“In my judgement we are approaching a global disaster”

Interview by world-economy.eu with Willy Wimmer

World Economy: What are we witnessing today? Is it a global concern – Turkey, the attempted coup, the refugees? Who is to blame? Who planned all this? Are these isolated incidents, or is it going to develop into a global disaster?

Willy Wimmer: In my judgement, we are approaching a global disaster, because all tracks leading to it have been laid years ago. It also has something to do with the change in NATO’s character namely against the will of the peoples and the states, who have agreed to a NATO-contract many years ago. NATO then had the character of a defensive organisation, but the last 25 to 26 years have been used to develop NATO into an aggressive power. What is interesting here is that the member state parliaments did not vote on such a change of the contract at all. Unfortunately, we are not in a contractual situation. We did everything in the past 25 to 26 year’s to set the world on fire and NATO, as it has developed to an aggressive power, is now standing at the Russian borders.
This shows clearly, what we are dealing with. Turkey plays a vital role within this process, because it is positioned right in the middle of the zone between Afghanistan and Mali, which the US, the United Kingdom, and France – also with our help – have completely destroyed. In the light of this, in my view, it is an overall development, which we have to deal with and of which the end is not yet in sight.

Turkey is a member state of NATO. In what direction will the situation develop? After the military putsch, maybe because of it, will Turkey potentially leave the alliance?

We must be aware, that the Turkish policy of the last years followed a wavering course. On the domestic front, everything hints at a development that detaches from the Atatürk model of a Turkey Republic. This stemmed from the current policy of President Erdogan and the policy of islamisation. This is one aspect and the other one is: The Turkish Republic has turned its relationship with Israel upside down, ever since the international signals towards Erdogan have turned bad.  
Then the Turkish Republic pitched together with Israel and others into Syria and hence contributed crucially to the Syrian tragedy – one has to keep that in perspective. In addition – with regard to NATO – the Turkish Republic obviously committed a strategic fault: by striving to improve the relationship with the Russian Federation. Something, every European can understand, but Americans do not tolerate. For these reasons we are in the current situation.

During the last two days, two Syrian refugees committed assassinations in Germany. Are we witnessing a powerless German Government or is it a plain fact that we can’t live safely anywhere on earth in the meantime?

It is obviously intended to evoke this image by the assassinations and such deeds. We have to consider the full picture. After 1990, we consciously didn’t take the opportunity to bring peace to the world – also into the region of Afghanistan and Mali. We did not realise our chance, although we had one. Now we face a situation with respect to security, which is not only hallmarked by a wanton violation of laws but also by suspension by the Federal Government last year, which had been established to protect the German territory and population.
There are hundreds of thousands of people in our country, of which we do not know, who they are. And one can put it down to one single aspect: The Federal Chancellor warrants in the official oath contribution to the German people’s welfare and there is nothing there allowing her to increase the security risk for the people living in Germany. This exemplifies very well the situation in which we find ourselves and one can only expect bad things to come in the time ahead.

Assumed, you were again state secretary in the Ministry of Defence, which steps would you take to reassure the situation in Germany?

I honestly must say that for conscience’ sake I could not be member of the current German government.

Mr Wimmer, thank you very much for this interview.    •

Source: www.world-economy.eu/pro-contra/details/article/naehern-wir-uns-einer-globalen-katastrophe/ from 26 July 2016

(Translation: Current Concerns)

km. In an interview with the Russian news portal sputnik news of 29 July, Willy Wimmer, former state secretary in the German Ministry of Defense, said that there was evidence that not the Turkish government and President Erdogan, but forces of the Air Force which were later involved in the coup attempt, played the leading role in the downing of the Russian fighter jet on the Turkish-Syrian border. (<link de.sputniknews.com politik nato-abschuss-russischer-kampfjet.html>de.sputniknews.com/politik/20160729/311815695/nato-abschuss-russischer-kampfjet.html). In this, they had probably been supported by NATO reconnaissance planes: “According to my findings both an American and a Saudi AWACS machine were involved. You cannot just simply make a plane like this Russian fighter aircraft fall from the sky. It must be led there. And that is only possible with AWACS”. Wimmer brought to mind that the firing was illegal and not an accident. “What went on there was in really no way in accordance with the binding international rules. They brought the Russian aircraft down because they wanted to bring it down.” Wimmer surmises that the action was motivated by a wish to wreak damage on Turkish-Russian relations, which had up to then been good.
When questioned directly about the background of the coup attempt in Turkey, Wimmer said: “When I talk to my Turkish friends they cannot understand why we ask who is behind it as there have been several coups in Turkey since 1945. If you look at their policy of recent years, it has obviously been the United States’ main concern for some time now to really lay into the Russian Federation, economically as well as politically. Then, when such an important country as Turkey steps out of line and follows its own interests in relation to Russia, the United States must act. So in my view it is clear that American interests have their finger in the pie concerning the Turkish military. So it is only logical that there is a coup in Turkey so that Washington’s policy towards Russia is not compromised.”