BY BOBBIS MISAILIDES
ATHENS - The Greek Cypriot government's recent decision to obtain a sophisticated S-300 ground-to-air missile system from Moscow worth $600 million has heightened tensions between Athens and the government of Turkey. The Greek Cypriot regime also ordered 40 T-80 tanks and 40 armored cars from the Russian government to boost its 10,000-strong National Guard.

The decision is linked to the Greek government's "New Defense Dogma," which asserts the right of Greek imperialism to bring under its umbrella the "defense of all of Hellenism." In a recent defense pact Athens agreed to send jet fighters and warships to Cyprus.

The threat of war has escalated in the area as disputes have also sharpened over air-space, territorial waters, and seabed mineral rights in the Aegean Sea.

Cyprus is already one of the world's most heavily armed regions. Since 1974 Ankara has occupied 37 percent of this Mediterranean island, maintaining 30,000 troops and 265 M-48 tanks. The Turkish military occupation took place after Greek imperialists landed troops on the island. Athens instigated a coup with the aim of annexing Cyprus to Greece. The United Nations maintains 1,200 troops, mostly from Britain, patrolling a buffer zone on the borders of this divided country. UN forces reported 900 incidents on the front line last year in which four people were killed.

The heightened tensions threaten to blow apart the southern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Recently U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, "The disagreements of our NATO allies Turkey and Greece over the Aegean and Cyprus may have consequences beyond the region, affecting NATO and the European Union [EU]." NATO Secretary General Javier Solana visited Athens and Ankara in an effort to ease tensions. His proposals included the stationing of NATO observers or ships in the Aegean and the disarmament of planes flying in the region.

Ankara threatens military strikes
Tansu Ciller, Turkey's foreign minister and deputy prime minister, threatened military strikes if the Greek Cypriot government deploys the missiles. Speaking to his party's members of parliament, Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan said he hopes "Greece and Greek Cyprus give up these intolerable provocations and get smart. The Greeks know us very well and have experience on this subject. They saw the results of what they tried to do in 1922 and 1974 [referring to Greece's imperialist invasion of Turkey and its intervention of Cyprus respectively]. I hope history does not repeat itself."

Ankara is in the process of full implementation of a customs agreement with the EU. The agreement was accepted by Athens in return for a promise of early negotiations to admit Cyprus as a full EU member. The government of Turkey has threatened to block NATO's expansion into eastern Europe if it is not admitted into the EU. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl rejected Ankara's bid to join the EU at a meeting in Brussels March 4.

On February 25, the EU decided to call for the participation of the Northern Turkish-Cypriot Republic (NTCR) in the talks toward Cyprus's full membership in the EU. The government of the NTCR is a puppet of Ankara, set up in its occupied territory.

In response, the Greek government of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) announced that it would veto the EU's expansion to the East if the proposal became formalized. Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides accused "Britain, France, and Germany of orchestrating the proposal because of their vested interests with Turkey." Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos said that "[German Foreign Minister] Klaus Kinkel and [British Foreign Secretary] Malcolm Rifkind gave a gift to Turkey. Now they must pay the bill."

Turkey has been ruled since July 1996 by a capitalist coalition government between Erbakan's Welfare Party (WP) - described in the imperialist press as "Islamic fundamentalist - and Ciller's right-wing True Path Party (DYP). Since coming to power Erbakan's regime has been rocked by continued economic and political "scandals" mainly leveled against its partner.

Ciller and other government officials have been accused of keeping a close collaboration with ultra-right-wing and fascist groups such as the Grey Wolves, which have been responsible for the murder of hundreds of left-wing radicals, fighters for democratic rights, and supporters of the national rights of the oppressed Kurdish people.

Ankara has continued to face resistance to its severe austerity program pushed by the International Monetary Fund, and made efforts toward closing further the democratic space that working people have conquered through struggle.

Average monthly wages a worker receives are $102 while Turk Is - Turkey's largest union federation - estimates that a family of four needs twice that amount to make ends meet. Inflation last year ran at 83 percent.

200,000 workers demand wage increase
In the beginning of January public workers, among them teachers, sanitation workers, and others, joined a mass protest in Ankara. The 200,000 workers demanded wage increases. Turk Is, which organized the protest march, also called for the "democratization of Turkey."

As part of its attacks on democratic rights, Erbakan's government passed new laws under which the police have the right to shoot without warning any suspect who refuses to surrender. Local governments in Turkey's 79 municipalities now have the right to call the army to intervene when they face "emergency situations."

The capitalist coalition government and heads of the armed forces have also used the "threat of Islamic fundamentalism" as a smoke screen to further attack democratic rights, and pose as champions of a secular Turkey.

In the city of Sincan 500 people participated in a solidarity rally with the struggle of the Palestinian people during Jerusalem Day. Bekir Gildiz, the city's mayor, organized the event. The participants gave support to Hamas and Hezbollah fighters against Israel's Zionist occupation army. Iran's ambassador to Turkey, Mohamed Reza Bakeri, one of the speakers at the rally, warned that "those who sign agreements with Israel will be punished." The government responded by arresting the mayor for "attacking the secular character of the state." Under this pressure, Iran's government recalled Bakeri back to Tehran. Ankara has signed a military agreement with Tel Aviv under which Israeli warplanes practice maneuvers in Turkish airspace, while Israeli military technicians upgrade Turkish F-4 Phantom fighters.

Four days after the solidarity rally, a column of 35 army tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled through the streets of Sincan. Headline articles in Turkey's bourgeois press were filled with stories of an imminent military coup. The military has seized power three times in recent decades - in 1960, 1971, and 1980.

On February 28, after a nine-hour meeting, Turkey's National Security Council gave a warning against "the increasing anti-establishment activities by retrogressive forces against the democratic and secular state of the Republic of Turkey." The Security Council, which includes the nation's senior military commanders, intelligence officials, and government ministers, issued a 20-point public ultimatum to Erbakan.

"Governments are formed in parliament, not in the National Security Council," Erbakan defiantly responded at a March 3 news conference in Ankara. Reflecting fissures within the regime, Ciller threatened to pull the True Path party out of the coalition government. "If needed we will withdraw from the government," she declared.

Meanwhile, the continuing uprising of working people of Albania against the pro-capitalist government of Sali Berisha, which is backed by Washington and Athens, further destabilizes NATO's southern flank. Berisha had expressed his government's willingness to bring Albania into NATO.  
 
 
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