Does it have the power to say 'no' to the US!

Of course it doesn't!

It knows very well who it owes its 22-year rule to. It is aware of what will happen if it accidentally steps on their toes or harms their interests.

In front of the cameras, it rants and raves with sentences starting with “eyyyyy”, but it never rains, it cannot rain.

They tolerate its raising an eyebrow or acting tough over minor issues; they tolerate its making noise, shouting, and yelling to appease the people of my country.

That is why they ignore its empty bravado, even when it goes overboard most of the time.

They know that when their supreme interests are at stake, it will do whatever they ask without hesitation. It will fulfill the duty assigned to it properly.

Let's get to the point.

The TCG Anadolu, which the government could not stop advertising and which it marketed to the people of my country as “our first aircraft carrier” by touring almost all the ports in Turkey before the elections, conducted a joint exercise with the US amphibious assault ship USS Wasp in the Eastern Mediterranean between August 13-17.

The TCG Gökova also took part in the war game named the Harmony Exercise.

In fact, a V-22 Osprey special operations aircraft even practiced landing and taking off on the deck of the TCG Anadolu.

This information is critical because it means that if the US assigns its special forces to protect Israel, the TCG Anadolu will effectively contribute to a potential operation.

It is clear that while the Middle East is like a powder keg and the probability of localized skirmishes turning into an all-out war is increasing every day, the US does not want to leave anything to chance.

However, the people of my country only learned about the exercise after it was over.

The Ministry of National Defense, which is very skilled at announcing and hyping up heroic stories that will carry water to the government's mill, did not make a statement regarding this exercise.

We can assume that the instruction “for heaven's sake, do not announce it” came from the Palace.

While Israel was bombing southern Lebanon and massacring tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza before the eyes of the world, it would not have been very pleasant to announce that Turkey participated with not one, but two ships in an exercise based on a scenario of “protecting Israel against attacks” for no reason.

God forbid, someone might have come out and said, “what is this inconsistency.”

But the USS Wasp announced the exercise on social media and exposed the matter. They probably thought, “Even if the world ends in Turkey, it doesn't concern us.”

Naturally, some people were displeased.

But the government, knowing that the people of my country have a short memory, did not feel the need to offer much of a defense, thinking, “it will be forgotten anyway.”

The CHP, on the other hand, preferred to remain silent, except for a weak statement.

Yet, it should have constantly poked at the issue to expose the government's hypocritical foreign policy and kept it on the agenda until even the deaf sultan in Baghdad heard it.

Let's rewind the tape a bit.

The date is July 4, 2003, the place is the city of Sulaymaniyah in Iraq.

Nearly 150 soldiers from the US 173rd Airborne Brigade raided the headquarters of the Turkish Special Forces Command stationed in the city. They “confiscated” 11 Turkish soldiers. They took three officers, eight non-commissioned officers, a Turkmen cook, two Kurdish servants, and three security guards as prisoners.

The US team that carried out the raid was led by Colonel William C. Mayville.

Their excuse was intelligence they received that Turkish soldiers were going to assassinate the Governor of Kirkuk, Abdul Rahman Mustafa.

But the truth of the matter was revenge for the March 1 memorandum and, perhaps more importantly, showing the political Islamist government in Turkey who the boss is.

Turkey stood up.

The reaction was huge, but what hurt the people of my country was that the country's most valuable soldiers surrendered to the Americans like lambs without showing any resistance.

It is said that the Chief of General Staff of the time, Hilmi Özkök, had given the order, “Do not resist.”

Regardless, the glass had already been cracked!

The then-Chairman of the CHP, Deniz Baykal, had attacked the government and demanded that the necessary reaction be shown to the US.

This was what needed to be done. It was not just the pride of the soldiers who had sacks put over their heads that was broken; this message was for the government as much as it was for the people of my country.

“Contingency plans” were quickly made at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A series of options regarding the steps that needed to be taken until the Turkish soldiers were released as soon as possible and a formal apology came from the White House were placed before the government.

For example, Turkey could have suspended its diplomatic relations.

All US bases could have been closed; Turkey could have withdrawn from the 1980 Defense and Economic Cooperation Agreement (DECA), which forms the basis of comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

Or, Turkish soldiers in joint operations could have been recalled, and international cooperation could have been terminated.

Deniz Baykal, having also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, was aware of the seriousness of the matter.

“A diplomatic note should be given to the US,” he said.

In other words, Turkey should have protested the US in the strongest possible way.

He gave the following answer to this move by Deniz Baykal, which would go down in Turkish political history:

“Are you going to just get up and give a note? What kind of note are you giving? That's what I said... A musical note? You will diagnose the event, you will diagnose it in depth, you will understand, you will know, and then you will give whatever needs to be given. When there is a falling out between two partners, one works on how to resolve this falling out. A partner does not break the partnership just because 'a mistake was made'...”

The US liked this answer very much. The message had been received, and they were relieved.

After the “road accident” that occurred on March 1, it was understood beyond any doubt who the boss was.

About two months after this incident, I went to Kirkuk for the congress of the Iraqi Turkmen Front.

Officers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the main actors of the sack crisis, attended the opening of the congress together with Turkish officers. All eyes were on them.

The US soldiers were acting as if nothing had happened, trying to ensure that the Turkish officers in the hall gave photos while smiling with them, as if they were not the ones who had arrested the Turkish soldiers on July 4.

In the end, the flashes went off, and the next day, a photo of one of our first lieutenants and one of their captains high-fiving in the air appeared on the front pages of the newspapers.

I wrote and sent my news with the headline “The sack was forgotten very quickly.”

The next day, Mustafa Ziya, the Ankara Representative of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, asked if I wanted to interview Colonel William C. Mayville.

“Of course I will,” I said, and we set an appointment for the next day.

We sat across from him with two television reporters, one of whom was from a news channel.

He kept talking, saying don't get hung up on the July 4 incident, let's look at the upcoming matches. He had a lot of work to do in Iraq. He was aware that they had brought the government in Turkey to the consistency they wanted.

He spoke highly of the Turkish Special Forces, saying they were all very good soldiers. He talked about how the cooperation they carried out in Kirkuk set an example, and so on.

That was when I understood why the US soldiers wanted to take photos while smiling with the Turkish officers. They were conducting public relations activities through us.

He left all my persistent questions about what happened that day unanswered, and we left him with a lot of empty talk in our hands.

When evaluating the TCG Anadolu conducting an exercise with the Americans without the people of my country knowing, it is necessary to look from the perspective of recent history.

Let's write it again, the glass was cracked that day.

No matter how much they rant and rave here, the US knows it will get whatever it wants behind closed doors. That is why it never spares its direct or indirect support for the government to maintain its rule. It is extremely sure that if all hell breaks loose in the Middle East tomorrow, the government in Turkey will be unconditionally by its side.

Right here, let's ask the ten-point expert question: Don't the people of my country know this, don't they understand what is happening right before their eyes?

Leaving the answer to the discernment of our readers, let us put a period to our article.