Salih Muslim, co-chair of the PYD, analyzed the changing political conditions in the Middle East in an interview with ANF. The Kurdish politician says self-rule in Northern and Estern Syria cannot be ignored. Turkey is heading towards a collapse that can only be stopped by resolving the Kurdish question.

Erdoğan is using Turkey's geostrategic location for his interests. All states are approaching Turkey accordingly. How do you assess this in the current phase?

Turkey has a geographically important position. Its geostrategic location was particularly important when NATO was founded in 1952. At that time, the Turkish state maintained relations with Asia and Europe. It also had a large territory and was against the Soviet Russia and many socialist countries. That made it even more important to NATO. They established bases in Turkey, such as the Incirlik military base. In this sense, Turkey had won a place in NATO. Many agreements were concluded and Turkey benefited greatly from them. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkey largely lost its geostrategic importance. With the development of technology, the advent of satellites, the Internet and the development of air transport, the situation for Turkey has continued to worsen. The Turkish state was particularly important during the Cold War. It was used both because of the bases set up in its territory and as a barrier against the real socialist states. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and technological development, Turkey has largely lost this important geostrategic position.

This time, capital came into play. If global capital wants to develop in one place, it wants stability there. After 1990, attempts were made to ensure stability in Turkey. The then-President Turgut Özal took initiatives to ensure stability and boost trade in Turkey. To do this, however, the Kurdish question had to be resolved. That’s why they wanted to resolve the Kurdish issue within Turkey, but this did not succeed. This led to Turkey gradually losing its geostrategic importance. If Turkey had achieved internal stability, many developments would have been possible. Energy supply, trade and many other things have improved. But Turkey was not so successful as it hoped. The main reason was that it did not allow a solution to the Kurdish question, Turkey's biggest problem. It has been unable to provide stability or address the fundamental problems that need to be solved. That's why Turkey is becoming less important every day.

Erdoğan still thinks in the old mentality. He believes that Turkey still retains its former importance and, therefore, he can impose his will on everyone. In this way, he wants to implement his neo-Ottoman dreams and the policies he wants in the Middle East. However, with each passing day, Turkey is losing both its geostrategic position and its global capital. With this mentality, Turkey can only lose. With its chauvinistic and neo-Ottoman dreams, the Turkish state is not only losing itself, it is harming the entire population and especially the Kurds. Unfortunately, with this mentality, he remains a big problem for everyone. Because of this policy, the hegemonic powers are increasingly distancing themselves. As long as Turkey persists with this policy, it will lose. Because this policy is no longer acceptable.

The political situation can change

The autonomous region of Northern and Eastern Syria is also strategically located. Many hegemonic powers and regional states have plans here. How do you think the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas will affect Syria and Rojava? To what extent does it influence Erdoğan's current policies in particular?

Many analysts suggest that the Israeli-Palestinian war is the result of the failure of the capitalist powers to reach an agreement. They wanted to open the old Silk Road to Europe via Turkey and Iran. Both Iran and Turkey wanted this. However, at the G20 summit in India, they wanted to change this route and take it through the Gulf states, through Saudi Arabia, through the Mediterranean and from there to Greece, thus excluding both Turkey and Iran. Now it is said that Turkey started this war to prevent the realization of this project. Many assessments that are now being made say that Turkey gave the order to Hamas to attack. The aim is to increase the chaos in the Middle East and Turkey is involved in this war.

There is a high probability that the conflict will spread. In such a case, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria will also be involved in the war, and everything will be in disarray. We don't know who will stand where. However, Syria's position is very important. For example, the first project I mentioned left Syria out. The previously planned gas pipeline project in Northern and Eastern Syria was not implemented, although Qatar and other countries wanted it. If their other project also fails, they will return to Northern and Eastern Syria. But we don't know to what extent they can agree on this project. Also, there is one thing they didn't take into account: The Kurdish people. An administration has been established in Northern and Eastern Syria, and this administration is a system. Today the West and all hegemonic powers can accept this system. It will bring a solution. However, the regional states of Turkey, Syria and Iran do not accept it. That's why we're still at war. Our fight has not lost its meaning. And we hope that it will bring stability to both us and our neighbourhood. However, in my opinion, the Gaza issue will change many things. There is a possibility that the war will spread to other countries. Lebanon could participate, Egypt and Jordan could participate. It is not clear where this war will end. But all balances in the Middle East will change.

