The North of Mosul and Aleppo should be handed over to Turkey…

BY: İbrahim Karagül*

Imagine a group coming up from the Mediterranean and occupying the Northern Syria and Iraq up to the Iran border using the PKK and PYD, and them turning Turkey into an attack base in order to actualize the “turning Turkey into Syria Project”. Conflict with Iran on one side and Russia on the other, being attacked from the South by the PKK/PYD (U.S.), and being divided within by Fetullah Gülen and his terrorists (FETÖ)…This is what we mean when we say “July 15 wasn’t a coup attempt.” July 15 was an attempt to divide Turkey into a few pieces. We were going to suffer a civil war and also deal with attacks from a few foreign fronts. Therefore, July 15 was the most dangerous attempt to wipe-out Turkey since World War 1.

A shocking attack to stop Turkey!

The only aim wasn’t to anchor this country into the U.S. axis. The aim was to change Turkey’s map together with Syria and Iraq’s maps. These facts were the reasons we made statements like “The Last War of Independence” and “Relentless Resistance.” Turkey was growing and becoming more powerful by the day. It was expanding to the degree of challenging many powerful countries and had caught an extraordinary, renewed acceleration. Thus, it became more difficult to be stopped.
Turkey had to be attacked from a few fronts and in a shocking way. This was the only way to stop Turkey. And so they did…. The U.S. attacked and the European countries supported it. The Fetullah terrorist organization, FETÖ, and the PKK/PYD were activated for this purpose. If the tanks had not been stopped that night, every corner of Turkey would have been in a different conflict. Blood would have been shed in the whole country, not just in assembly areas and executions.

As the days pass, the details of the plan, that great threat, is revealed. Although those who prostrate before Gülen, who boast about seeing him, who run after personal interests, who calculated the power they would have achieved if July 15 had been successful, are waiting in the front lines to prove otherwise today. We all know that the people, Turkey’s backbone, saved Turkey from this threat and made history.

Those who have a solid ground, who stand steadily on this land, who don’t think of any other option but this country, who find their identities in the heritage of the last millennium were not surprised by the July 15 attacks or those who calibrated the attack! Because our history was full of examples of attacks and people.

Those who were attached to this country by their hearts were worried before December 17-25 and July 15. They knew that this was a century-old problem, that nothing was temporary, and that cyclical truths didn’t show us the truth. They were aware that the 40-year-old war on terror, the plans on Northern Iraq and Syria were part of a redesigning of the region.

We have been resisting since the Crusades!

Although they knew this, they never cooperated with those who looted the region. They saw them as the enemy and never sympathized with them. On the contrary, they thought how they could create lines of defense, how they could resist in person, in the streets, in the cities. Because the war had reached the borders of Turkey and they started to push it into the country.
They pulled apart the last century, watched the global tendencies of the last 30 years, saw the occupation scenarios and forecasted what would happen next.

They were ready for July 15. And because they were ready, that night they staged a counter coup never seen in the world’s history before. In only a night, they reversed the biggest occupation attempt seen after World War 1. Turkey’s main backbone clinched with the political will took action and disappointed the greatest Western occupation since the Crusades.

The founding date of the New Turkey

Turkey’s assurance is this main backbone. Unshakeable, unwavering, finding an intellectual and whole hearted identity in his country, this power is a power that has been moving with political depth for the past thousand years. President Erdogan was backed by this power, and thus shaped the “founding mind” of the 21st century Turkey.
The July 15 resistance prevented Turkey from entering war with Russia. The failure of July 15 prevented the Turkey-Iran war from actualizing. Our nation, who rose on July 15 prevented the power, which started in Afghanistan, continued with Iraq, turned the region into a war zone, divided the countries and turned them into city-states, ignited the ethnic and sectarian wars, from opening the Turkish front.
For this reason, July 15 is the new Turkey’s founding date!

Time for attack, not defense

The Euphrates Shield, which started just after the coup and civil war attempt, pushed the war attempt out of Turkey’s borders. We declared to the world that: our defense shields would be established beyond our borders, and thus the threat would be terminated before it reached our borders. The Euphrates Shield is an extremely successful example, which can be used in a few different areas.

