MIT's Successes Continue

In last week's article titled "Anatomy of MİT's ISIS Operation", we had tried to reveal the importance and priority of the field. We had examined the anatomical structure of the operation carried out by MİT, which is indeed quite adept at neutralizing high-level members of the illegal organization in their own neighborhoods, which they consider safe, in Afrin-Cinderes on April 29, 2023. We endeavored to provide you with distilled information from the field, the best school of journalism. You remember. MİT's operation against ISIS was a series of operations that were so thoroughly scrutinized and prepared for all possibilities and did not ignore any of them, which was already evident from the fact that it was suddenly on the agenda of the world public opinion. Indeed, they were a source of pride for us. We were once again proud of them. Because they were not recruited like others in the region, they were the children of the Turkish nation. In such a conjuncture, we talked about the importance of the MİT, the only constitutional organization responsible for intelligence activities, stepping in in such a situation. Otherwise, as a prominent figure who pontificates on almost every subject on the screens said:

"MİT's main job is to gather information. Someone else can do what MIT does. The structure positioned in this way, which is called the National Intelligence Organization, collects intelligence. I think it is authorized to transfer the information to the necessary institutions. Its mandate has been expanded. The structure whose name is intelligence deals with espionage. It cannot carry out operations" (1) means spending time with artificial agendas and issues that do not correspond to a reality, and engaging in nonsense. 

Yes, dear readers, this week we will try to reveal the reflections of this issue on the other side of the oceans and in the world. I consider it cruel to even mention that the recent operations of MİT have started to occupy the top of the agenda in the agenda of the world public opinion. As a constitutional organization, MİT has performed and is performing its duties specified in its job description. If this issue was attempted to be evaluated within the borders of the Turkish national borders, the words of praise would have been reflected in the Turkish media, I don't know. To be honest, I was not even so sure that this kind of news would appear on the front page. However, former US Special Envoy to Syria James Jeffery said: "Turkish intelligence has done a good job" by James Jeffery, the former US Special Envoy to Syria, created a stir in the press as much as the description of 'Caesar's Right'. (2) 

Will the operation carried out according to the Effects-Oriented Operation Concept stop? Of course not, if someone continues to produce effects in the region, point operations will continue. No one should have any doubt about this. Finally, Haydar Demirel, the general responsible of the so-called Hol province of the PeKaKa/YPG, who continues to exert influence, was neutralized in Tel Hamis, Syria, together with his regiment officer and battalion officer, while providing military training to members of the organization. Undoubtedly, in recent years, 82 so-called organization executives have been neutralized within the scope of high-level point operations carried out by MIT against the "PeKaKa/KCK/YPG" Management Cadres in Syria and northern Iraq. In the first 10 months of 2022 alone, 23 terrorist senior executives were eliminated. Since 2018, the number of terrorists neutralized by MİT in its operations against the management cadres of the PeKaKa/KCK/KCK-YPG has exceeded one hundred, and these successful operations of the organization have become the talk of the world. (3) 

Incidentally, it is worth remembering the following point. The name of the People's Protection Units [YPG], PeKaKa's extension in Syria, was changed by the US military in 2015 to the Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF for short. Note that this change was made by the US armed forces, not by the United States. As you may have noticed, this is a superficial attempt to downplay the SDF's links with PeKaKa, which is on the US terrorist list.  "The rifle will crack! The name will be changed!" Like the command "The name will be changed", saying "change it" does not change the entity, it cannot be changed. This is why Turkey is not heeding Washington's calls. Turkey had heard the same words before the operation against the SDF in Afrin, Syria in 2018, and completed the operation without changing its stance. Washington is pressing Turkey more strongly than ever not to launch a military operation in Syria, especially in the northeast, where US forces and the SDF are conducting operations against ISIS, for fear that a new Turkish offensive would undermine the fight against the terrorist organization and, in particular, the SDF's critical role in protecting thousands of ISIS prisoners and their family members. (4) 

Of course, Turkey is implementing the Ankara-based decisions. As part of the Partnership for Peace (PfP), a NATO project, a safe zone has been established on 130 kilometers of its northeastern border, about 32 (20 miles) kilometers inside Syria. It has also removed YPG forces from the safe zone.

