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of the Ottoman State and absorbed
or eliminated all the other ideologies, which were also looking for a solution to the Ottoman collapse.
Having entered World War I under the control of Germany, the CUP was seen as responsible for the official end of the Ottoman Empire. However, a fresh generation of younger CUP members organised a reaction from Anatolia
centuries-long collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1947, Turkey accepted the US mandate with the Truman Doctrine. Since then, Turkey has been on good behaviour when the US has awarded it money and on bad behaviour when it has not.
In 1952, Turkey became a member of Nato. And, funnily enough, it was after
“Turkey remains a major heroin route, but it stopped heroin production towards the end of the 1970s due to the so-called opium crisis with the US"
against the occupation and they, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Ataturk), founded the Republic of Turkey.
Some of this might sound straightforward, but these are all controversial affairs. For instance, each argument, such as on what was the true ideology of the CUP or what really happened with the purging of the Islamists at the very beginning
of the era of the republic, has its own set of literature and tonnes of debates that have never been resolved.
From the CUP to The Botox
Our aim here is not to involve ourselves in these discussions but simply to track the contours that connect the CUP gangs that targeted the occupation forces to The Botox.
For fans of gangster stories, Ryan Gingeras has a book entitled “Heroin, Organized Crime, and the making of Modern Turkey”.
By the end of the 1930s, Turkey was operating official heroin factories. Cengiz Erdinc has a book entitled “Overdose Turkey”.
Turkey remains a major heroin route, but it stopped heroin production towards the end of the 1970s due to the so-called opium crisis with the US.
The period between 1920 and 1946 can be considered a parenthesis within the
the country joined Nato that military coups became commonplace in Turkey.
Following the 1971 coup, intellectuals, who were tortured at the infamous Ziverbey Villa, claimed that those doing the torturing introduced themselves
as “counter-guerrilla”. It was then that Turkey got to hear of something called “counter-guerrilla” for the first time.
1970s bring the MHP gangsters
The 1970s, hardcore years of the Cold War, brought the rise of the MHP gangsters, the current prevailing form of the Turkish mafia.
In 1980, the coup of all coups arrived, bringing with it a full-blown ethical collapse in Turkish society. Another gift was the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which gained ground thanks to the heavy torture that Kurds experienced
in the notorious Diyarbakir Prison.
And then we had the 1990s; Turkey endures a full-blown collapse in all fields, bringing bloodbaths.
The Botox is a son of the Turkish state of the 1990s.
There are details, details and more details. However, as we have reached The Botox, let’s leave it there for now and watch out for what comes next.
To be continued (for it never ends ...).
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