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    Packaged Maduro or international law?

    Capt. Atty. Cahit İSTİKBAL

    Capt. Atty. Cahit İSTİKBAL

    Columnist

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    Two packages were prepared in Caracas overnight. The first was personally from Maduro; a figure who has roamed for years with the title of "president," but whose political legitimacy has long been exhausted by bribery wheels and apparatuses of oppression. The second was a much more expensive package, with a historically heavier cost and irreparable consequences: International Law.

    O uçak havalandığında, sadece bir diktatör götürülmedi; İkinci Dünya Savaşı’nın küllerinden doğan, BM Şartı’nın kuvvet kullanma yasağı etrafında örülmüş o "devletlerin eşit egemenliğine dayanan uluslararası hukuk" da Atlantik’in sularına gömüldü.

    As I look at the scene as an international lawyer, what I see is not a manifestation of justice, but the "stranding of law." Let’s set aside the grandiloquence and examine this wreckage.

    Maduro: Not a Freedom Hero, But a System Apparatus

    Let’s be clear from the start: We are fed up with the fairy tale that Maduro is a "victim" or an "anti-imperialist hero." The way power survives in Venezuela is a classic anatomy of an authoritarian regime. We are talking about a system where the legitimacy of elections is drowned in debate, institutions are hollowed out, and public support is replaced by a "loyalty market."

    Maduro's escape from the "Petro-dollar" system and his war against the dollar does not stem from the romantic idealism inherited from Hugo Chavez, as is commonly believed. This was a completely pragmatic and dirty necessity. The financing of the dirty money required for the regime's survival necessitated avoiding American oversight (OFAC radar). In other words, the issue was not "freedom," but "cash flow." While "sovereignty" was being sold in the showcase, there was a rush in the backroom to circumvent sanctions and keep the regime afloat. Therefore, writing a democratic epic based on the identity of the victim is, at the very least, naivety.

    Jus Cogens and the Gun Behind the Law

    However... The guilt of the perpetrator does not legitimize the banditry of the one who captures them.

    Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin yaptığı eylem, uluslararası hukukun omurgası olan BM Şartı’nın 2(4). maddesindeki "kuvvet kullanma yasağının" açık, net ve tartışmasız ihlalidir. Hukukta devletlerin keyfine bırakılmamış, "jus cogens"(emredici norm) dediğimiz dokunulmaz kurallar vardır. Bir devlet başkanını, hakkında BMGK kararı olmadan, meşru müdafaa şartları oluşmadan, sırf kendi iç mahkemenizin kararına dayanarak sınır ötesi bir operasyonla paketleyip götüremezsiniz.

    The U.S. has only been able to place its gun on the table, but it has not been able to place its legitimacy. There is a world of difference between putting a gun behind the law and placing the gun in place of the law. By choosing the latter path, Washington has laid dynamite at the foundation of the order it established.

    The Compass of Markets: Fear and Insecurity

    Peki, bu "kovboy adaleti" dünya finansını nasıl etkiler? Piyasalar hissiyatla değil, risk primiyle çalışır. Kısa vadede göreceğimiz refleks fear. Küresel sistemde belirsizlik arttığında, para paradoksal bir şekilde yine sorunun kaynağına, yani en likit liman olan dolara sığınır. Doların ateşi kısa bir süre yükselebilir.

    Ama orta ve uzun vadede tablo değişir. Hukuki öngörülebilirliğin olmadığı yerde, "rezerv para" kavramı da erozyona uğrar. ABD’nin yargı gücünü bir finansal silah, bir şantaj unsuru gibi kullanması, merkez bankalarını dolardan ürkütecek ve tarihsel güvenli liman olan gold's stratejik önemini artıracaktır. Çin ve Rusya gibi aktörler, bu hukuksuzluğu "dolardan kaçış" tezlerinin en güçlü kanıtı olarak masaya sürecektir. ABD, Maduro’yu almıştır ama doların üzerindeki "tarafsızlık" etiketini sökmüştür.

    This situation is not a "distant storm" for Turkey either. The audacity of the U.S. to place its own law above universal law (extraterritoriality), considering processes like the Halkbank case, is a very serious warning signal regarding our sovereignty rights. The increase in risk premiums is always bad news for economies like ours that need external financing.

    The Ghost of Monroe and the Master-Slave Dialectic

    The crux of the matter is not legal, but philosophical and historical.

    Bu operasyon, münferit bir olay değildir. Bu, 1823 yılında James Monroe’nun Kongre’de okuduğu doktrinin, yani "Amerika Amerikalılarındır" sloganıyla kamufle edilen "This continent is my property." kibrinin 21. yüzyıl güncellemesidir.

    ABD’nin Latin Amerika ile kurduğu ilişki, Hegel’in "Efendi-Köle Diyalektiği"ni andırır. Washington, güneyindeki devletleri uluslararası hukukun eşit birer "süjesi" (öznesi) olarak değil, kendi refahı için var olması gereken birer "nesne" olarak kodlamıştır. Bugün Maduro’ya yapılan muamele; dün Guatemala’da Arbenz’e, Şili’de Allende’ye, Panama’da Noriega’ya yapılanlardan farklı değildir. İsimler değişir, yöntemler değişir ama "Büyük Sopa" (Big Stick) politikası değişmez. Roosevelt’in Somoza için söylediği "He is a son of a b... but he is our son of a b..." sözü, Amerikan dış politikasının değişmez anayasasıdır. Arjantin yönetiminin bu hukuksuzluğa alkış tutması da, efendisinin sopasını öpen o tarihsel sendromun nüksetmesinden başka bir şey değildir.

