Turkey,
Terrorism and the Global Proxy War, by Eric
Draister
While the world's attention has been fixed on France in the wake
of the Charlie Hebdo killings, the subsequent manhunt, and the political
fallout from the incident, a number of important news items have quietly been
pushed off the front pages of the world's major newspapers, and out of the lead
segments of television news programs all over the globe. In Nigeria, Boko Haram
reemerges with a vengeance, committing one of the worst atrocities in the
recent history of the region. In Syria and Iraq, the war against the Islamic
State continues unabated. In Greece, an all-important election that could have
dire implications for the future of the European Union is set to take place.
And quietly, with almost no fanfare from international media, reports surfaced from China
indicating that Chinese authorities had arrested at least ten Turkish suspects
alleged to have organized and facilitated the illegal border crossings of a
number of Uighur [Muslim ethnic group in Western China] extremists. It has
further been revealed that the Uighur extremists were planning to travel to
Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to train and fight with fellow jihadis.
While the details of the investigation have not been fully
revealed as yet, the incident points to a much larger issue than simply a few
Turks being involved in document forgery and illegal immigration. Rather, the
story is still further evidence of a well-funded, well-organized international
terror network operated and/or facilitated by the Turkish government and
Turkish intelligence. From the hosting of extremist fighters along the Syrian
border to providing material support to terrorists in China, Turkey has placed
itself at the center of an international terror war aimed at countries that
oppose NATO and stand in the way of the Neo-Ottoman vision that President
Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu have for Turkey.
What We Know and Why It Matters
According to the Turkish foreign ministry, the ten Turkish citizens
were arrested in Shanghai on November 17, 2014 for facilitating illegal
immigration. While the formal charges against them range from forging documents
to actually aiding illegal migration, it is the larger question of
international terrorism that lurks beneath the surface. Because of course, as
the evidence seems to indicate, these Uighur immigrants were not merely
traveling to see loved ones in another country. On the contrary, they were
likely part of a previously documented trend of Uighur extremists traveling to
the Middle East to train and fight with the Islamic State or other terror
groups.
In fact, precisely this trend was exposed two months earlier in
September 2014 when Reuters reported that Beijing
formally accused militant Uighurs from Xinjiang of having traveled to Islamic
State-controlled territory to receive training. Further corroborating these
accusations, the Jakarta Post of Indonesia reported that four Chinese
Uighur jihadists had been arrested in Indonesia after having travelled from
Xinjiang through Malaysia. Other, similar reports have also surfaced in recent
months, painting a picture of a concerted campaign to help Uighur extremists
travel throughout Asia, communicating and collaborating with transnational
terror groups such as IS.
Now, with these latest revelations regarding Turkish nationals
being involved in the trafficking of extremists, it seems an invaluable piece
of the terrorist transit infrastructure has been exposed. The lingering
question of course remains: Why?
Why would Turkey - a country that has long sought to play both
sides of the East-West divide (fast becoming a NATO-BRICS/SCO divide) - seek to
destabilize China in this way? Why risk a potentially lucrative partnership
with Beijing to help a radical fringe Islamist movement in Xinjiang?
Turkey's Ottoman Revanchism
While Ankara's policy of fomenting regional conflict through
terrorism might seem counter-intuitive given Turkey's economic and political
interests today, and the importance of positive relations with non-Western
countries, the policy actually makes perfect sense if seen from the Neo-Ottoman
perspective.
Perhaps here it is critical to define
"Neo-Ottoman" as simply the term used to describe the desire of
Turkey's current government to reunify the Turkic peoples spread from Istanbul,
through Central Asia, and into Western China. As such, Erdogan and Davutoglu
see the Xinjiang jihadis of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM aka
"The Chinese Taliban") and similar groups, not as Chinese terrorists,
but as Turkey's lost children in desperate need of reunion with their historic
homeland. Though of course such thinking smacks of neocolonialism, it is not entirely
unpopular in Turkey, especially with the more conservative base of Erdogan's
support.
The political marketability of Turkish revanchism is critical to
understanding why it is being pursued. Erdogan and his Justice and Development
Party (AKP) have galvanized a wide segment of the population that has become
ever more skeptical of the liberalism of the West, and its perceived pernicious
effects on Turkish society. In turn this stokes a militaristic and aggressive
foreign policy posture as Erdogan trades in the currency of "respect"
and "honor." As The Atlantic reported in 2013:
But beyond foreign policy there lies a much
more significant domestic transformation, one that is also driven by history.
In that same speech, the foreign minister spoke of the need for a "great
restoration" where "we need to embrace fully the ancient values we
have lost." Praising the historic bonds that connected the peoples of
Turkey over the "new identities that were thrust upon us in the modern
era," Davutoglu maintained that the road to Turkey's progress lies in its
past - an assertion that has terrified the government's detractors enough for
them to make it a losing political platform each new election.
But when one considers precisely which countries and which
peoples are affected by this Turkish revanchist thinking, the foreign policy
fingerprints of the West - the US specifically - immediately become apparent.
