalist and Maoist Workers Party (IP).
But on one day during the recent protests by the Kurdish people in Turkey in solidarity with besieged city of Kobane (also known as Kobani), in which almost 40 people were killed, they ran almost the same headline.
Akit’s headline was “Vandals”, Aydinlik’s was “Rampage”. Both referred to the anti-government protesters. Their anti-Kurdish attitude forced them to sing the same song.
In Turkey, the nationalist left uses other ammunition against the Kurds on the other side of the Syria border, to discredit the Kobane resistance.
Aren’t they collaborators with US imperialism? Hasn’t the US Secretary of State John Kerry officially declared that the US does not consider the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) a terrorist group?
Doesn’t the YPG want US weapons? And hasn’t a YPG military representative been installed in the US command centre to coordinate US air strikes in Kobane?
Turkish Communist Party leader Aydemir Guler wrote last week: “ISIL is attacking Kobane just to push the YPG into the arms of the US.”
Other nationalists are obsessed with Bashar Assad, the Syrian ruler. “If Rojava doesn’t support Assad, then it is part of the imperialist scenario,” they say.
Some have visited Assad in his presidential palace in Syria and bring his “wise messages” to the Turkish people.
But as the Kobane resistance continues, it is forcing many people to recognise its legitimacy. It is also uniting Kurdish communities, and not only in Turkey. There have also been solidarity marches in Iraqi Kurdish cities and Iranian Kurdistan.
The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq was against the Rojava revolution from the start. It closed crossings on its border with northern Syria and dug trenches to stop Rojava receiving help.
But now everything has changed. The KRG has recognised Rojava. Iraqi Kurdish parties are now competing with each other to help Kobane.
There have been angry exchanges between rival Iraqi Kurdish parties over the source of the weapons that US planes dropped in Kobane recent days, with the different parties declaring the weapons were theirs.
Turkey, on the other hand, has covered itself in ridicule over the last couple of days.
Only 24 hours, maybe even less, separated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s last roar at the Syrian Kurds and the Turkey's foreign minister’s declaration of safe passage for the Iraqi Peshmerga into Kobane.
Turkey did the same thing a couple of years ago with Libya. Turkey joined NATO operations against the Gaddafi regime just 24 hours after Erdogan, then prime minister, had strongly rejected any NATO involvement in Libya’s civil war during the Arab Spring.
History has repeated itself. Erdogan’s said the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the main party in Rojava “is a terrorist organisation for us, just like the PKK” — the Kurdish Workers Party, the Turkish-based group that has struggled for Kurdish liberation against the Turkish state.
Then, within hours, US planes started airdrops of weapons to Kurdish fighters in Kobane.
A couple of hours more and Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavasoglu was declaring “safe passage” for Pesmergas into Kobane. Turkey was now going to help the PYD “terrorists”.
Next day, there was a cabinet meeting. This was the first cabinet meeting held in Turkey that was not immediately followed by a press conference in nearly 20 years. No cabinet members were available to answer any questions about the contradiction in Turkish politicians’ statements.
Cavasoglu found the magic solution the next day, saying: “The PYD is not on Turkey's list of terrorist organisations.”
The real danger for the imperialist world is not the creation of a self-governing Kurdish state in Syria. The real danger is the creation of a revolutionary island that will be an inspirational model to the people from Mesopotamia to Caucasia, the Arabian Peninsula and Anatolia.
People that create their own secular, democratic model without the backing of any powerhouse is a nightmare for imperialists.
That’s why Turkey and the others are now following the US to rush into Kobane to help — after they sensed that the Kobane resistance will survive.
They are helping Kobane for one reason: Rojava, the youngest and most democratic part of Kurdistan that could potentially demonstrate a different solution to the one that imperialists and regional sub-imperialists want from the Syrian crisis.
For them, the problem has changed. First, it was how to defeat Islamic State. Now it is the victory of the Kurdish revolution and its echoes throughout the progressive world.
A victory by stand-alone revolutionary and democratic forces against IS, spreading hope among people, would be devastating for imperialists. The IS problem could have been more easily fixed, but people’s hope is more dangerous. Therefore, a defeat for the IS without imperialist help would be intolerable.
Imperialists, and their regional allies, are now rushing to Kobane to show that Kurds will not and cannot win their victory alone. A Kurdish victory without imperialist intervention would produce unpredictable results.
All this “help” to the operation in Kobane is really to dampen the revolution.
They hope they will benefit from helping the Kurds in two ways: by hosing down the hope and excitement and bringing their enemy close.
They need to declare that Kobane couldn’t have been saved without their help. The US, Turkey and others will now give the Kurds bouquets and complimentary words while they steal their revolution.
The Kurdish freedom movement has great experience in war and politics. YPG co-leader Asya Abdullah demonstrated this in a recent interview. She remains distant over both the KRG-aligned eshmerga and Turkey’s enthusiasm for providing help to Kobane.
In the Middle East’s environment of complex, multi-layered relationships, everybody has their own agenda. But one thing is clear: Imperialists and their allies don’t want a revolutionary, democratic, progressive movements that might inspire people.
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