A lot of the media are blaming the PKK, obviously. The PKK themselves have denied it, and have blamed the 'Ergenekon conspiracy'. Reallt, it is impossible to know who did it. It could really be anyone today. Ergenekon, the Government, another state faction, Islamicists, Kurds, leftists...

Here is an article about Ergenekon from the last GN. There will obviously be stuff about the bombings in this months paper dated 04/08/08.

"Dawn raids in Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya and Trabzon this week resulted in a further twenty one arrests were made of people involved in the ‘Ergenekon plot’ including two retired generals. The Police are now claiming that they had planned to organise a movement starting this Monday, 6th July, with mass demonstrations, leading to assassinations, and bombings, and ending in the military stepping into to restore order in a coup.

It is difficult in a country such as this to know which of the allegations are true, and which are lies. That members of the armed forces plan coups is undeniable. In the last forty eight years it has happened four times. That there are right wing nationalist gangs made up of senior military or state figures is also undeniable. The sort of revelations that have emerged in events from Susurluk to today are probably only the tip of the iceberg.

It doesn’t matter whether those arrested are guilty or not. What is certain is that they are certainly pawns in the game of high politics being played out at the moment. It would be absurd to believe that these arrests have no connection whatsoever to the current court case to close the AKP. For all the talk in the bourgeois press about how there were “At last some big fishes!”, it is clear that these arrest are political acts, and that the police is being used as a tool of the government against the ‘secularist’ faction in the state.

What is unclear at the moment, and like so much in these dirty affairs may never be, is whether Eruygur and Tolon were thrown to the wolves by Ilker Basbug. Of course, one would imagine, to use ‘Radikal’s’ image, that there are even bigger fish to fry. One would imagine that anybody organizing a coup would have actual serving generals involved, not just retired ones. After all, they are usually the people who organize coups. And also considering the amount of people who have now been arrested, it is surprising that no police officers have been involved.

At the moment it seems that by the middle of next month, the governing AKP will be banned probably leading to new general elections. It seems that what we are now witnessing is the AKP desperate last throw of the dice. Of course amongst all of this both factions, ‘Secularists’ and ‘Islamicists’ alike, will try to mobilize the working class in their support.

The AKP will talk about ‘democracy’. They will talk about how they were elected with a increased majority, indeed the biggest one in modern Turkish history. They will use lots of words like ‘freedom’, and ‘human rights’, and the ‘will of the people’ as they try to paint their opponents as those opposed to what the majority of people in this country want.

Of course this appeals to some workers. Memories of the terror after the 1980 coup are still strong.

The ‘secularists’ will talk about the ‘Islamicist’ threat. They will talk about how certain people want to turn Turkey into Iran, and impose Sharia. They will use lots of words like ‘defending secularism’, and the ‘principles of Kemalism’ as they try to paint their opponents as a sort of Turkish version of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Of course this appeals to some workers. Memories of the terror after the 1980 coup are still strong.

What workers have to ask themselves is what the real differences between these different factions are, and whether there will be any differences in the living conditions and wages of the working class. Will the SSK reforms be stopped? Will workers stop dying in Tuzla? Will real wages rise faster than inflation? In short can either of the two factions do anything to address the daily concerns of the workers in Turkey?

For us it is clear what the answer to this question is."

Devrim