Turkey will be drilled by the U.S.'s oil king, billionaire Harold Hamm—Trump’s 'honorary' Interior Minister and a major profiteer of the pandemic years. Now, he is ready to plunder Anatolia. He appeared in the same photo as Energy Minister Bayraktar, who said, "Turkey’s annual imports amount to 365 million barrels. Six billion barrels is something tremendous." This story, marketed as 'tremendous,' holds many secrets yet unknown to us. What is concrete is that an imperialist, operating on a global scale, will perforate Diyarbakır and Thrace under government oversight.

The Erdoğan-Şimşek administration has spent two years travelling across the U.S., Europe, and Gulf countries, laying the country’s workers and land on the bosses' table. Just as the 'super permit' law for mining and energy monopolies was about to reach parliament, an undisclosed agreement was signed with Continental Resources, owned by Harold Hamm—the 40th richest in the U.S. and 113th in the world.

Only days after the deal was signed in Houston on 14 March, operations against the opposition in Turkey began. Just six days after Ekrem İmamoğlu’s arrest, Fox Business asked Harold Hamm: "We see great unrest in Turkey. What do you think about today’s events in Turkey and their impact on the oil sector?"

His striking reply: "It’s unsettling, sure, but these things happen in third-world countries—those without democracy or where democracy exists to some degree but isn’t sufficient. But, you know, it’s the same thing. They tried it against Trump here. You jail your opponents and deal with them. That’s what everyone sees. I’m not worried. Despite active protests, there’s a fairly stable governance situation there."

Turkey’s £350 billion energy potential has been handed over to a U.S. oil baron who views the country as third-world and says, "You jail your opponents and deal with them." The oil king’s words lay bare the Erdoğan-Trump relationship. If capital is to accumulate, anything goes.

Fascist coalitions, burned workers...

A dirty past points to a dirty future. Behind this wealth lie fascist coalitions, speculation-inflated prices, workers burned to death, farmers torn from agriculture, and land poisoned by drilling.

During the pandemic years, electricity and gas prices soared due to speculation and manipulation, with oil surpassing $100 a barrel. Harold Hamm quadrupled his wealth in that period, becoming one of America’s biggest pandemic profiteers. Recall that Elon Musk increased his wealth by 559% in those same years—they are cut from the same cloth.

Like Musk, who is synonymous with Trump, Hamm also backed Trump. The 'fossil fuel tycoon' personally contributed $4.3 million to Trump’s campaign. The oil industry lobbied Trump to roll back environmental regulations, open more land to drilling, weaken endangered species laws, and restrict numerous EPA regulations.

Hamm also succeeded in installing Doug Burgum, a close associate, as Interior Secretary.

Toxic Radioactive Waste on Earth

Hamm’s wells burned workers—turning them into 'human torches.' According to The New York Times, Harold Hamm flew to inspect damage to the rig but didn’t even bother to see the burned workers.

Despite workplace deaths and 115,000 gallons of oil spilled in just 10 explosions, Hamm’s Continental faced no penalties. The Times found that in 2006, environmental incidents occurred at one in 11 wells; by 2014, it was one in six.

From 2006 to early October 2014, over 18.4 million gallons of oil and chemicals were spilled, leaked, or vaporised into North Dakota’s air, soil, and water. Additionally, the oil industry reported leaking 5.2 million gallons of non-toxic substances—mostly freshwater—capable of altering the environment and carrying pollutants.

While Norway’s Statoil, operating in the same region, produced 9,000 gallons of oil per gallon spilled, Hamm’s Continental produced just 3,500. This unrestrained company has devastated farmland and, worse, covered the earth in toxic radioactive waste.

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Harold Hamm’s Turkey plans are an extension of the Erdoğan-Trump relationship. Trump’s baron, who plundered the U.S. chanting "Drill, baby, drill!", is now poised to plunder Anatolia. The government—having paved the way for this plunder, sacrificed workers to capital, and become dependent on foreign investment—has met its match in the most aggressive oil tycoon. No coincidence. This is the capital entering Turkey, deepening dependency and reducing the nation to begging for 'every last cent.'

Thus, it does not contradict the government’s rhetoric of 'nationalising resources' or its chants of 'local and national.' Wage labour and nature are being surrendered to international monopolies. If this is dependency, then everything is "sacrificed to the Harolds..."

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