    When law is transformed into a guise that legitimizes the actions of the powerful, there is no longer any "order." What remains is only the bitter truth that Thrasymachus struck Plato's face with thousands of years ago: "Justice is what is advantageous to the powerful."

    MThe packaging of Maduro is not the overthrow of a dictator; it is the complete unraveling of the "democracy and law" veneer of Pax Americana. The United States has donned the old colonial guardian uniform from the dusty shelves of the Monroe Doctrine and has sent the dangerous message to the world: "Law does not grow in my garden; only those I permit survive." However, history has taught us that an empire built solely on fear begins its collapse on the day it consumes its own legitimacy..

    Source: www.denizhaber.com

    Capt. Atty. Cahit İSTİKBAL

    About the Author

    Capt. Atty. Cahit İSTİKBAL

    Columnist

    Born in Rize, he completed his primary, secondary, and high school education in his hometown. He subsequently pursued his undergraduate studies at the Istanbul Technical University Maritime Faculty (formerly known as the Yüksek Denizcilik Okulu – YDO).

    Early in his maritime career, he served aboard vessels operated by DB Deniz Nakliyat. He then discharged his National Service as a Reserve Officer at the General Staff Headquarters, where he rendered his services as an English interpreter.

    Following his military service, he embarked on a career in commercial shipping by serving on passenger vessels of the Turkish Maritime Lines (Denizyolları İşletmesi), holding the positions of Deck Officer and Second Captain. Thereafter, he commenced his long-standing career as a harbour pilot within Turkish Maritime Enterprises. His seafaring expertise has been applied in the Istanbul and Çanakkale Straits as well as at the Port of Istanbul, where he now holds the post of Chief Harbour Pilot under the auspices of the Directorate General of Coastal Safety.

    In addition to his maritime vocation, he is accredited as an English-speaking national tourist guide. Leveraging this qualification together with his extensive knowledge and practical experience of the Bosphorus and surrounding straits, he has had the distinct honour of guiding special Bosphorus cruises for foreign ministers and heads of state.

    Since the 2016–2017 academic year, he has been imparting technical maritime instruction and Maritime English at the Faculty of Water Sciences, Istanbul University, in his capacity as a certified Maritime Educator. Furthermore, he lectures on Maritime Law at both the Faculty of Ship Construction and Marine Engineering and the Faculty of Marine Machinery Operation Engineering at Yıldız Technical University.

    Between 1997 and 1999, he served on the Turkish Delegation during the Turkish Straits negotiations at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). From 1998 to 2004, he held the office of General Secretary of the Turkish Harbour Pilots Association, and between 2006 and 2008, he was elected President of the same Association.

    At the 2002 general assembly in Germany, he was elected Deputy President of the International Association of Harbour Pilots. He was re-elected to this prominent post for a second term in 2006 in Cuba and for a third term in 2010 in Australia.

    Since 1997, he has actively participated in numerous significant meetings—including those of the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee, the Sub-Committee on Navigational Safety, and the Assembly—serving as a member of the Turkish delegation. In these capacities, he has represented the Turkish Harbour Pilots Association, the International Association of Harbour Pilots (IMPA), and, in his role as President, the Maritime Safety Association (DEDER).

    Since 2015, he has assumed the role of race commodore responsible for surface water safety at the Bosphorus Intercontinental Swimming Championships organised by the Turkish National Olympic Committee. In addition, he served as race commodore for swimming competitions arranged by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on the Kınalıada–Maltepe leg and in the environs of Kınalıada in 2018 and 2019, and he was accepted as a member of that organisation in 2019.

    He maintains memberships in several professional bodies and non-governmental organisations—notably the Turkish National Olympic Committee—and currently presides over the Maritime Safety Association (DEDER).

    A pioneer in maritime online publishing, he was among the first to contribute to the inception of the Turkish Harbour Pilots Association’s website in 1998, thereby setting the trend for internet-based dissemination of maritime news in Turkey and internationally. In 2002, with a view to further expanding comprehensive maritime news reportage, he established his own maritime news website.

    His written work has been featured in numerous national and international books, periodicals, and online platforms. He has also delivered papers on subjects such as the Turkish Straits, maritime risk and its management, and the prevention of marine pollution at a multitude of national and international seminars, symposiums, and panel discussions.

    In 2020, he successfully completed his master’s thesis—entitled “The Eastern Mediterranean Issue in Terms of Energy Resources and Maritime Jurisdiction”—at the Department of Maritime Transportation Engineering, Institute of Natural Sciences, Istanbul Technical University; this thesis forms the foundational basis of the present book. In the same year, he authored the volume “The Eastern Mediterranean Issue”, published by Seçkin Publications.

    An alumnus of the Faculty of Law at Maltepe University, he is presently pursuing doctoral studies in Private Law at the Institute of Social Sciences, Maltepe University. In parallel with his academic pursuits, he currently serves as a consultant lawyer at a prominent law firm. He is proficient in both English and French, and on a personal note, he is married with two children.

    Capt. Atty. Cahit İSTİKBAL — All Columns

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