From: Zeynep Tufekcioglu <zeynept-AT-turk.net>
Subject: Re: M-I: Turkish Crisis
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 03:39:54 +0000


Simon writes: 

>there was a small item in the London Guardian today about the Turkish 
>"high military council" dismissing 70 officers for Islamic extremism. 
>Apparently this follows 50 dismissals earlier in the year. Is this just 
>an attempt by the Kemalist officer corps to be seen to be cleaning up 
>their act, or is it a deeper rift,  like in 1961(?) and repeatedly? What 
>do you think?

Well, I don't think it means anything. I saw it in the papers today, it
looks like the Welfare try to look even tamer by approving it, and the
military trying to look independent. When they *really* purge people, it is
quite. When something makes the front-page of every paper, it usually is a
conscious diversion. (Most neswpapers in Turkey depend on State money and
approval to live.)

>I also read your post on the irrelevance of the Soviet question. You 
>stated the dominant trends on the Turkish left, pro-Russia or pro-China. 
>Do you not think that an understanding of the development of the October 
>Revolution is critical for Turkey. I mean from the concept of the 
>"democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry", through the 
>April Theses and Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution. Would this not 
>shape an understanding of Ataturk in the '20s and 30s and therefore 
>provide a guide for action in Turkey today?

Well. Ahem. No.

What does either the April Theses or the theory of permanent revolution have
anything to do with Turkey in the 20s or the 30s, let alone now?

Zeynep



     --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---