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Ertuğrul Kürkçü
“In Germany, the Olof Scholz government is in action. The government protocol announced and composition of the government confirm our predictions immediately after the elections. As of Wednesday, Europe’s largest country will be governed by a ‘red-yellow-green coalition’ that is quite far from Erdoğan, but close to Turkey,” writes Ertuğrul Kürkçü for Yeni Yaşam.
The government protocol states under the chapter for Turkey that Turkey, “where democracy, the rule of law, and human, women’s, and minority rights have been largely abolished,” remains an “important neighbour and EU partner despite alarming domestic political developments.”
It is also announced that, under the present conditions, “no chapter will be closed and no new chapter will be opened” with regard to the EU accession negotiations with Turkey. On the one hand, it is stated that the new government aims “to strengthen inter-communal relations” and “to revive the EU-Turkey dialogue agenda” and “to expand the mutual communication and youth exchange programmes with civil society.”
On the other hand, it is emphasized in the protocol that “many people who live in Germany and have roots in Turkey” have created a “special bond” between the two countries and that, “of course, they are also a part of German society.”
“For citizens from non-EU countries,” there is a perspective of opening a door to “dual citizenship” and bettering the waiting period and conditions of the people who await “citizenship.”
There are several other points in the protocol of the “red-yellow-green coalition” that can strike Ankara indirectly but strongly.
The first is that Germany’s minimum wage is set at “12 euros/hour.” Secondly, Germany’s “human rights sanctions” against China (and also Russia).
Ankara was hoping to make Turkey a magnet for German capital by cutting the hourly wage down to 1 euro with the “cheap labour” regime it had created by manipulating the Central Bank during the Merkel era. Ankara was also eager to oust China, which Berlin’s foreign policy would push out of the European supply chain.
However, the “human rights” oriented policies of the Scholz government, which are tougher than Merkel’s, stand like a mountain in front of not only Beijing, but also Ankara. (…)
Neither this economic change nor the right being pushed to the margins of German domestic politics would significantly alter Turkish-German relations, according to many observers. It can be said, however, that those who think so do not sufficiently consider the possible consequences of these changes.
For right-wing German governments and the German status quo, the ghettoisation of Turkish labour migrants in line with “political Islam” and “fascism” was a fundamental administrative policy decision, rather than letting this rising labour wave shift to the left in the 1970s and during the ‘Cold War.’
The radicalisation of the Kurdish struggle and the Kurds in Germany in the 1980s intensified the deadly cooperation between the German and Turkish ‘gladios.’ But this had paradoxical consequences. CDU/CSU (Christian Unity Parties) were supposedly the ‘most anti-Turkish’ element of the general European policy. They were against Turkey’s EU membership, because it was Turkish and Muslim. But they were operationally the most ‘pro-Turk’ ones in domestic politics. The German right favoured ‘Turks’ and ‘Islamists’ among Turkish migrants. (…)
The new government protocol and the appointment of Nancy Feaser to the Ministry of the Interior implies that this status quo may not last forever. Feaser, who surprisingly became Germany’s first female Interior Minister, was state chairman of the SPD [Social Democratic Party of Germany] in Hesse.
She has been best known for her involvement in the state parliament in investigating the incompetence of the police and intelligence services in the face of far-right [racist] terrorism. When she took office, she promised to fight right-wing extremism. Among the goals of the protocol, the government also included the fight against “racism,” “political Islam” and “right-wing radicalism.”
With the exception of the six, there is a coalition without a CDU/CSU for the first time in 40 years. The new government can use this environment to end the federal government’s funding flow to fascist and jihadist networks in Germany and to halt the activities of these structures that function as the unconventional bases for the terror regime in Turkey.
According to the protocol, the new government is obliged to pave the way for organisations working for human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.
The new conditions offer new opportunities and grounds for Turkey’s democratic and liberal forces to build stronger and more qualified relations with their counterparts in Germany, and for migrant and exiled activists to knock at the door of the ‘red-yellow-green’ coalition with their demands and projects that will increase their legitimacy and effectiveness.
It is true that nothing has changed in Germany: Capitalism remains capitalism. But it cannot exist the way it did before…
In the midst of the general crisis of capitalism, a door of intervention ‘from above’ has opened for Germany’s workers and democratic forces. The same crisis offers the democratic and social resistance/opposition forces of Turkey and Kurdistan the opportunity to form a new grassroots international movement ‘from the bottom’ against fascism and racism in both countries. One should strike while the iron is hot.
