‘Sinkholes’ in the world system: With the US, or without the US?

Let us continue with Munich. With two small preliminary remarks...

One: The Munich Security Conference showed once again that the distance between the US and the EU is widening, despite the efforts of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to score points by playing nice (and the exaggerated applause he received). Meanwhile, German progressives protested this militarist meeting in the streets, albeit on a modest scale. Sevim Dağdelen, a former Left Party MP and a long-time comrade-in-arms of BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht, pointed to the protest demonstrations here, in which both of her sons participated. Dağdelen, who said, “We do not want to die in your wars. You will not take our children!”, delivered an impressive anti-US-NATO-war speech that included urgent demands for peace and social rights.

Two: However, at least as important as that conference was the fact that a massive demonstration of 250,000 people, according to police figures, was held in the same city for regime change in Iran and American intervention. In the demonstration, which Reza Pahlavi also attended, along with Iranian flags, US, German, NATO, Israeli, Ukrainian and—presumably—many Western flags, banners, etc., were carried. We can also see them in the demonstrations on the streets of Iran. Well.

It is interesting that our opposition protesters of Turkish origin have not yet done what the Iranians and those who want foreign intervention in Iran have done. At least not in Turkey. Is this a discipline or a constraint of the Turkish people, of the pro-independence opposition raised in the republican regime? Perhaps. We may have the opportunity to touch upon this and its meaning in the future. Let us set this topic aside for now, adding that it is a stubbornness that needs to be broken in the eyes of the West. Good.

However, we have seen that not only between the US and the EU, but also the confrontations within Europe are hardening and the distances between them are increasing. For example, the coldness on the Germany-France axis has reached visible dimensions. Everyone observed that two right-wingers, Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron, were practically elbowing each other... Meanwhile, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have also significantly increased doubts about unity within the EU with their messages implying, “We are not in this game.”

“We are building Europe’s strongest army!”

All that is fine, but why did German Chancellor Merz feel the need to reveal his true colors with a speech that caused serious repercussions?

• He underlined that they are determined to build Europe’s strongest conventional army.

• He emphasized that there are no longer any institutions, organizations, or rules in the international arena, and that there is no longer an international order “rising on rules.”

• He reminded that the US’s world hegemony has not completely disappeared, but is already being questioned.

• He stated that they have been able to cause unprecedented damage to Moscow and cause great costs, but that they are not closed to peace negotiations with Russia.

• He also clearly expressed solidarity regarding Denmark and Greenland. This was an anti-Trump stance.

Why? Were these just Merz’s urgent responses to the ruptures in the fault lines of the world system? Was he taking a stance because he saw that the stones were being displaced?

More importantly, does it follow from all this that the Federal Republic of Germany, the most important imperial center in the outside world for Turkey, is playing for world leadership?

Impossible. There is a capital mind in Germany that has learned this through two world wars. However, as we have known much better since Georg Lukacs, who analyzed the fascisms of the last century, imperialism is a system where irrationalism pays off and is difficult to control. Reason can be completely disabled in crises, and “madness” can come to power and find mass support. In other words, one must be open to surprise developments; everything is possible. Difficult, but possible.

There are now frightening “sinkholes” in the world system

Whatever happens, the earthquake is evident, and we cannot ignore the fact that “sinkholes” of terrifying dimensions are opening up in unexpected places within the world system. This also happened in Munich. Even the US could not close these sinkholes, how could China? But new alliances and rising ranks may come to the agenda. The US and the EU have quite a deficit in this regard. Their job is very difficult. It is enough to look at BRICS and take a look at the incredible economic growth in China and its massive breakthroughs in technology. Everything is changing.

Everything is changing, because this ensures that a fundamental thing, the exploitation of human labor and concrete inequality, continues. Is that so?

Would it be an exaggeration to think that the number of these new sinkholes will increase, and to suggest that small states will disappear into those sinkholes and medium-sized ones will be downsized?

Europe is shaking. The US, on the other hand, has become like the thief in the Nasreddin Hodja anecdote. It does not leave, but it does not let the homeowner go either... Everyone is confused.

How much longer with the established order?

Whether you look from Turkey or from Germany: Is America more important, or Europe?

To ask more accurately and by clarifying the boundaries: Is the US or the EU more important for Turkish capitalism?

We are talking about Turkey’s “established order.” Does this Islamic established order, which has been installed over a quarter of a century, and from which perhaps the usurpers have never been able to get the full result they wanted, but which has also left the people miserable, play for the US or the EU?

Let no one say, “Both this and that.” Because the distance between the two predatory totals has grown quite a bit.

The weekend “conference” in Munich became a scene where it was declared by the masters of the world themselves that there is no longer any “order, discipline, or anything of the sort.”

Indeed. But no one has deceived anyone either.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s calculation of sweet-talking European Germany has not convinced anyone either. Let no one be deceived by a handful of rich people and their lackeys giving this ignorant man a standing ovation. The back-scratching among the elites carries no meaning for the masses who are becoming increasingly impoverished and “entering the path of war.” Indeed, even “Politico,” a supposedly American publication but owned by German capital, interpreted Rubio’s speech as “America’s charm offensive in Munich masks a tougher stance toward Europe than before.”

Will Washington get even tougher?

The poor who work or want to work but cannot, that is, the overwhelming majority of the people, live in a very different world, outside of the disgusting acts of these plutocrats (“Jeffrey Epstein files”).

Something else is happening.

Our question is this: What will the anti-republican, Islamist established order in Turkey do in this turmoil? More importantly: Can the mainstream opposition, especially the CHP and DEM and their small allies, propose a serious solution that will “prevent Turkey from being torn to pieces” against the new sinkholes that will open at any moment in the international arena and the new fault lines breaking one after another? Is it possible? Does it have a chance?

About 110 years ago, they made the Ottoman Empire a prey to be torn apart and a cause for war. Now their eyes are on the Turkey-Iran axis. Beware!