Secular Turkish Army Generals lose to Evil Government Centers
After Three Successful Attempts they Failed on their Fourth Try
And Turkey has Slipped back under a Religious Islamic Dictator
Who is Likely to eventually become a Horn on a Daniel 7 Beast
As Indicated On previous Archive Prophecy Updates and Blogs
The Turkish Army Upper Echelon Officers Have Been Replaced,
Arrested, Or Forced OUT BY Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
August 1, 2011
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
TURKEY AND EGYPT HAVE THE TWO LARGEST MID-EAST ARMIES
Don’t forget that what is now southeastern Turkey was once a part of the Assyrian Empire and of “Greater Syria.”
ARCHIVE PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 66 ON MICAH 5
A Series from Prophecy Updates 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, and 69
WHAT IS THE NATIONALITY OF THE ANTICHRIST?
Part 5
May 3, 2003
Micah 5:1-4 – Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. [2] But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. [3] Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. [4] And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.
These verses, exposited in Parts 1 through 4, were written more than 700 years before the birth of Christ. And yet they present: Bethlehem as His birthplace, His rejection as ruler over Israel, His last Passover in the daughter of troops Jerusalem, His head beatings by the troops of Pontius Pilate, Herod, and the High Priest, His rejection as the judge of Israel, His Father’s siege against Israel because of their rejection of the Son (which has lasted some 2000 years), Christ’s temporary rejection of Israel, His Second Advent as Messiah after Israel’s travail of 1260 days in the Negev Wilderness, at which time His brethren will return with Him to the nation of Israel, and the first 1000 years of His eternal kingdom, which phases into the fin al h
eaven age when the present earth and heavens pass away.
Micah 5:5 – And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.
Now, in verse 5, we find that “this man” will himself “be the peace” because He personally brings it in by Himself when he returns to be “great unto the ends of the earth” for 1000 years. “This man” who brings “the peace” of a thousand years is, of course, Jesus Christ. He is the primary contextual subject from verses 1 through 5. What happens to motivate His return to bring in the millennial reign is the movement of the Assyrian into the land of Israel. It is the final defeat and destruction of “the Assyrian” that will mark Christ’s Second Advent, and the beginning of His millennial reign.
When Micah wrote his prophecies the Assyrians had already driven into the northern Kingdom of Israel, and all that remained of Israel proper was its southern Kingdom of Judah. So what were the borders of the land of Assyria when Micah wrote the fifth chapter of his book? The borders of the Assyrian territory stretched northward from roughly where Ramallah is located in the West Bank to the present day southern border of Turkey, and eastward to the Mediterranean Sea to establish its western limits, then westward across the Euphrates River to the Tigris River north of modern Baghdad in Iraq. Technically, I suppose one might be able to say this future “Assyrian” might come out of southern Turkey, northern Iraq, or Lebanon, but since modern day Syria occupies some 85% of the area covered by the Assyrian empire at the time of Micah’s writings, I am persuaded the Assyrian antichrist will come out of Syria. The possible argument that Micah 5:5 was fulfilled during the old Assyrian invasion of Micah’s day, is thwarted by the context pattern of the four verses before it all still being unfulfilled at the time they were written, and then being linked contextually to verse 5 by “this man,” and “the peace.” Additionally, this argument is smashed by the verse that follows it.
Micah 5:6 – And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
From the time of Micah’s writings to the present day, Israel has never “wasted the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof.” I will exposit specifically on both these locations in Prophecy Update Number 67, Lord will
ing.
The “Assyrian” of Micah 5:5 is not a European, an American, a Russian, an Eskimo, an Aborigine, an Ethiopian, or a platypus. He is an Assyrian, who becomes chief prince of the land where the descendants of Meshech and Tubal were dwelling when Ezekiel wrote his prophecies. I will elaborate on this in future updates, Lord willing. The expression involving “seven shepherds and eight principal men” is most assuredly an oft used Hebrew idiom. It was the Hebrew manner of expressing “more than enough.” Seven is the Hebrew word for “complete,” implying “enough,” and when “eight” is added to it, the expression means “more than enough.” When the Assyrian comes in to Israel,
and treads within its borders north of Beersheba for 1260 days, then Jesus will return to restore peace for 1000 years on this planet. Christ’s Second Advent is accompanied by some 5/6 of the Assyrian’s armies being destroyed by the brightness of His coming.
