Imperceptible Brutality

Last week, I shared with you the ugliest face of imperialism under the title “Unstoppable Brutality.” This week, I will attempt to focus on the imperialism in a velvet glove that is being played out directly on Turkey. 

Turkey is a developing economy. Every economy can make its development moves depending on its natural resources, human capital, economic activities, and potential to reach markets. Let us not forget that during the Cold War, the protective umbrella against communism also contributed significantly to the development of countries like Japan, South Korea, or Indonesia. Or even Germany, which was destroyed and divided in the Second World War, is among the countries that developed rapidly. Yes, significant support was provided to all these countries; this is true. For example, after the world war, Germany and Japan did not even have the authority to establish a regular army, so their defense expenditures were quite limited, and the aim was to direct a significant portion of the country's resources to development efforts. Of course, all these factors can be seen as significant support for development efforts. But it is not enough; in short, limiting the rapid development of these countries solely to these material conditions is considered a clear insult to the human power, disciplined work ethic, and determination of those countries. When we look at all the Middle Eastern countries, the human behavior we see is similar to that of the Anatolian people, with some differences. Yes, there is a clear difference between the general Middle Eastern person and the Anatolian person, which is the effect created by the Atatürk reforms in adapting our people to Western behavioral codes and rules, in addition to cultural roots, although this effect has diminished over time. However, the fact that the general public cannot show the courage to refrain from offering support to the government against the despotic practices experienced today is also evidence of how far our people have drifted from their individual behavioral codes. 

Since issues such as the public's work ethic and will are of more interest to sociologists and psychologists, let us close this and come to the covert imperialist practice applied to Turkey. The history of the backwardness of the Turkish economy is too vast to fit here. Let me just say this: In the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey, while the inherited economy was at a very backward level, the central countries were leaving the first industrial stage behind. Except for the protectionist developmental policies initiated in line with the Statism of the Republic and the 1961 Constitution, Turkey has remained under the imperialist pressure of central states in every period, similar to other peripheral countries. We can talk about these in another article. In this article, I want to touch upon the difference between the 1961 Constitution and development planning, and the Medium-Term Program policies implemented within the framework of the 2000 IMF program.

Well, let me say the first sentence immediately: As a fundamental approach, the solution for the Turkish economy is not the Medium-Term Program, but an economic planning-programming model. The reason is very clear. Namely, the problem of the Turkish economy is not a superstructure problem, but an infrastructure problem, that is, a problem of production relations, productivity, and sectoral planning. As such, the Medium-Term program model, which will make no contribution to the economy, is a complete financial exploitation model that dominates our age. 

First of all, it is necessary to correctly identify that the main cause of the inflation experienced is the inefficiency in production relations. If this is the case, it is as clear as day that curbing domestic demand, while dragging our people into poverty, will in no way produce a permanent solution to inflation. Indeed, despite all the tight policies, the negative result is obvious. With the suppressive policies applied, there may be a slowdown in the rate of price increases for a while, but when the pressure is lifted, prices immediately start to rise again. 

Policies that will be a remedy for Turkey should be to expand the production infrastructure, take measures to increase productivity, and move towards a selective sectoral planning model under world conditions. Turkey also has a wonderful historical infrastructure suitable for this model. One of these is the State Planning Organization established in line with the 1961 Constitution and the five-year real planning model experience initiated in the same vein. This model, which was left to die with IMF impositions, is the model that Turkey desperately needs today. The second is the “Plan for Democratization-1978-1982” model prepared by the Workers' Party of Turkey.

Now I can almost hear the objections that times have changed, that the era of planning has ended, and that we have entered a period of short-term programming. My response to these friends is as follows. Who labeled economies like ours as “undeveloped or backward economies” at first, then deemed us worthy of the title “developing economies,” and finally found the “emerging markets” model appropriate? Well, dear friends, just as in the Washington Consensus imposition, were we present in the decision when these names were deemed appropriate for us and the Washington Consensus was imposed? Or should we think like this: Are all these decisions taken by developed countries in line with their own interests and imposed on us again in line with their own interests? While we should be thinking about these issues, we cannot; or rather, they do not let us think; because if we think about these topics, we would be excluded from the world of economic science, which has been given a scientific appearance by being forced into an autistic structure, failing to comply with contemporary thought patterns. Yet, we must realize that because we learned even imperialism from Western sources, we cannot fully understand or interpret the problem or the operation of the process. Did they not fire Paul Sweezy, who explained imperialism to the whole world with his book “Monopoly Capital,” which he wrote with Paul Baran, from the famous Harvard University faculty that everyone envies and wants to go to? That is the situation. 

While Turkey was enjoying itself in the tunnel of covert misfortune as a legacy of the Ottomans as well as under the protection of the capitalist network during the Cold War, this drunkenness of the tunnel of enjoyment could not, unfortunately, be ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, because both the deep history of the past and the recent past kept the nation in a constant sleep, and this situation also suited the imperialist. According to him, this sleep should continue in the business of mafia-like lethargy. Since there were no communists left, and the leftist gains in Turkey had also faded, there was no longer a need for a “green belt” against communism or the “moderate Islam” doctrine-imposition against the Islamic world. Our current topic was to satisfy the need of the capitalist center, which could not solve its deep crisis, for a relatively large and potentially powerful focus of exploitation. The fact that the IMF was at our door when the solution to the crisis we were dragged into towards the end of 1999 should have been in the World Bank prescription is not because we are an emerging market that they flatter, but because they themselves need an economy to exploit. This situation was also clearly seen when IMF advisors, even skipping World Bank articles, tied the lira to the strong currency dollar and caused us to be dragged into a crisis in February 2001. It is that program that threw our economy into the arms of idle Western funds chasing high interest rates, as if it had an advanced production sector and a deep stock market structure. And the result is obvious! 

Speaking of the result, let us not fall into the ignorance of our wise economists regarding the “first period and second period” distinction of the AKP era, please. The first period is the period of the entry of idle Western capital into the economy by flooding the IMF-supported safe economy with funds, and by making the state a partner (partner in what!) through “smart projects” under the headings of “build-operate-transfer” and “public-private partnership,” in a partnership that exploits its own people. Yes, some brightness was experienced, and it is still being experienced, but the result of these glimmers is the reflection in the second period of the AKP that we do not like. We support the government even while carrying the debt we are neck-deep in to our children. What kind of heedlessness is this! 

This is the contemporary image of the imperialism in a velvet glove that surrounds Turkey: an economy of 85 million people ready for exploitation with an MTP program opened to the service of financial barons and the abandonment of inclusive planning!