Beware of Provocation! The Real Looter are Those Who Seek to Buttress The Rotten System

“We are not hungry. Nobody dies of hunger. But on the evening of the second day, I stole food from the market for my baby. None of the authorities gave us water. I stole baby food for my little child. I am not ashamed of it.”  “Neither a glass of water, not a bowl of soup… Nothing came to anyone. People looted the markets out of hunger and thirst.” “We went to the downtown to get urgent medicine for our families. On the way back, the security forces saw the pills and backpack in our hands. They treated us like we were looter refugees even though we showed ID cards. Behind the building, they brutally beat us, victims of the earthquake. Then they left us to die.” These words are just a few of many similar interviews with the victims of the earthquake. The lives of millions of people have been deeply hit, tens of thousands have lost their lives and countless tragedies have occurred. Those responsible for all of this are now attacking the fault lines of society. The organized evil that has taken the form of governmental power is propagating that there is “looting” in devastated areas. It has organized lynch attempts against refugees in order to draw the working people into a trap. It is a very dangerous provocation, a dirty political tactic. This provocation is a new form of the evil plans of those who seek to maintain their power and plundering at all costs. The aim is to divert attention, to cover up the collapse and at the same time to legitimize the State of Emergency! The working class of Turkey, all workers must be aware!

It has been ten days since the earthquake. While the death toll stands at 35,418, the dead bodies of tens of thousands of people are still under the rubble. Because there is no organization, no sufficient rescue teams, no equipment. There are a lot of places that tents haven't reached yet. Hundreds of thousands who saved their lives face the danger of starvation and frostbite. Because food, clothing and generators are not sufficient! Temporary shelters for people to stay are still extremely inadequate. The people cry out, “The state is nowhere to be seen!” The state is absent when it comes to taking the essential measures, healing the wounds and dealing with the destruction. But the same state works hard on the front of both manipulation and dirty traps!

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In Erdogan’s first speech on the state of emergency, he announced that the state of emergency would allow the state to intervene against “those who abuse the process, sedition groups and looting”.In all his subsequent speeches, he presented “looting” and “looters” as one of the reasons for the State of Emergency decision.“Some immoral people are robbing markets and attacking workplaces. Under the state of emergency, sanctions will be applied to those who commit these abuses as soon as they are caught”, he said. Erdogan’s statements were echoed rapidly in the toady media. These media organs, which do nothing in the name of humanity and conscience, started to target Syrians as “looters”. There are many videos on social media that people who were described as looters some of whom were immigrants were tortured. Who can claim that these images and videos were not manufactured for provocation? Who are the faceless torturers in those videos? Is there any evidence of crime? Even if so, is that the legitimate punishment for the crime? Through the release of these images, a wave of anti-immigrant hatred has been incited. With all the official and unofficial tools at its disposal, the one-man regime has begun to further exacerbate this hatred. This was followed by the actions of racist/fascist figures. One of them, Ümit Özdağ [Leader of Victory Party, small ultra-right party provoking hatred and hostility towards immigrants], went so far as to demand “shoot order” for the police and the military. He also falsely accused a young man of being “a Syrian phone robber”. There have been innumerable baseless manipulations like this. So, what is happening and why is it happening?

• First of all, it must be known that these provocative news are spread deliberately. It was later proven that a significant part of these were baseless news.However, false/baseless posts on social media spread much faster than the posts proving that these are false.By this method, workers are sought to be blinded to the facts.
• In most of the images and videos on social media, it is seen that the people took required materials from markets to survive.This is not looting, the working masses who are victimized by the state are striving to hold on to life!
• The victims of earthquake are waiting for help for days in the cold of -10 degrees Celsius, hungry and thirsty. When the people run desperately to the aid trucks and experienced a stampede, this is shown as a looting.The reality behind these images is that the one-man regime is nowhere to be seen in organising of aids, search and rescue efforts, establishment of field hospitals, providing tents for the victims!This is a striking result of the collapse.
• All refugees and particularly Syrians are accused of looting.However, not all people in those images are Syrians or refugees. In fact there are many refugees who voluntarily participate in rescue efforts. Moreover, thousands of refugees, including children, are trapped under the rubble.Racism, calls for violence and the lynch culture pave the way for a more intensified devastation across the country in addition to the one caused by the earthquake!
• Just like in the aftermath of the 1999 earthquake, various incidents have occurred since 6 February such as breaking into houses, stealing and blocking aid trucks.However, these incidents are not decisive. They are deliberately used for racist and fascist provocation, creating chaos and covering up the collapse.If the workers attack refugees and promote torture and lynch attempts, it will ultimately hit the workers themselves.Thus the winner will always be the government, the regime, and the capitalist system!

Both before and after the 6 February earthquake, the regime proved with countless examples that it does not care the people but their own profits, reputation and power. The regime has been exposed in the eyes of the large sections of the working people.They seek to prevent talk of true culprits of this social destruction. They want to draw a veil over public’s questioning of what happened. They seek to prevent the will to settle accounts from prevailing.Through racist hate campaigns they intend to create a “scapegoat” out of Syrians.They want the legitimate anger of society to aim at the wrong target.

The rulers of Turkey declared state of emergency to avoid falling under the rubble.The state of emergency is the decision of the government to protect itself in the face of rising anger.There is no doubt that this decision has ulterior motives in relation to the elections to be held three months later. On 14 February former speaker of Turkish Parliament and one of the founders of AKP, Bülent Arınç called for postponement of the elections until next year. With hue and cry over “looting”, the State of Emergency is sought to be legitimized.The main purpose is to prevent the organizations and solidarity networks formed by civil initiatives, socialists, democratic mass organisations, HDP and CHP in the earthquake regions, to disrupt the sense of solidarity and unity in society.The regime/state pushes people into helplessness. It leaves them to die under the rubble and leaves them hungry, thirsty and bare.  But also it wants to stifle any initiative other than itself and subjugate workers.It wants to hear "thanks and blessing" for the aid it must supply by definition, as if this is a blessing it offers!

The main enemy is not refugees or desperate victims of the earthquake who are accused to be looters, but the capitalist greed. The main enemy is the mentality of the upstart bourgeoisie whose main motive is to plunder state resources. The main enemy is those who ignore science and who do not care about the lives of labourers and focus on staying in power.The main enemy is the capitalist system, which has caused tens of thousands of labourers to get trapped under the rubble and die.We must be aware against provocations!We must direct the anger in all sections of the working class and society towards the right point. Today is the day to be united as workers!