COUP

In the very first days of 2026, which we entered with wishes for peace and serenity, we witnessed the US military operation against Venezuela. Along with this operation, we also saw statements which said, “We will now rule” this country of 30 million people. Then we saw the Venezuelan President Maduro being taken away from his residence with his wife. They published photos of him blindfolded and handcuffed, just like the way they did with Saddam Hussein.

When Maduro was presented with a sword in its sheath during a ceremony, and when he drew the sword from that sheath, showed it to the crowd at the ceremony, and gave a speech against the US, I remembered Saddam, sword in hand, stirring up the crowds at rallies. At that moment, I thought to myself, perhaps what happened to Saddam will happen to Maduro, too. Great imperial powers like the US marginalize those who do not serve their interests by humiliating them like this. They convey a message to every segment of the society along the lines of, “See, who’s the boss now?”

The case of Venezuela is a lesson. The first lesson is that no matter who they are, or what they want, it is unacceptable for any country to behave like the way the US did to Venezuela’s administration or government. However, if a country’s fundamental components such as economy, social justice, legal order, and democratic rule of law have eroded, then no matter who is in power, or what they want, external powers will intervene and effortlessly carry out any kind of intervention within that country for their own interests. The fact that Palestinians and Arabs were not united in democratic terms played an important role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Saddam’s decision to go to war with Iran to serve his own power, his invasion of Qatar, and his killing of his own people with chemical weapons led to intervention and occupation based on false information. In Syria, too, foreign powers relied on the negative consequences of disregarding the values of a democratic state governed by the rule of law in the name of ‘noble causes’.

The second lesson that needs to be learned is this: The values of a democratic state governed by the rule of law, social justice, and economic development are the most fundamental factors that protect a nation against external threats, as much as its armed forces. Now, whose turn is it? Here, the situation is as follows. The bigots in the south, with the ties they have established with the US and Israel, expect that it will be the turn of the Turkish Cypriot community and Turkey. The bigots in the north, on the other hand, believe that they will be strong in the face of internal and external problems thanks to the ties they will establish with the US President Trump. Thus, both sides are acting not with the power to jointly solve internal and external problems, but with the delusion that they can maintain their existence through their friendships with the great powers. In reality, this makes them even more dependent on the great imperial powers.

What is fundamental is the democratic unity of countries and peoples.

This article was originally published on 05.01.2026.

Source: COUP