As a result of the way history is taught by the US educational system, pro-Hitler statements about “making the trains run on time” are routinely made. The shelves of mainstream US bookstores are filled with texts like Timothy Snyder’s “Bloodlands” that attempt to equate the Soviet Union with Nazism. The completely false statement “Stalin was worse than Hitler” is repeated frequently on television, and Nazi organizations are allowed to flourish inside the country’s prisons.
A Repressive, ISIS-supporting NATO State
Some may suspect that Erdogan’s statement is causing uproar because he, like Hitler, is known to be dictatorial and repressive. Indeed, Erdogan is not a poster child for human rights and civil liberties. In 2013 he violently crushed the peaceful Gezi Park protests, killing at least 11 people and injuring over 8,000 others. To justify the brutal crackdown on dissent he fabricated a story of protesters attacking a woman for wearing a headscarf. The Turkish regime continues to routinely use brutal force against Kurdish activists, and is using its military forces in Syria — not to fight ISIS, but to fight Kurdish nationalists.
Far more heinous than his record of crushing dissent and repressing Kurds are his direct links to the ISIS terrorists. It is no secret to anyone that ISIS oil is being transported across the Turkish border with Syria. Weapons are flowing across the Turkish border into the hands of the ISIS terrorists. Despite calls from the international community, the Turkish-Syrian border remains open, and ISIS continues to utilize this border to strengthen its campaign of terrorism.
ISIS fighters have confessed on video that they receive military training at camps located in Turkey. Reporter Serena Shim, who was exposing the links between the Turkish state and ISIS, was mysteriously killed two days after receiving threats from the Turkish government.
The only reason that Turkey’s role in funding and strengthening ISIS is not known is the obedience of the western mainstream press. The US media is determined to demonize and discredit the Syrian Arab Republic, Russia, Iran, and all the countries that are actively defeating ISIS. While following Wall Street’s script, western analysts and commentators refuse to acknowledge what is very obvious: in Turkey, a pro-western regime and member of NATO is facilitating and actively supporting ISIS terrorism.
Provoking Russia, Aiming for War
As the Russian military has stepped in, giving a huge boost to the forces in Syria battling ISIS, Turkey has become hostile to Russia. Turkey shot down a Russian military airplane, and in response Russia has placed sanctions on Turkey.
It is in this context that the ISIS-supporting, dissent-crushing, and Russia-hating Turkish head of state has praised Adolph Hitler. The context of these comments, which were certainly not accidental, should be obvious. As NATO’s Kiev fascists routinely do, Erdogan has praised a man who killed over 27 million people when he invaded the Soviet Union. Much like Hillary Rodham-Clinton, who offensively compared Putin to Hitler, Erdogan is threatening and insulting Russia in the hopes of provoking further tensions.
This behavior has become routine for western leaders. In addition to nasty comments, US leaders’ antics have come in military form. In 2008, the US-aligned regime in Georgia attacked Russia’s territory of South Ossetia. The result was war between Georgia and Russia. Since 2011, western leaders have been funding violent terrorism against the Syrian Arab Republic. With money and weapons from the west, extremists have been torturing, kidnapping, and beheading people in the hopes of overthrowing Russia’s primary Middle Eastern ally. In Ukraine, the elected government was deposed in an orgy of western-backed violence. A fanatical anti-Russian regime has taken power, and the peoples of the eastern region have taken up arms in defense of their civil rights.
The intention in each of these geopolitical schemes is to draw Russia into a confrontation with NATO. This would, in effect, unleash an all-out fight between the western financial system and the global axis of resistance. Such a war to secure the power of international bankers by forcibly liquidating their opponents would be disastrous for the human race.
As Russian leaders work to stabilize Syria and the region, US-aligned forces, such as the Turkish regime that is actively supporting ISIS, continue their provocations. Western capitalism cannot compete with the rising bloc of planned economies. Their only hope is a military confrontation.
Erdogan and his backers on Wall Street and in London may actually have more in common with the Nazis than they realize. This determined effort to spread war to the heart of Europe should certainly disturb all progressive-minded human beings, especially those with a historical memory.
Caleb Maupin is a political analyst and activist based in New York. He studied political science at Baldwin-Wallace College and was inspired and involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.