The West Writes the Policy, Turkey Does the
Dirty Work
The more one looks at a map of the "Turkic peoples,"
the more obvious it becomes that Turkish revanchism - or Neo-Ottomanism - is a
foreign policy that is perfectly aligned with the US as its main targets are
Russia and China. Indeed, such a conclusion becomes unavoidable when one
considers that the Turkic peoples cut a wide swath across both Russian and
Chinese spheres of influence. From the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia
to Xinjiang in Western China, the Turkic population becomes a massive hotbed of
potential terrorism, secessionism, and destabilization. Moreover, as the US
formally exits Afghanistan (remaining informally in a variety of capacities, of
course), its ability to directly influence and/or control events on the ground
in Central Asia is diminished considerably.
The US has long supported
terrorist groups throughout the Caucasus region as a means of destabilizing and
otherwise controlling Russia, and stifling its political and economic
development. The same is true in Xinjiang, China where the US has, through the
National Endowment for Democracy and a number of other "democracy
promotion NGOs," financially and
politically supported Uighur separatist groups for years. However, now
that Turkey has become a regional player looking to assert its own hegemony,
Washington seems to be perfectly content to allow precisely that strategy to
play out to the detriment of Russia and China.
And perhaps a good indicator of precisely this thinking from the
US comes in the fact that repeated, large-scale terror attacks in Xinjiang, and
Western China generally, go almost unmentioned by the Western media. For
instance, in May 2014, 31 Chinese
civilians were killed in a terror attack on a market in Xinjiang. Almost triple the
body count of the Charlie Hebdo killings, but barely a mention in the West.
This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the West must always present China as
the aggressor, never the victim of terrorism. Beyond double-standards, such
hypocrisy illustrates the insidiously cynical mindset of Western
"planners" who see any destabilization of China as a net gain for
their hegemony.
The US Wins When China and Russia Lose
Ultimately it is geopolitics and economics that is dictating the
Western (and by extension, Turkish) foreign policy agenda in Central Asia and
China. It is an attempt to stifle the economic development of both Russia and
China, and prevent the two powers from continuing on their dual paths of
cooperation and regional integration. Seen in this way, Turkey becomes a giant
wedge used to keep Russia and China apart, but also to keep China and Europe
apart. There is much wizardry taking place behind the proverbial curtain.
In the context of China, Washington's primary objective is to
prevent it from expanding the infrastructure of its economic development not
only in Asia, but especially to Europe. Primary among the Chinese grand
projects is the 'New Silk Road' - an ambitious project
that would link China and Europe via land using high-speed trains, new
airports, and a vast distribution network. Such a development would transform
global trade as China would no longer be forced to rely almost entirely on
commercial shipping, a sphere dominated by the naval power and influence of the
US.
A key linchpin in the New Silk Road is the western Chinese city
of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province. As Duan Zixin, general manager of the
Xinjiang Airport Group explained:
"We believe the new international
airport in the regional capital of Urumqi will be operational by 2020, and will
become one of the most influential aviation hubs in Central Asia... Our focus
is to launch new routes connecting Xinjiang with key trade centers in Central
Asia, East Asia, and Europe. It will be a Silk Road in the air."
The expansion of airports, combined with the proposal to use
Urumqi as a rail hub on the New Silk Road distribution network, has thrust
Xinjiang into the center of China's plans for global economic expansion. It is
precisely this fact that has made the destabilization of Xinjiang a top
priority for the US and its regional ally Turkey. By financing, training, and
providing material support to ETIM and other extremist groups in the region,
the West hopes to make Xinjiang not viable for economic development, thereby
derailing China's plans.
Similarly, Russia has begun implementing its major plans in
Central Asia, specifically with the establishment and expansion of the Eurasian
Economic Union - a regional economic union that includes Russia, Kazakhstan,
Belarus, and Armenia, with Kyrgyzstan set to join this year, and Tajikistan
having expressed interest as well. Considering the geographic immensity of the
area covered by the EEU, one cannot help but see it as fundamental to the
success of China's 'New Silk Road'. In fact, both Russian and Chinese planners
have long since recognized this natural partnership and mutually beneficial
development trajectory.
Recent massive energy
contracts
signed between Russia and China, including commitments to invest large sums in
pipeline infrastructure development both in the west - where the Altai Pipeline not so coincidentally
will terminate in Xinjiang - and the east, have made Washington increasingly
nervous. Naturally, the US sees the potential inherent in such cooperation
which ultimately could make even Europe an unreliable ally for the US; it will
do anything it can to prevent Russia-China cooperation from being fully
realized.
And so, Turkey is given more or less free rein by the West to
pursue its Neo-Ottoman strategy using the same tried and true methods of the
US: sponsoring terrorism, fomenting civil war, and breeding chaos for the
purposes of 'crisis management.' This has led to countless deaths in Syria, and
undeniably will lead to more in the future. It has created divisions and
conflict in the Middle East, yet another net gain for the US and its closest
regional allies, Israel and Turkey. It puts Russia and China directly in the
crosshairs of the Empire. And, it would seem, that has always been the goal.
Eric Draitser is an independent
geopolitical analyst based in New York City, he is the founder of
StopImperialism.org and OP-ed columnist for RT, exclusively for the online
magazine "New Eastern Outlook".
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