After all this, another question that needs to be answered is whether the US-backed Syrian PeKaKa will be able to hold on in Syria after losing so many high-ranking members. Naturally, this question was also posed to former US Special Envoy to Syria James Jeffery in a comparative way. To the question "Is it possible for the US to withdraw from Syria after withdrawing from Afghanistan?" Jeffrey answered "Absolutely not" without thinking. 

Jeffrey knew that after the retreat and defeat in Afghanistan, the Washington administration and think tanks close to the government had been trying for months to find some justification for the US's disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan. As usual, the US chose to flee the region, abandoning NATO, which it had initiated and which it had failed. Interestingly, it was Turkey that took care of the people who sided with the US and NATO during the operation, the Afghan refugees in our country. Go among them and you will see that almost all of them are oppressed young people. Believing in the US, and especially following it, is a kind of madness, insanity. I am not saying this, they say it themselves.    

Jeffrey's unthinking answer of "absolutely not" should be seen as a reflection of the restoration of the reputation of the US Armed Forces, which withdrew from Afghanistan defeated and defeated. The experts really could not make sense of this situation. Just take a trip down memory lane, remember the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, when people who could not get into the military plane and grabbed onto the wheels of the plane fell to the ground, I think you remember. That's why the spokespersons of the US Department of Defense are constantly making the argument on various platforms that "the US-led international NATO commission in Afghanistan has completed its mission and that's why we withdrew". However, among the many hunchbacks of the Americans in foreign policy, the Afghanistan hunchback is a complete defeat, a defeat, a retreat. Jeffery also clearly confirms this: 

"The situation in Afghanistan is not the same as in Syria. The international NATO commission in Afghanistan, led by the US, fulfilled its mission. Therefore, withdrawal was inevitable. Then the Taliban took over. Turkey played a very important role here. The small American presence in Syria has also successfully achieved its objectives. Officially, these objectives were to fight against ISIS. The Turkish army fought directly against ISIS. It has performed incredibly well. The main thing was to leave as little territory as possible for the Syrian government, Iran and Russia. We were concerned that they would pose a threat to other countries, like our ally Turkey. THE BIDEN GOVERNMENT WILL NOT WITHDRAW US MILITARY FROM THE REGION."

Yes, dear readers, retired diplomat James Jeffery, who is currently the head of the Wilson Center's Middle East desk, did not actually say anything new, but rather reaffirmed what is already known. He seriously emphasized once again that the Biden administration will NOT withdraw US troops from the region. It is a fact that the Biden Administration will not withdraw US troops from both Syria and Iraq.  However, this decision was taken by President Trump himself during his term. The second important point is that he reaffirmed that the Turkish army is directly fighting against ISIS and has shown an incredible performance. 

The US's deception of the world public opinion and its scattering of its armed forces across the globe like rosary beads is justified by the doctrine of the "Global War on Terror" (GWOT). As you know, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were considered a turning point for the US and the world and elevated the US to the position of an oppressed state. You will recall that for the first time in history, a terrorist attack killed and injured thousands of civilians in two major cities of the Cold War victor, New York and Washington, DC. This has caused the US to raise its hand with justification. One cannot help but ask, does this elevate the US to the position of an interventionist, or should it? 

It is true that the attacks are terrorist attacks, this is undeniably true. But the question that needs to be examined here is which terrorist organization is responsible for these attacks? The US found itself in such a situation that it felt as if it had been stabbed in the back. And at a time when it did not expect it, it was shot in the heart by the very men it had trained. Since I was working at the US Library of Congress at the time, I saw first-hand the lack of preparedness of the US. I remember discussing this issue with experts during lunch breaks during my archival work as if it were yesterday. The Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, the perpetrator of the September 11 attacks, which the US nurtured and used against the Russian armed forces in Afghanistan with the "Green Belt Theory", hit the US like a boomerang. The US was hit with its own weapon. One day after the attack, the US invited all states to cooperate and fight against terrorism in the context of internationalizing the fight against terrorism. 

