Police arrested 15 people in Turkiye after an attack on two US Marines by members of a nationalist group Monday.
The detainees “are accused of membership in the Turkish Youth Union,” reports the Washington Post, “a secular nationalist group that opposes U.S. and European Union influence in Turkiye. The assault took place Monday afternoon in Konak, a municipality in Izmir, in western Turkiye, on the Aegean Sea… The Turkish Youth Union posted a video of an attack on social media, which showed a group pushing two men and covering one of their heads in what appeared to be a white sack to chants in English of ‘Yankee, go home.’”
The attack demonstrated strong anti-American sentiment in the region amid US support for Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 41,000. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has increasingly fashioned himself as a leader of the Muslim world, taking a strident tone against Tel Aviv even as the country maintains significant trade ties with Israel.
“It's no secret that there is mass disgruntlement in this important NATO member, speaking of Turkiye… towards United States of America,” said writer and historian Dr. Gerald Horne, who joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in the West Asian country. “Not least because of the assumed and likely accurate accusation that US imperialism was involved in the failed 2016 coup against Mr. Erdogan, the leader.”
“Likewise, there is disgruntlement in Turkiye about the historic role of US imperialism in Iraq going back about two decades to the ill-fated, ill-advised George W. Bush invasion of that neighbor of Turkiye, dislodging Saddam Hussein, unleashing chaos in the streets that is yet to dissipate and, of course, we also know that there are still US troops in Iraq who are attracting the negative attention not only of those in the streets of Turkiye but also amongst those in the streets of Iraq and Iran as well,” he continued.
The United States has experienced a decrease in global popularity as it strongly supports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, frequently sending weapons and aid packages to the controversial leader even while sometimes publicly rebuking his intransigence. The decline has been especially sharp in the Middle East as US troops stationed in Iraq and Syria have occasionally been subject to attacks from militant groups in the region.
But the United States’ approval is declining in Europe as well, shifting into negative territory in many countries for the first time since former President Donald Trump’s term in the White House. Researcher Frederick DeVeaux claims the negative trend is particularly stark in Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s strong partnership with the US amid NATO’s proxy against Russia has become a major albatross for the hapless politician as populist parties criticizing Germany’s role in the war rise to prominence.
“We all watched with rapt attention the recent election in Germany, where the right wing did quite well in the eastern sector of that country,” said Horne. “Less attention has been paid to the reality that a substantial percentage of the immigrant workforce in Germany is of Turkish origin… There is disgruntlement once again in the streets with regard to the so-called Alternative for Germany party, which is widely viewed as a party of the hard right, doing quite well in these elections, not least by beating the drums and bringing attention to immigrant workers, many of whom are Turkish in origin.”
Turkiye has been engaged in talks to accede to the European Union since 1999, Horne noted, with many Turks likely perceiving Islamophobia to be a factor in the country’s refusal to be allowed to join the bloc for a quarter of a century.
Erdogan has turned toward the BRICS in the meantime, seeking to join the growing bloc even as it maintains significant ties to the US and its allies via its membership in NATO.
“Even if there had not been this slow walking, there was good reason for Ankara to seek membership in the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa,” said Horne. “After all, Iran and Saudi Arabia we expect to be represented at the BRICS summit in Russia in a few weeks. As we speak in China, quite remarkably, there are four dozen plus African heads of state and government that are meeting in China, in Beijing, under the umbrella of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which is a regular forum.”
“If Turkiye wants to flex its muscles in Africa and wants to be influential for example in the Horn of Africa, it would be well advised to attach its apron strings to those of BRICS.”