Turkey's position in the struggle for a multipolar world Dr. Semih Koray

Professor, Deputy Chair in Charge of International Relations (Workers' Party, Turkey).

A multipolar world requires the initiative of the Developing World

The first lesson to be drawn is perhaps that the creation of a multipolar world cannot be left to spontaneity. It is, of course, important to determine and analyze the objective national and social forces that drag the world to a multipolar one, but it is even more important to ind ways and create institutions to coordinate and combine these forces into an internationl front that will deter all the attempts to reestablish unipolarity and force imperialism to a strategic retreat.

It is clear that USA is on a decline due to its military failures and the global economic crisis of the capitalist system. During the Nineties, the center of world production has started to move from the West to the East and still continues to do so. The US, however, became during the the same period in a much stronger sense than ever the center of financial capital. Whoever makes the world believe that he is the master of the world and thus will shape its future can thereby collect the rent of this hegemonial power via inancial instruments, as these are mainly tools of trading future proits in the present time. Based on its military and ideological superiority conjoined with the US dollar being used as the international means of exchange and thus as reserve money, USA was able to collect this rent, manipulate the distribution of goods and services to its own favor via inancial means and thus to consume more than it

produced during this period. On the one hand, this cannot be sustained any more. On the other hand, USA would not voluntarily give up its efforts to regain the worldmaster's position, so long as it seems achievable, no matter how adventurous the roadmap may seem. The only force that is able to deter USA from doing so can be created by turning the Developing World, i.e. Eurasia, into a more organized and united front, which will also neutralize Europe, where the centrifugal forces are becoming more and more visible.

It is interesting to note that USA has not been successful in any open war it launched since the Second World War. But its successes accomplished via manipulation of ethnic and religious contradictions or by means of social engineering can hardly be denied. During its present tactical retreat, it is focusing more on these methods in an attempt to create new instruments that will enable itself to start new attacks. It is within that framework that one of the most crucial places the efforts of USA are concentrated upon is Turkey and Turkey's present ruling party AKP - the Justice and Development Party. Let us now shortly consider the recent developments in Turkey.

Turkey during the last decade

In the first term of AKP (2002 - 2007), the center of weight of the government's policies was located aroud Turkey becoming a member of the European Union. It is no exaggeration to say that there was not a single domestic or foreign issue (with the possible exception of those directly concerning US.A as the invasion of Iraq) that was not related to the potential membership of Turkey to the EU. It was very clear from the outset that the West had not even the least intention to accept Turkey to the EU. The plan was to keep Turkey bound to the door of the EU without letting it enter, in order to prevent Turkey from even seeking other alternatives in the East. One of the major common denominators of the political party leaders, generals and oficers, rectors, journalists, intellectuals imprisoned under the Ergenekon, Sledge-Hammer and similar operations is that they all have been regarding Eurasia as an alternative to the West on the

international plane, that in a rather broad spectrum though, ranging from just increasing the bargaining power of Turkey towards the West to considering Eurasia as the geography where the future civilization of mankind is being born.

In the second term of AKP (2007 - 2011), especially after Obama took ofice in the US, things started to change drastically. Membership to the EU was not even mentioned any more. The additional influence of the global economic crisis on this change cannot be denied, of course. The EU had also lost its charm due to the economic dificulties that especially its southern members were faced with. The substitute for the EU was now «regional leadership of Turkey», or «New Ottomanism». Turkey becoming a regional leader was subject to a particular constraint, which was not spelled out as loud as the leadership part though, namely «regional leadership by aligning Turkey's stance along the interests of big powers towards the region». The attitude of Turkey in the nuclear issue towards Iran, its developing relations with Syria, its opposition to Israel in the Palestinian issue, the growth of economic relations with Eurasian countries lead to the question of whether there was a shift in Turkey's axis towards the East on the international plane.