Erdoğan wants to be proclaimed caliph

Many countries in the world are pioneers of capitalist modernity; in the Middle East it is Turkey. To what extent do you think Turkey plays this role?

From 2002 to 2013, Erdoğan accepted the projects of the hegemonic powers. But then Eurasia came into play. Eurasia wants to unite the Turkic states into a great Ottoman Empire, similar to how all Arab states united in the Arab League. However, all of these projects fell through. In 2013, the deep state was completely taken over by Erdoğan. Since then, his politics have changed completely. All projects were aimed at Erdoğan. However, Erdoğan began to do everything on his own terms. He took advantage of Turkey's geostrategic location. On the one hand, Erdoğan did not break away from NATO, but on the other hand, he expanded relations with Russia. He did all of this to maintain his power. He also used his international relationships for domestic policy purposes. What is its domestic policy? The extinction of the Kurds. The Kurdish question should not be solved, he wants to dominate everything and a Muslim Brotherhood state should emerge. So he has completely changed. But the capitalist forces and many other circles want stability and democracy in Turkey. However, Erdoğan is neither ready for democracy nor a solution. He has put everything at the service of his own power. Erdoğan wants to be proclaimed caliph. Making Erdoğan a caliph or sultan is the policy of the deep state. This policy drove Turkey into bankruptcy. Economically, it is collapsing day after day. Its money no longer has any value. It is bankrupt at the diplomatic level, and the same applies to politics. As much as Erdoğan has tried to mediate in the Gaza war, he has become increasingly distant. He has lost Turkey's geostrategic position and international capital for his own personal power. He sacrificed them all to his own interests. He's still losing, and it's not clear how long this will last. Turkey is moving further away from democracy with every passing day, not even respecting its own constitution. I mean, we see it every day: journalists are arrested, politicians are arrested. There is no longer any legal system and rulings from the European Court of Human Rights are ignored. However, all of this is preparing the collapse of Turkey. We don't know how long it will take, but this policy will eventually bring about the downfall of Turkey.

Turkey is losing because of the unresolved Kurdish issue

Capitalist modernity has no fixed place anywhere. It uses countries like England, France and the US for herself, but she herself is everywhere. One of the states it used was Turkey. The Greater Middle East Project, developed particularly after the 1990s, was a project of capitalist modernity. It wanted to shape the Middle East on her own terms. It relied on Turkey. Turkey was both a regional state and a member of NATO and had military forces that it could use at any time. In this sense, Turkey took on the role of an important player. However, Turkey's role as an actor was not that of a politician, but rather that of a receiver and implementer of instructions. At that time, Erdoğan even openly said: "I am the president of this project."

However, the Turkish state has not given up on its own diseases. The Kurdish question is at the forefront. The owners of this project wanted the Kurdish issue to be resolved within Turkey, which the Turkish state did not accept. Steps such as the talks in Oslo were initiated, there were talks with the Kurdish representative in Imrali. Abdullah Öcalan really wanted to solve this problem. However, the Turkish state has changed its policies and destroyed all solutions. Nevertheless, the forces of global, capitalist modernity have not given up on their project. They want to get rid of Turkey little by little. Since 1952, NATO has concluded many agreements with Turkey. She counted on Turkey for the Greater Middle East Project. Of course, Turkey also benefited greatly from this situation. But today they are trying to get rid of Turkey because the Turkish state is also a nuisance to them. He is an obstacle to their projects. When they founded the great Middle East project together, there were mutual promises. At that time, the Turkish state did not want the Kurds to take part. There are 50 million Kurds living in the Middle East. How can they be left out? They have proven their existence through their struggle and thereby become a part of this project. And Erdoğan still wants to say that there are no Kurds. With this wrong policy, he has put both Turkey and the entire region behind. It has also prevented the progress of the Greater Middle East Project created by the hegemonic powers, the forces of capitalist modernity. To date, it has only created obstacles. For this reason, it can no longer be said that the Turkish state is part of the project created by these powers. On the contrary, it has now become a big problem for them.