Quests for a ‘new union’ as the eurozone crisis deepens


The global financial crisis is at the same time a very tough market conflict that accompanies a political contention. There are some key countries that stand out in this contention. For instance, Greece is a country of this kind for Europe. Especially after the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) came to power, a new discussion on the EU started via Greece. As a matter of fact, this discussion is on what kind of a union the EU will be and how it will move forward. The European financial capital, which considers the EU merely as a German-centric "club of rich nations" and envisages southeastern Europe as the periphery of these rich nations, is pushing the crisis toward its east. The German-centric reactionary financial oligarchy is going to great lengths in order to sabotage the negotiations between Greece and its creditors, and to bring Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to his knees. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) are plotting anything to avoid providing Greece with their funding. Their primary objective is to see that Greece fails to clear its debt of 22 billion euro this year, and it would lapse into default. Thus, they will leave two options for Greece: Either it would obey what the so-called financial oligarchy, which is composed of the troika of IMF, ECB and EU, stipulates, or it would secede from the eurozone. The former option would make Tsipras indistinguishable from his predecessor Antonis Samaras in terms of economic policies, while the latter one will cost the Greek people a lot, since Greece will be forced to a new IMF prescription and will be robbed once again due to its worthless drachma. Against all odds, however, Greece is striving to spoil this "game" with its effort to come to terms with creditors. This week has seen positive developments in this regard. In midweek, European stock certificates have hit a seven-year high depending on the speculation that Greece and creditors are moving toward a consensus, while Spanish and Italian bonds have rallied. If you pay close attention, any good news about Greece instantly impacts Spain, Italy and Portugal, as the scenario that is schemed to exclude Greece from the eurozone does not concern only Greece. If Greece breaks away from the eurozone and adopts the drachma once again, the country will once again sink into deep poverty with high devaluation, increased prices and low wages. This scenario of seceding from the eurozone is not confined to Greece alone; it also means a beginning that will bring the secessions of Portugal and Spanish. Later, this German-centric and neocon-controlled operation, will freeze Turkey-EU relations. Therefore, the blockade that started with the Syriza government in Greece does not only encompass Greece. Here, the primary objective is to maintain a German-centric reactionary EU and to turn southern Europe into the periphery and open market of this union. Certainly, another step for this scenario is to postpone Turkey's EU accession process by freezing Turkey-EU relations. However, this "game" that we are watching in Europe is part of a global scenario that goes beyond the Atlantic Ocean. Let us take a look at Argentina. Nowadays, Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is in trouble with a fabricated accusation. A prosecutor in Argentina filed a criminal suit against the president accusing her of protecting Iranian suspects in order to avoid harming relations with Iran in the attack that targeted a Jewish community center, killing 85 people in 1994. The prosecutor's petition includes the country's foreign ministers and deputies from the ruling party. Now the main stream media accuses Fernandez of providing clandestine support to terrorism. Well, what did Fernandez do to deserve this fraudulent charge? In 2005, Argentine launched a debt swap, exchanging its external debt of around $103 billion for $41.8 billion worth of securities. Most of the banks, pension companies and creditors, including European individual investors, waived 70 percent of their receivables and accepted Argentine's offer for a debt swap. Naturally, Argentina did not render payment to hedge funds "scavengers" who rejected the debt swap. When the U.S. courts accepted that it would not pay new debts unless it meant paying these funds, Argentina fell into a selective default. Then, Fernandez vowed that she would not give her people's money to those greedy scavengers. During her address to the U.N. General Assembly in September's session, Fernandez criticized Israel's offensive on Gaza, just like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. She delivered a speech that was in the same ballpark with that of Erdoğan who chastised the structure of U.N. Security Council saying that "the world is bigger than five." Fernandez calls hedge funds "vulture funds" and calls Israel a "murderer."Now the media, dominated by global financial oligarchy, is preoccupied with reporting the accusations that Fernandez promotes terrorism in her country.As can be seen, Greece's Tsipras, Argentina's Fernandez and Turkey's Erdoğan have been turned into targets. Well, what are the common features of these three leaders, leaving aside their political views? All of them want their countries to escape greedy neoliberal economic policies imposed by the West and to switch to a new, outward-oriented, competitive and fair economy. Additionally, they all argue that Israel acts like a terrorist state toward Palestine and for all humanity in a gradual way. All three countries have political leaders with strong wills and options to foil this "game."Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his recent visit to Hungary that Russia will not give up on collaborating with Turkey in the Turkish Stream project and in other fields. During a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Putin said that it would be indecent to refuse cooperation with Turkey and that they cannot put themselves in a nonsensical position by saying Europe offered something else concerning the South Stream Project. Expressing his commitment to this partnership, he said they prefer a solid and long-term cooperation like before. As is seen, today, German-centric European financial capital rejects an inclusive and peaceful Europe, which was also the dream of Victor Hugo. Then I do not see why a new Turkey-centric union covering southern Europe, the Middle East and Caucasia cannot be an alternative to the current EU.