In the parliamentary debate on the Ministry of National Defence budget, Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Istanbul MP Cengiz Çiçek drew attention to the destruction caused by ongoing wars.
Everything is falling apart; the centre cannot hold
Cengiz Çiçek drew on the words of Irish poet William Yeats, written just after the First World War, and said: “As if describing our time, he states the following: ‘Everything is falling apart; the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.’ One hundred and six years have passed, yet nothing has changed.”
We are living through a period when values are under attack
Çiçek also continued: “In today’s world, we are living through a period in which faith is needed by the best more than ever. Even though the worst declared their victory in the 1990s, accompanied by the ‘end of history’ thesis after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the political, military, economic and legal balances that emerged after the Second World War are now unravelling one by one. It is not only the existing balance of power that is coming apart; we are also living through a time when the values that belong to humanity are being worn away.”
US-China rivalry increases pressure
Çiçek also said: “As long as we do not hold on to these values, we will never possess the faith we need when confronted with the worst. That is why this period is one in which we must defend the values of humanity and the social values that are the product of thousands of years of accumulation. This is the simple truth that all of us are now obliged to acknowledge. To put it in colder terms, the rivalry between the United States and China is increasing the pressure on the global system.”
New trade routes
Çiçek said, “This struggle for hegemony also makes the search for new energy and trade routes inevitable. From India to the Middle East and Europe, economic corridors are now expanding under the name of the Belt and Road Initiative, and what we are witnessing is an escalating war of corridors. These wars are being written into the lives of the peoples of the region as dispossession, displacement and genocide. The crisis in which capitalism is trapped turns war into the most expensive method imposed upon us whenever the system reaches a dead end. For all these reasons, we believe it is impossible to explain the current global situation with the accustomed assumptions that have long dominated our thinking.”
A war waged by states run like corporations
Çiçek also said: “Netanyahu displayed two photographs at the United Nations General Assembly. He said one represented ‘curse’ and the other ‘blessing.’ This is a world defined by the cold interests of capital, a world of wars waged by states that are run like corporations. Even if we were to look solely at the economic corridor project in Turkey under the name IMEC, we could understand the underlying reasons for the genocide in Palestine. What we are saying is this: the genocide in Palestine is not merely a matter of devotion to holy scripture or loyalty to the promised lands for the Jewish people. It did not emerge solely from these motives. It is also the result of genocides imposed by the cold, harsh interests of capital. From India to the Port of Haifa, from there to the southern part of Cyprus, then to the Port of Piraeus in Greece and on to Europe, Israel is effectively carrying out a ‘field clearing’ operation to ensure the security of this route, this corridor.”
We must break our old assumptions
Çiçek said: “Wars and genocides are being imposed on peoples. We are saying that we are living through days when all of us must break our long-held assumptions. For us, the Peace and Democratic Society Process is crucial in this regard. As the world is shaken and as states break their assumptions one after another, we too must break ours. The Kurdish question, as both a regional and a global issue, is waiting to be freed from these entrenched assumptions.”
The defence concept must change
Çiçek continued: “In this sense, we say that the Peace and Democratic Society Call of 27 February is an appeal that requires the breaking of a century-old mindset in this country, and that we must now pursue the struggle for Peace and a Democratic Society more than ever. While discussing the budget of the Ministry of National Defence, I also want to say, through a few examples, why these old assumptions must be broken. We believe that the national defence concept must be redefined. What is considered ‘national’? It is that which belongs to the nation, is it not? The national is culture, it is language, the national is history, the national is the flag. Yet we are saying that in this new world order, the land on which a nation lives must also be understood as national.”
If these licences are granted, no one will remain in Hakkari
Çiçek added: “We must ask: which place is truly under occupation and threat? When we look at the provincial mining map of Hakkari (Colemerg), this too must be addressed through a national defence concept. With the mining licences currently being issued in Hakkari, two-thirds of the province is facing the threat of depopulation. Once these licences are granted, there will be no people left in Hakkari, and the entire country will be overrun by mining companies.”
The limitless drive for accumulation is the greatest security threat
Çiçek said: “Those who shorten the lifespan of the planet for the sake of limitless accumulation are the greatest security threat. We are fully aware of the responsibility that falls on the political sphere to eliminate this threat. For this reason, we are calling on everyone to collectively seek ways to defend our nature, our lives and our future.”