Is Turkey preparing to invade Gaza and then Israel? Talking Turkey - Understanding Erdogan's ambition and his distain for Ataturk

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Erdogan at pro-Hamas rally: ‘We can come at any night

unexpectedly,’ crowd chants, ‘Turkish military to Gaza’

Many years ago I accused Recep Tayyip Erdogan of having the ambition of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire with himself as Sultan. I have had no reason to doubt that accusation since. Erdogan hates the mainly secular society he inherited and is looking for an opportunity to advance his ambitions. He has found support from Azerbaijan as they have cleaned the Christians out of Nagorno-Karabakh, and he sees the Hamas War as an opportunity to rid the Middle East of Jews. 

Today, he threatened Israel with invasion. 

Bible prophecy describes an apocalyptic war of many nations against tiny Israel. It will be led by a country from the north, usually considered to be Russia. However, some scholars believe it to be Turkey. The 'many nations' that support the invasion are probably all Muslim countries. Erdogan's ambition will wreck itself on the hills of Israel, but not without much damage.

OCT 29, 2023 9:30 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER

An empty threat? Probably, but not necessarily. Erdogan has made no secret of his expansionist designs for years. Still, while the Turks may be eager to join the fight, the Arabs might not be so happy to see them. Memories of Turkish rule in the area are not pleasant.

Erdogan challenges Ataturk's secular legacy as Turkish republic turns 100

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will mark Turkey's centenary Sunday by

 honouring the post-Ottoman republic's revered founder,

while chipping away at the foundation of his secular state.

Issued on: 26/10/2023 - 07:31

Modified: 26/10/2023 - 07:29

France24,  4 min

Turkish Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic,

are the two seminal figures of post-Ottoman Turkey. © Adem Altan, AFP

By: NEWS WIRES

Erdogan and World War I-era military commander Mustafa Kemal Ataturk have become the seminal figures of modern Turkey, their contrasting styles and visions defining the shape of society and the country's place in the world.

Dubbed "reis" ("chief") by supporters, Erdogan is now Turkey's longest-serving leader, overseeing a massive modernisation drive that has sustained his popularity in poorer and more religiously conservative provinces since 2003.

Meaning the "father of all Turks", the surname Ataturk was bestowed on Mustafa Kemal by Turkey's parliament after the field marshal drove out foreign armies and built a new, staunchly secular republic from the Ottoman Empire's ruins.

Now, Erdogan is walking a fine line between paying respects to the man who created the country, and building his own legacy – one that critics fear is pulling Turkey back into its Ottoman past.

He peppers his speeches with proclamations about a new "Century of Turkey", which could include a revised constitution that protects women's right to stay veiled in public and defines marriage as a union between a man and woman.

State television is also rolling back coverage of the celebrations, citing Israel's war with Gaza militants.

A lack of foreign guests at Turkey's big birthday bash is adding to a sense of this being one party that Erdogan would prefer to skip.

Erdogan "didn't really want to celebrate the republic," said Soli Ozel, a professor of Istanbul's Kadir Has University.

"People are unhappy. Nothing has been done to create a festive atmosphere."

'Climate of fear'

Ataturk's lasting importance in Turkey is difficult to overstate, making any attempts by Erdogan to eclipse him particularly sensitive.

Historian, researcher and writer Ekrem Isin said Ataturk is still viewed by a vast strata of society as a liberator who both defended Turks from World War I invaders and ended the religious conservatism of sultans' rule.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has chipped away at many of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's secular reforms.

© Adem Altan, AFP

"Think of a people who had spent 600 years under dynastic rule," Isin said.

"Anyone who raised his head a little was hit with a stick. There was a climate of fear."

The new, secular and Europe-oriented republic formed by Ataturk allowed people "to stand on their own feet, granting them rights that they did not even ask for".

Some of the most sensitive reforms involved the stripping of religion from most facets of public life in the overwhelming Muslim state.

Political Islam

This may be exemplified best by the fate of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, an ancient cathedral that the Ottomans converted into a mosque.

Built in the early centuries of Christianity, the Hagia Sophia was not only the largest building in the world, but was the centre of Orthodox Christianity for more than a thousand years. Ataturk treated the building with some respect, but Erdogan turned it into a mosque and preached from the pulpit himself.

For me, this was an abomination. Was it also such for God? Was this the fulfillment of the warning of the End Times given in Matthew 24:15,16 -  “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains."

Is the Hagia Sophia the Holy Place? It seems that it was for more than a millenia. What other building can compare with such.

Ataturk turned the UNESCO-protected building – once the seat of Eastern Christianity – into a museum, bestowing it a religious neutrality that underscored his vision of modern "Turkishness".

Erdogan converted the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque in 2020, drawing international indignation and criticism from his secular rivals.

"Erdogan is very much interested in putting his mark in every important policy matter," said Berk Esen, an associate professor at Istanbul's Sabanci University.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants women's right to stay veiled in public enshrined into law.

© Ozan Kose, AFP

"I think Erdogan has anti-secularism in his veins," added political analyst and columnist Barcin Yinanc.

"Political Islam has a problem with secularism and the republic," she said.

"We are entering the second century of the republic with a government that is not at peace with the republic. Perhaps it does this consciously, because it feeds on polarisation."

Erdogan's underlying message Sunday, when he is due to deliver prepared remarks, will be that "he has done more in 20 years than was done in 100 years," Yinanc said.

'No excitement'

Sunday's celebration will still include a drone show over the Bosphorus and fireworks in Turkey's main cities.

The drones' inclusion is a tacit nod to the technological innovations being spearheaded by the Baykar company, founded by the president's popular son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar.

