TKP General Secretary Kemal Okuyan's 'foreign policy' question to CHP leader Özgür Özel: 'How will 85 percent be calculated?'

Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) General Secretary Kemal Okuyan’s article titled “CHP provides confidence” has been published on the soL News Portal. 

Addressing CHP leader Özgür Özel’s evaluations regarding foreign policy, which have shown differences before and after the elections, as well as the “normalization” steps taken, the article questions who the CHP is providing confidence to and emphasizes: “It is not surprising at all that the CHP is entering the field in the international arena and starting to speak on behalf of Turkey. The issue cannot be seen merely as a preparation for power; there is a great success of the class that owns the established order.” 

The full text of the article is as follows:

CHP provides confidence…

Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel said on April 26 in Kula, Manisa, “Until this nation gives us the task of governing, we are the main opposition party in this country. Outside the country, abroad, we are Turkey's party.”

Then, in recent days on Habertürk, he put it in percentage terms, saying: “I need to receive a briefing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before going abroad. We also need to provide information upon our return. We should be united on 85 percent of things in foreign policy. The President approached it positively and gave instructions.”

I will come to the shallowness of separating domestic policy from foreign policy and the cliché of “we defend our country's interests when we go beyond Turkey's borders.” But first, a reminder is needed. Özgür Özel used to speak with different emphases. For example, in his article published in Politik Yol in 2020, he said, “Turkey is drifting into a foreign policy that is unprincipled and mindless, swinging like a pendulum between the White House and the Kremlin,” and added, “It is necessary to get rid of this foreign policy and this rhetoric that is squeezed between the United States and Russia and deviates from tradition in many areas, especially in the Middle East and the EU. This will only be possible by returning to our Foreign Ministry tradition, which does not take sides in domestic political disputes in neighboring countries, can open space for diplomacy instead of military power, and will make all parties feel the weight of what it says.”

In fact, Özel’s tone, which almost completely opposed the AKP’s foreign policy, continued after he became Chairman until the March 31 elections. Last November, when he said that Turkey’s foreign policy was “inconsistent,” Özgür Özel did not mince his words.

Let’s not be unfair; Özgür Özel is not saying that we defend the same things in 85 percent of foreign policy. He is putting this ratio forward as a target. However, Özel surely knows that it is not possible to bring an inconsistent and mindless foreign policy practice to a line that is mostly agreed upon just by convincing Erdoğan. This means that the CHP will also do something, will act more carefully and responsibly…

Whether the Republican People's Party is preparing for power or doing its part so that half of Turkey stops fighting with the AKP and learns to live with the AKP through a process that Özgür Özel calls normalization, time will tell.

Perhaps both…

I want to insert a reminder. Years ago, we used the word normalization for the intra-parliamentary opposition, which included the CHP, and we said that they wanted to normalize AKP Turkey with some cosmetic improvements. Now, among those saying “bravo” to Özgür Özel, there were those who accused us of being unfair at that time.

Anyway…

After the election, Özgür Özel began to take a “constructive” stance on foreign policy because he knows that today’s Turkey is not just a “one-man regime.”

If the CHP is to become an important actor, whether it is in power in Turkey or not, it must provide confidence to capital and convince it.

This is not enough. As I have mentioned in a few articles, it is equally important to provide confidence to the state, which has its own unique dynamics even if it is the most important carrier of capital dominance.

There is more. To be an ambitious party, it is necessary to provide confidence to actors who have different interests, and even position themselves against each other, in the international arena, which is the subject of great competition and conflict.

Let us recall Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s post a few weeks before the General Elections, in which he shook his finger at Russia, saying, “We know you will interfere in the elections, don't you dare try this.” Moscow naturally could not make sense of this message, but the US and its allies, who welcome all kinds of anti-Russian sentiment with open arms, could not make sense of it either. Or let me put it this way, Kılıçdaroğlu did not provide confidence to anyone with this and similar behaviors.

Currently, the CHP has begun to provide confidence to everywhere it needs to as a party of the order. We can even say that Özgür Özel’s negotiations with the ruling wing date back to before his CHP Chairmanship, and in this sense, he has become a preference among the options within the CHP and is seen as an element to balance İmamoğlu.

In this sense, it is not surprising at all that the CHP is entering the field in the international arena and starting to speak on behalf of Turkey. The issue cannot be seen merely as a preparation for power; there is a great success of the class that owns the established order. The architect of normalization in Turkey is multinational monopolies. And if tens of millions struggling with the cost of living have been convinced by all parties, from the government to the opposition, that “there is no alternative to Mehmet Şimşek’s policies,” and if the public is advised to be patient until the 2028 elections while Turkey competes for the top spot in social injustice, then they have succeeded for now.

Özgür Özel’s task is negotiation. If you don't get results in negotiation, it is “struggle” to be able to negotiate!

The reason why Özgür Özel voices that he will act with a sense of “responsibility,” unlike what he said before in foreign policy, is that the main lines of Turkey’s foreign policy will not change much.

There is no point in looking for the reason for this in the uniqueness of foreign policy. Because the CHP does not intend to change the main lines domestically either!

As claimed, there is no national interest that includes everyone in foreign policy; this is a big lie. For example, the needs of the exporter lobby, which wants the TL to lose value against strong currencies, not only in monetary policies but also in foreign policy, do not always coincide with the interests of some capital segments, let alone the working people. But the main issue is, of course, the reflections of the differences in interests between bosses and workers on foreign policy. NATO membership and close cooperation with the US are absolutely to the detriment of our people. What they pass off as “national interest” here consists only of the needs of a small segment.

Suppose you are going to start a war with a country for the interests of a small minority or in line with a counter-revolutionary mission, and then you turn around and say “this is a matter of the homeland”!

What nonsense!

I wonder how 85 percent will be calculated in such matters.

There is also the issue of the 120 social democratic leaders to whom Özgür Özel sent letters.

As you know, Özgür Özel also assumed the position of Vice President in the Socialist International. Some think this organization is socialist; it has nothing to do with it. The Social Democratic Party of Germany used the Socialist International for years in line with the needs of German imperialism, and then left this exhausted organization in the middle and walked away. When the British Labour Party took a similar stance, the Socialist International was left to the French Socialist Party, which could never get out of crisis, and two parties in Iberia that are still influential. It is not entirely unimportant, of course, but the Socialist International is in a state of an organization that contains all the conflicts and contradictions within the imperialist world and cannot determine a common direction.

Well, Özgür Özel’s efforts certainly have a meaning; it is highly possible for social democratic parties in Europe to support the normalization in Turkey. After all, they had a great contribution to Erdoğan’s rise in Turkey. Now, the cooperation of the main opposition with AKP Turkey will please the European Union the most.

In summary, Özgür Özel continues to provide confidence.

The real question is: To whom?

News Source: 12punto