However, it was the US itself that created the 'Frenkeştayn of Terror'. A week later, on September 20, 2002, G.W. Bush, in his speech, outlined the doctrine of the "Global War on Terror" or GWOT. The GWOT, a doctrine that has been highly interventionist and ambiguous in line with the US wishes since its inception, which invoked NATO's fifth article, has also enabled the organization of a joint UN-NATO umbrella.  In other words, the caravan was set in motion without determining its principles, bases and justifications, and the impetus came only a year after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Indeed, forty countries gathered under the joint UN-NATO umbrella, led by the US, intervened militarily in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, 26 days after the September 11 attacks. It would be useful to briefly summarize what was done in Afghanistan and what was done afterwards from a doctrinal perspective. The fact that an organization that the US supported and created as a studio project in order to strengthen its sovereignty in the Middle East, after performing the assigned tasks for the benefit of the US, attacked itself as ISIS under changing conditions, and as a result, the US settled in the Middle East, just as the process of training and supporting leaders like Laden took place, should be evaluated as a phenomenon that serves to consolidate the sovereignty of the US in this process. 

Yes, dear readers, the National Security Strategy (NSS), which outlines the framework of the CTBT doctrine, was announced a year after the intervention in Afghanistan, partly to satisfy the world public opinion in terms of intervention. In that document, the new security strategy of the United States, which was also injected into NATO countries, was explained in eight principles as follows: (5)

1) Promoting human dignity, 

2) Building an alliance against terrorism,

3) Solving regional problems through cooperation, 

4) Preventing the 'Axis of Evil' countries from possessing weapons of mass destruction, 

5) Promote free market and trade, 

6) To open up societies closed to development and to develop the infrastructure for democracy in these societies, 

7) Cooperating with global power centers 

8) Revamping the national security network.  

Doctrinized quite innocently by the fiery figures of the "New Conservatives" (NEOCON) in the Bush administration, such as "Condoleeza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld", the CTBT has raised many doubts.  Especially with the National Security Strategy (NSS) document announced in 2002, the principles of "Preventive & Preemptive Strikes" provided the US with unlimited operational space. The 2002 NDS document outlined the limits of the CTBT doctrine, which was extremely ambitious and aimed at US sovereignty. 

Yes, dear readers, as we have seen, the doctrine of the "Global War on Terror" (GWOT) is expressed in innocent words. However, it is clear that the GWOT is a doctrine with ambiguous borders that makes it easier for the US to intervene in line with its national objectives. It is an undeniable fact that the fact that the phenomenon of globalization has also globalized terrorism is a reality of the new world that cannot be ignored. Thanks to the blessings of globalization, terrorist organizations, which have easier access and communication opportunities, have begun to be seen as actors by expansionist states, especially the USA and France, and have taken their use against target countries to high levels. 

As a natural consequence of this expansion, the US has contributed more than ever to the fact that terrorism has taken on a different dimension with globalization and has become a phenomenon that threatens states in the international arena. Moreover, in the fight against global terrorism, the creation of an other in the region has been intensively used as a tool to consolidate the US sovereignty. This expansion has necessitated the transfer of resources from free and developing countries to these areas. In this respect, the great success of MIT against both ISIS and the Syrian PeKaKaKa has attracted great attention and meaning in the world. This is why, as Mustafa Denizli famously put it, "the Irish in our midst" oppose MIT's operations, if you know what I mean.  Dear Readers.

Footnotes 

(1) https://www.yenisafak.com/gundem/ersan-sen-mit-operasyon-yapamaz-3745328/Erişim Date 13.04.2023/

(2) Yeni Birlik World Agenda, "Turkish Intelligence Did a Great Job", Yeni Birlik Newspaper, May 12, 2023, p.13

(3) https://www.ahaber.com.tr/gundem/2023/05/13/son-dakika-mitten-suriyeye-nokta-operasyonu-sozde-hol-eyaleti-genel-sorumlusu-haydar-demirel-etkisiz-hale-getirildi?paging=2/ Access Date 13.04.2023/

(4) https://turkish.aawsat.com/home/article/4041541/abdnin-eski-suriye-%C3%B6zel-temsilcisi-james-jeffrey-kaleme-ald%C4%B1-abd-suriye/Erişim Date 13.04.2023/

(5) Murat Toman, Halil Akman, "The Formation of the Global War on Terror Doctrine and its Reflections on the Middle East" International Journal of Social Research, Volume: 7 Issue: 35; www.sosyalarastirmalar.com, ISSN: 1307-9581, pp.297-298