The vociferous exhibition of the Mosul operation, the Kirkuk conflicts that followed, and the new plans staged through Daesh, PKK and PYD all target Turkey, in hope of deporting Turkey out of the region. Within this scope, every move the PKK/PYD and Daesh take is a setup that aims to found a front stretching from the Mediterranean shores to the borders of Iran. Yet, the big transformation after July 15, the new defense concept, the tendency to attack instead of defend, will all frustrate the plans to keep Turkey out of the region.

The world’s frailest generation

Regardless of what is said, the Northern Syria and Iraq are the frailest regions in the world. There is a plan to connect the Persian Gulf with Iran in the Mediterranean, and a plan to open a North Iraq-Mediterranean corridor. And these plans will destroy the geography to an extent no one ever forecasted. I believe this plan is a bigger scenario than the occupation of Iraq. Maybe small little countries will be founded, and the map drafts will be actualized after this plan.
This corridor with the multinational power struggle happening over this belt absolutely resembles a world war. The East Mediterranean has become the world’s most tense region, which has the potential to ignite a flame that will burn down the whole region. A global showdown has never before been dangerous to this extent.

Both countries have lost the North region

After this stage, it seems that it is inevitable for the maps of the North of these countries to not change. After this stage, neither Syria will dominate Aleppo nor will Iraq dominate Mosul. These two cities will turn into cities of multinational conflicts. With this role, they would have a more effective position than most of the other countries in the region.
After fending off the July 15 attacks that aimed to change Turkey’s borders, the Euphrates Shield shouldn’t just be aiming to prevent the terrorism threat. An organization that dominates in the North of Aleppo and Mosul, a local government or a foreign power will encircle Turkey, occupy it and then attack it. Therefore, the North of the Mosul-Aleppo line is Turkey’s new defense line. Whatever the cost, Turkey needs to take place in this line. Turkey should be the strongest power in this region.

Intervention is coming to three areas

Since someone is drawing up new maps, writing new scenarios about Mosul, Kirkuk and Aleppo, and cooperating with all the anti-Turkey organizations in the process, then we have to set our own game up in the region, too.
Therefore, break-out moves should be planned from the Mediterranean to the border of Iran, and the Euphrates model should be used is Afrin, Tel Abyad and Tel Afer. If Aleppo-Mosul-Kirkuk are to be taken from Syria and Iraq, Turkey should have the strongest voice in deciding who these cities should be dominated by. If we don’t do this, if we ignore this and overlook the close threat, then the war will direct itself into Turkey’s borders once again. And thus the July 15 planners will once again be given hope.

There is no “friend-ally” in this corridor. There are daily, cyclical and tactical cooperations. Whoever is strong has the louder voice. Because there is no differentiation between governments and organizations. Some use Daesh while others use the PKK/PYD. Iran is setting its game on the Baghdad forces and the Hashdi Saabi.

The North of Mosul and Aleppo should be handed over to Turkey

Turkey is the only country that stands against all terrorist organizations, battling against Daesh and the PKK/PYD at the same time. The U.S., who has had a weak spot for organizations since the very start and who uses them unnoticed all over the world, and while doing so has the audacity to use “fighting terrorism” as a doctrine, finances terrorism (irrecoverably) in the Mediterranean-Iran region. This is a shame (that cannot be hidden) for the U.S.

In short, the issue is: Mosul and Aleppo, and the North of both countries, will no longer be under the dominance of Iraq and Syria. Plans are being made so Turkey is kept out of the region, and PKK/PYD and Daesh are used to achieve this plan. This game targets Turkey. A while later we will see that this will turn into a declaration of war. Therefore, whatever the plan is, or whoever makes these plans, Turkey should be dominant in the region, and the region should come under the rule of Turkey. We should not fall for the same traps we did 90 years ago.

 

*Ibrahim Karagül is a Turkish writer and journalist. He is the editor-in-chief of Turkish Yeni Şafak newspaper.

(Published in Yeni Şafak Turkish newspaper on Monday, Oct. 24, 2016)