The festivities could also be partially overshadowed by a million-strong rally in defence of Palestinian rights that Erdogan's AKP party has scheduled for Saturday in Istanbul.

"He could have organised this meeting for next week. This anniversary only comes once in a century," Kadir Has University's Ozel said.

"Our government is an (AKP) party government that has always opposed the republican project."

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's honorary surname means the 'father of all Turks'. © Adem Altan, AFP

Turkey's TRT state broadcaster is also cancelling concerts and other entertainment broadcasts for the event, citing "the alarming human tragedy in Gaza".

The historian Isin said festive marching band parades would always commemorate October 29 in his youth.

This time, it will be "an unpleasant celebration with no atmosphere of excitement," Isin said.

(AFP)

Where was God in the Armenian 'Genocide' by Ottoman Turks?

Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion, around 301 AD, becoming the first Christian nation.

The Armenian Church has canonised the 1.5 million people it says were killed

Commemorations are due to begin in Armenia to mark the centenary of the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Tens of thousands are expected to march to a memorial on the outskirts of the capital, Yerevan, to lay flowers.

Later, the presidents of Russia and France will be among foreign leaders attending a ceremony.

Turkey strongly objects to the use of the term genocide to describe the killings and the dispute has soured relations between Turkey and Armenia. Were they ever good?

Turkey argues that there were many deaths on both sides during World War One.

A memorial service will also be held in Turkey on Friday and its prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has said the country will "share the pain" of Armenians.

However, he has reiterated Turkey's stance that the killings were not genocide.

On Thursday the Armenian Church canonised the 1.5 million people it says were killed in the massacres and deportations.

March by Armenians in Jerusalem. 23 April 2015
Armenians around the world, as in Jerusalem, insist the killings were genocide

It said it wanted to proclaim the martyrdom of those who died for their faith and homeland.

After the ceremony, bells tolled in Armenian churches around the world.

Also on Thursday, German President Joachim Gauck described the killings as genocide, on the eve of a debate in the German parliament on the issue. You have to like Gauck, he's a gutsy guy, getting the word genocide out there before parliament could block him.

Earlier this month, Turkey recalled its envoy to the Vatican after Pope Francis also used the word genocide while referring to the killings at a Mass at St Peter's Basilica.

Friday's commemorations will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and France's President Francois Hollande.

France has been a strong advocate of recognising the killings as genocide and President Hollande has pushed for a law to punish genocide denial.

The issue has strained Franco-Turkish relations.

What happened in 1915?

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, whose empire was disintegrating.

Many of the victims were civilians deported to barren desert regions where they died of starvation and thirst. Thousands also died in massacres.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million people were killed. Turkey says the number of deaths was much smaller.

Most non-Turkish scholars of the events regard them as genocide - as do more than 20 states, including France, Germany, Canada and Russia, and various international bodies including the European Parliament.

Turkey rejects the term genocide, maintaining that many of the dead were killed in clashes during World War One, and that many ethnic Turks also suffered in the conflict.

From Daily Mail:

“Genocide of the Christians: The blood-soaked depravity exceeded even today’s atrocities by Islamic State – now, 100 years on Turkey faces global disgust at its refusal to admit butchering over a MILLION Armenians

She was in bed when the soldiers came in the middle of the night and dragged her father out of the family home in Diyarbakir, a city in eastern Turkey.

The last thing little Aghavni (her name means ‘dove’ in her native Armenian) heard as she cowered in her room was his shout of defiance: ‘I was born a Christian and I will die a Christian.’

Not until first light did Aghavni dare to creep downstairs on that morning 100 years ago. ‘I saw an object sticking through the front door,’ she later remembered. ‘I pushed it open and there lay two horseshoes nailed to two feet.

‘My eyes followed up to the blood-covered ankles, the disjointed knees, the mound of blood where the genitals had been, to a long laceration through the abdomen to the chest.

‘I came to the hands, which were nailed horizontally on a board with big spikes of iron, like a cross. The shoulders were remarkably clean and white, but there was no head.

‘This was lying on the steps, propped up by the nose. I recognised the neatly trimmed beard along the cheekbones. It was my father.’

The year was 1915. In the sprawling, beleaguered Ottoman Empire — an ally of the German Kaiser in the world war that had engulfed Europe and parts of Asia for nine months — the ruling Turks had turned their hatred on the 2 million men, women and children of Armenian extraction who lived within their borders.

The Armenians — who lived on the eastern edge of the empire ruled from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) — were Christians and had been since the year 301, making theirs the first nation officially to adopt Christianity, even before Rome.

But here, among the Islamic Turks, they had long been second-class citizens, a persecuted minority. Now, as power in the land was seized by a junta of nationalist officers known as the Young Turks, persecution turned to unbridled savagery.

Over the next six months, there was to be a systematic uprooting and slaughter of perhaps as many as 1.5 million Armenians — on the grounds that they were infidels, racially inferior ‘dogs’ and traitors who were siding with Russia against Turkey.

Those who weren’t put to death on the spot, their faith cruelly mocked — such as Aghavni’s father, a mild-mannered, cultivated spice merchant who spoke five languages — were hounded in columns, eastwards, into the deserts of Syria and Iraq to die.

Their remains are long turned to dust, but the controversy that surrounds those terrible events is as alive as ever.

There is a great lessen to be learned here by Islam, if it were capable of learning. The slaughter of Christians by the Ottomans was followed almost immediately by God's raising up Ataturk to overthrow the Ottomans and turn Turkey's government into a largely secular organism. It remained such until the current president Erdogan began slowly reverting to a Muslim government. 

This is not a good thing for anyone. Neither Erdogan, nor any significant Muslim leader can see God's hand in that timing. But they will see it again, soon.