Research Newsletter, #4 (Dec. 2015)

Definition of Dictator

World is suffering about confusions about definition of Terrorism, Terrorist, Dictator, Islam and Democracy. Therefore, now, we have new versions for these terms. The new trend is adding “Moderate” to these terms when needed. Surprisingly, all these terms are created by Western politicians. The rest of the world are just watching the changing of definitions and roles accordingly. Such as, If Al-Qaeda fights against a regime which is not approved by Western Countries or some of the UN security Council Members, then terrorists in AQ are called as “ Fighters” or “ Moderate Terrorist “. This is what happened in Libya. First Kaddafi was a good friend of Western Countries. He set his nice and luxury tent in the middle of Rome in Italy. He brought his women soldiers with him. He visited number of other EU countries and always welcomed. But one day, he was announced as Dictator. Then, all of suddenly, the AQ groups in Libya called as freedom fighters in the international media. It was very interesting to see the ordinary citizens using heavy military guns which needs intensive training. The question is; who provided the guns, money and training to AQ terrorists in Northern Libya? It was provided by some of the UN Security Council, EU and oil-rich Gulf countries. As a result, Kaddafi, a dictator was killed. So, everyone was expecting peace in Libya and freedom for people of Libya. No, it didn't happen so. There is no Libya now. It is back to the tribal time. There is war in every part of Libya. It is heaven for all type of terrorist groups. AQ, IS, Al-Nusra and other, it is nice shelter for them. People of Libya are not freed but now more deep in trouble.

Same goes for Saddam Hussein. Now, the new dictator is Asad. Only couple of years ago, he was the best friend of President of Turkey. They were hand in hand. All of suddenly, in February 2011, Asad was announced as dictator again by Western Countries. Then, Turkey also followed the trend and called him as Dictator. Suddenly, ISIS appeared, then Al-Nusra, then others, all arrived to Syria. As if they were all waiting at the next corner. The dilemma is that People of Syria are secular and mixture of Shia and Sunni. However, the ones who came to save them were Sunni Jihadists. Later on, we were introduced by the term “Moderate Terrorist”. The ones who fights against to Asad Regime were called as “Moderate Terrorist”. Then this situation turn into a business. Thousands of paid soldiers came to region and joined to these terrorist groups. Today, there are more than 100,000 paid fighters/moderate terrorists in Syria. Who is paying for them ? Who is providing guns and logistics ? We know the answer from our experience in Libya.

Later on, Syria became an international theater. Everyone wanted to have a role there. A big race started to take down Asad. But no one was expecting him to survive that long. Almost everyone believed that he would die like Kaddafi or Saddam. The saver of Asad was Russia and Iran. As a first time, after the Second World War, two most powerful countries (in terms of military forces), US and Russia, were against to each other. Almost 15 countries sent their warships, air forces and other logistics to Syria. World leaders were so ready to fight. But the question is for what? Can anyone ex-plain to a ordinary citizen why these world first two powers are against to each other? Why did a NATO Member, Turkey, down a Russian warplane? No one can give any logical explanation. From the eyes of ordinary person, this is just a disaster and there is no explanation. UN Security Council Members are supposed to secure the world but not fight for nothing. If the entire purpose is bringing peace to Syria, war or conflict between Russia and US & EU is not a solution. NATO was established to protect the world from Warsaw pact. But in fact there is no Warsaw pact anymore. Below map shows the location of NATO bases worldwide. Is there any Warsaw pact base anywhere? So, although the cold war ended, NATO continued to expand.

Each NATO member country needs to reserve at least 2% of their GDP for military expenses. This is a huge amount of money which goes the pockets of Military guns and equipment producers. If such amount is saved for human development and fight against the poverty, world would be much safer and peaceful.

Austria is not a member of NATO but all Austrians feels perfectly safe. All the other countries around Austria are member of NATO. Being away from war and conflict makes Austria one of the best place to live worldwide. Every year, Vienna city is selected number or two among the cities in the world in terms life and living quality.

Russia and US, they are both needed to balance the world. EU is third power. There are scenarios which claims that China and India will be word power in near future. India and China hosts tens of ethnic groups and share of GDP is not equal between these groups. Therefore, soon or later, chaos will reach to these countries as well, unless they fix their income sharing mechanism. Both countries, the more they are getting richer, the more problem they will face. They are not yet there. This issue needed to be analyzed in detail in another article.

Back to topic, now, UN Security Council Members agreed about a road map for the future of Syria. How-ever, they are not still agreed about future of Asad. But why is Asad so important? Will the world be safer if Asad dies? We can answer this question by looking the past experience; did the world be safer after Osama Bin Laden, Saddam and Kaddafi were killed? The answer is clear, it is not. Will the world be safer if Baghdadi is killed? No, it will not. Because the problem is not the individuals but the overall approach.

If UN Security Council are really serious about fighting against dictators and promoting human rights and equality, then they should immediately do below actions;

- Definition of Dictator, Terrorist and Terrorist Groups should be made very clearly. As for Islam, there is no such a moderate Islam. Islam is Islam and can’t be modified depending on the needs of Western Countries.

• List of all dictators in the world should be announced publicly.
• They all should stop selling weapons to any illegally armed groups.

If one looks the terrorist organizations listed by EU, US and UN are all the different. Definition of terrorism and terrorist should be clear and worldwide accepted.

Definition of a dictator should be clear and understandable as well. If a leader violating basic human rights, not respecting to the minorities, blocking media then person should be clearly called as dictator regard-less how much the country oil-rich or geographically located in strategic location. We can’t group dicta-tors according to our benefits but based on global basic human rights criteria.

We need to learn that we can’t be happy as long as thousands of people continue to die because of hunger related reasons per day. We can’t have sustainable peace as long as 3 billion persons continue to live with less than US$ 3 dollar per day. We can’t fight against terrorism as long as we accept our enemies of our enemies as a friend we can’t establish human rights, as long as we welcome real dictators at our countries for the sake of money.

Now, it is time to call back all the warships from Syria. There is no need to increase the tension between Turkey and Russia as well. Any possible clash between Turkey and Russia can lead the world to another world war. Therefore, NATO will not be eager to get into such a situation.

Furthermore, Russian and Turkish people are more mixed compare to the Turks living in Europe for many years. Although Turkey has been waiting for free visa policy for EU, Russia and Turkey easily agreed about free traveling policy. Russia is not enemy of Turkey and vice-versa. In addition to this, Turkey should know very clearly that conflict with Russia does not help to be member of EU. EU countries will never accept full membership of Turkey. How long more do the people of Turkey want to beg for membership? Another 40 years more? Turkish people are known to be very proud of their identity. Then if so, what is the reason for being such obsessive to be part of EU?

Overall, it is time to draw policies based on human development and peace but not on sharing of energy resource and conflicts.