Ali Sirmen criticized the Republican People's Party (CHP) in his column on Friday while discussing the Turkish Grand National Assembly's (TBMM) decision to approve Sweden's NATO membership, stating:

"The CHP has joined the AKP in adopting a style of empty rhetoric. Going further, the CHP has openly expressed its 'pro-NATO preferences' on every occasion. 

It's time for the CHP, which often speaks of imperialism at election rallies, to clarify its stance on this issue. The CHP, which has adopted a policy of ambiguity against the AKP, which has cornered the Republic on secularism, opened national education to the plunder of sects and communities and declared they will continue to fly the flag of sectarianism over the horizons of the Turkish Republic, has disappointed the public by following the AKP's humiliating line in Turkey's recent policy towards Sweden."

I must note that I am not among those disappointed, although I agree with these views. This is because the CHP has drifted away from Atatürk's independent and anti-imperialist foreign policy after his death, a shift recorded in a 2022 interview with Reuters by CHP Leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in these five sentences:

"We are a part of NATO. Therefore, we cannot see ourselves outside this alliance. We have commitments in this regard. We see NATO not just as a defense mechanism, or institution. NATO today, in the 21st century, is also a guarantee of democracy."

NATO AS AN INSTRUMENT OF CAPITALIST DOMINANCE

This means...

The support NATO provided to military dictatorships through its counter-guerrilla organizations...

Turkey's transformation into NATO's outpost after sending troops to Korea and receiving Marshall Aid...

The atrocities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, and Palestine, all the bloody handiwork of NATO, a supporter of the USA and Israel...

The USA and NATO, ostensibly using humanitarian reasons and masquerading as champions of democracy, actually aim to seize countries' resources and establish global dominance under the guise of the "war on terror"...

NATO's role as an organization established by Western imperialists, functioning as a critical instrument for maintaining capitalist domination...

These are neither a concern for Kılıçdaroğlu nor for those in the CHP who approved NATO's expansion!

A DEMOCRACY SHAM

AKP MP Hulusi Akar said, "Looking at the developments around us, a strong Turkey is more necessary than ever for NATO." As Mehmet Ali Güller wrote yesterday, "Escaping from this 'necessity' is Turkey’s fundamental problem!"

The TBMM, originally established as a people's organization to lead the independence struggle against a regime collaborating with imperialism in Anatolia, has transformed into an approval institution fulfilling NATO's needs.

While CHP's Burdur MP İzzet Akbulut was the only one who voted "no" to Sweden's NATO membership, CHP Istanbul MP Oğuz Kaan Salıcı explained the reason behind 17 CHP MPs voting 'yes' to NATO, like Kılıçdaroğlu, as being "on the side of democracy." This is tragically comical!

Özgür Özel, who said, "Our way is the way of those who threw the 6th Fleet into the sea" in the TBMM General Assembly a month ago, would have ensured his party voted 'no' to the NATO guided by the USA if he stood behind his words.

Let this be a lesson: Either fulfill what you say or don't make bold statements just for applause.