08.02.1996
On the brink of war
Turkey and Greece
The politicians and bourgeoisie of Turkey and Greece are playing a game of brinkmanship which would, if it is left to develop into a shooting war, have far reaching consequences for the region as a whole.
On the face of it, the dispute is centred around a pair of uninhabited rocks known as the Karadak Rocks. They are so small that they are not even described as islets. They are just four miles off the Turkish coasts in the Aegean Sea.
Most of the Aegean islands along the coast of Turkey belong to Greece and some of those are within eyesight of the Turkish coast. This was partly a result of the Lausanne peace settlement after the First World War and the ‘Liberation War’ which created the republic of Turkey out of the ashes of the Ottoman empire. Also it was partly a result of the transfer of the Italian-controlled Deaconess Islands to Greece after the World War II.
However, as in all good bourgeois peace agreements, these settlements following the imperialist wars did not remove rivalry between the bourgeoisies but contained the seeds of a new dispute. There was no clause in these settlements covering the status of rocks and the Karadak Rocks gave rise to a similar dispute in the fifties. Then, as part of Nato solidarity in the face of the communist threat, it was put on ice.
It was brought back into the open by a shipping accident. A Turkish cargo ship ran aground on the rocks. During the salvage operation, Turkish and Greek sides remembered the dispute over sovereignty.
At first, the issue was dealt with by the normal diplomatic channels. Then, whipped up by the bourgeois press of both countries, all the nationalist and religious reactionary forces were mobilised.
They organised ‘daring’ raids to the rocks. They planted their national flags and removed their rivals’. Suddenly the crisis became very acute. The navies of both countries rushed to the area; the armies along the border were placed on alert. Air force planes of both countries infringed each other’s air space with fully armed planes and harassed each other’s ships. Quiet diplomacy was replaced by issuing very terse diplomatic notes publicly and politicians exchanging insults on the media.
Then a team of Greek soldiers were landed on the larger of the rocks. Next night, Turkey landed troops on the other rock. However, with the urgent intervention of the Americans, both parties seem to be withdrawing their armed units from the region and showing a willingness to normalise the situation.
This incident once more shows the depth of crisis in both countries and the extent of tensions in the region. The bourgeoisie of Turkey cannot rule with the parliamentary system. The recent election led to a situation where even a coalition government cannot be formed. The economic crisis is getting deeper every day. The ruling class grasped this god-sent opportunity to make political capital by presenting the existing government as defender of the national interest.
Almost the same applies to the Greek side. The long illness of the ex-prime minister and his forcible removal from the helm of party and government led to the formation of a shaky compromise administration. Strikes dragged on in Greece, showing that it would not be very easy to shift the burden of economic crisis onto the workers’ shoulders. The Greek bourgeoisie too tried to use this incident for political capital.
However, every hot spot in the region has its own logic of development. Both the Greek and Turkish bourgeoisies striving to become imperialist have their own dreams of expansion in the region. These dreams are used by them to instil nationalism into the working class.
Therefore, when they try to blow up a trivial incident for immediate political gain, they also risk the flaring up of a regional war. An unexpected armed clash in the Aegean or on the Balkan peninsula might engulf the whole region in the flames of war. The Greeks have Macedonian problems waiting on their doorstep. Turkey has its own colonial war in Kurdistan. The Turkic speaking nations of the Caucasus region are in almost constant turmoil. Therefore, unspeakable consequences for the whole region and the world might follow.
The workers of Turkey and Greece have nothing to gain from such a war of expansion and repartition. Despite the present weakness of their political organisations, they must stand in a united working class front across the Aegean divide against the war-mongering bourgeoisie.
Aziz Demir