Thread by @CihanTugal

The Turkish far right is one of the biggest global winners of the ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
1) Its business tycoons get richer through providing energy, steel, and other militarily crucial goods to Israel.
🧵

2) The government presents itself as the global leader of Muslims through organizing pro-Palestine rallies, perhaps the most crowded ones in the whole world, while other Muslim majority governments primarily rely on (so far failed) backdoor deals to slow down the cleansing🧵

3) The same Turkish-Islamic business class that financially and logistically supports the cleansing whitewashes its image by heavily participating in the organization of these rallies. 🧵

4) Most opponents of the government perceive Gaza as Erdoğan’s turf and therefore stay away from the street on this issue. 🧵

4b) The Turkish far right can therefore easily hijack the pro-Palestinian sentiments and legacies in Turkey, which were actually not the fascists’ and pro-fascist Islamists’ but the left’s (and oppositional Islamists’) turf since the 1960s. 🧵

4c) Even though there has been some resurgence on the left for several years, the left (repressed and demoralized since 1980) is not strong enough yet to reclaim this ground. 🧵

5) Through the still evolving pro-Palestine mass mobilization, the Turkish far right regime not only distracts from its many failings, but also further entrenches its mass organizational and mobilizational capacities. 🧵

6) These capacities will be extremely important in coming elections, especially if the Turkish far right government suffers losses. The legitimacy garnered by these pro-Palestine rallies will decrease the likelihood of colossal, irreversible losses. 🧵

6b) But even if the Turkish far right loses big at the ballot box, there will be many militants cultivated through these rallies who will be ready to fight in order to legally or illegally reverse that loss.