The apprentice “Harry Potter” and Turkey

The “intensive training” which the “official opposition” party (SYRIZA) has undergone over recent months is continuing at a frenetic pace, which in the name of the “governmental” left is promising to take Greece out of the capitalist crisis, without disturbing the country’s participation in the Euro, the EU, NATO, without disturbing the monopolies and their power.

Their whole line of argumentation reminds us of the man who promises to make an omelette without breaking any eggs! Tough stuff for the “Harry Potter” apprentices of the governmental “left”! SYRIZA has increased its “contact” not only with circles from SEB (Hellenic Federation of Enterprises) but also with the so-called “think tanks” which are based in the USA. At a recent conference on energy, the representative of SYRIZA wondered: “It is curious that US companies are more interested in Europe’s independence from Russian natural gas than Europe itself.” In essence, he took the side of the Americans against the Russian-German-Italian capital over which natural gas pipeline should be constructed in our region. In other words, the more SYRIZA smells governmental power, the more it wags its tail.

But, life itself, which is clearly richer than even the human imagination, causes its own … “unforeseen” events in this process. This is what happened in the case of the stance of the Greek parties towards the large popular mobilizations, which are taking place in Turkey against the Erdogan government.

What was SYRIZA saying up until today? Let’s look at some of Rena Dourou’s statements, one of SYRIZA’s cadres responsible for foreign policy:

“Thanks to Prime Minister Erdogan, who has made a lot of progress in creating a new political model, it is not strange that today the people in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya are dreaming of the Turkish model.” (interview last year in “Zaman”)

“The governmental party had an important victory, the third one in succession, as it reached 50% of the votes: the lack of wear and tear for a party of power is impressive. Briefly, the elements of this exceptional performance are related to the democratization that has been promoted by the government, its economic performance (growth which is in double figures), as well as its daring and multi-facetted foreign policy, which establishes bridges with the Arab world, which in turn, after the spring of democratic uprisings, considers Turkey to be a model to imitate” (“Epohi” newspaper, 20/6/2011)

“Turkey today possesses all the preconditions to constitute a model for the peoples of the “Arab Spring””. (“Modern Diplomacy” journal, 30/12/2011).

Of course, the mass and militant popular demonstrations in Turkey, as well as the stance of the KKE, which immediately took the side of the struggling Turkish people and the communists of Turkey, were able to shift SYRIZA a little bit from its position of admiration, which it had in the previous period, regarding the “miracle of Turkey” and its Prime Minister R.T. Erdogan. So SYRIZA condemned the violence on the part of the Erdogan government, while this cadre mentioned above expressed “legitimate questions about the its real intentions in relation to what model of society the Turkish Prime Minister wants to impose”. I.e. while so many things have happened in recent days the “governmental left” is still searching to find out about the intentions and “model” of Erdogan and is calling on him to fulfil the “EU’s accession criteria as a …solution. The EU which is a union of capital, a union that has proved to be a “lions’ den” for the labour-popular rights and freedoms.

In Greece we say: “you cannot conceal a cough or love” and really the love SYRIZA has for the EU and also for Erdogan cannot be hidden…