His destruction of the Assyrian and his false prophet will make whatever force Israel is able to muster up in the Negev for the battle of Armageddon “more than enough.”
When the Assyrian sets on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, as the willful King of the North preparing to launch his final attack on Israel at the battle of Armageddon, he will be beyond all help by men and Satan.
Daniel 11:45 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
II Thessalonians 2:8 – And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Begin 2006 Archive Blog
Opps! There Goes Another Rubber Tree Plant! (Or was it a Turkey?)
May 2, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
For many years I have claimed the most likely candidates to make up the ten toes and ten horns of Daniel 2 & 7, as well as Revelation 12:13 & 17, would end up being Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon, Sudan, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and the Palestinian state with Israel. The Antichrist, in my opinion, was to arise out of the eleventh horn, which I believe will be Greater Syria. I did not include Egypt because of Daniel 11:43, Jordan because of Daniel 11:41, and Saudi Arabia because it does the best fence straddling in the Middle East. I still hold to that grouping of ten nations out of which will arise the Islamic Antichrist.
Some wanted to know why I did not include Jordan as one of the Arab nations that would attack Israel, because it was not specifically mentioned as being attacked by the Antichrist, as was the case with Egypt in Daniel 11:43. Jordan did not exist by that name at the time Daniel wrote, but Egypt did and, since the Bible was written for all ages, the Lord named the ancient countries that made up what we call Jordan today. The following quote comes from Archive Prophecy Update 46, which we issued in 2001.
Begin Quote
“Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran will move rapidly southward through the “glorious land” of Israel like a fast moving thunderstorm, bypassing the land where the people of Moab, Ammon, and Edom were settled when Daniel wrote his prophecies in about 600 B.C. The descendants of Edom (Jacob’s brother), and Ammon and Moab (the sons of Lot), as found on every published map for this time period, were settled immediately to the southeast, east, and northeast of the Dead Sea, precisely in the country we know as Jordan today. Hence, we can know that the antichrist will bypass Jordan as he moves south through Israel.
Why would he bypass Jordan? She has no strategic, political, or economic advantage to offer him, but the Suez Canal and Egypt do, so he will head southwest toward that area after having driven the woman Israel into the Negev Wilderness south of Beersheba.”
End Quote
I was challenged on Turkey when I first made the list because they were part of NATO, but I did not believe they would be accepted in the EU, and would swing back to Islam rather then secular pursuits. I was also challenged on Sudan from the beginning, but I knew the Sudan, after it became the northern part of a new nation formed out of ancient Ethiopia, would became of the extreme Islamic governments. And, when the U.S. and its allies took over Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom, I was advised Iraq would not be one of the eleven toes and 10 horns, but I knew the composition of the Iraq population, and knew that the U.S. plan to build a stable democracy in Iraq was doomed to failure. Within a short time after the pullout of the Allied Coalition from Iraq, the new Government will be almost as opposed to the U.S. as Iran and Syria.
Turkey will slip away from its western ties to become one of the nations that eventually comes against Israel as a part of the Islamic coalition. It is headed for crunch time in the Middle East and each of the nations of Islam is going to be forced to make decisions as to which side it would be more advantageous to appease, their brothers in Abraham around them or the western devils afar. I believe they will choose to appease the iron toed brothers around them and their two buddies to the north and the east, namely, Russia and China.
Begin Archive 2007 Update
Turkish Army Ready to intervene against Centers of Evil in New Government!
August 30, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Three times in past decades the powerful Turkish army has been able to seize power from different civilian governments trying to end Turkey’s secular form of government. If they are not successful during the life of the present civilian government, then it is very possible that Turkey will slip back under a religious Islamic form of government, which would be instrumental in a Turkish Ruler becoming one the ten horns in the end times empire of Antichrist in the seventh Chapter of Daniel.
Daniel 7:24,25 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Begin Archive UK Guardian Article
Turkey Military: Secularism Under Attack
Monday August 27, 2007 5:16 PM
By C. ONUR ANT
Associated Press Writer
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) – Turkey’s staunchly secular military said Monday that the strict line between Islam and the state was under attack by “centers of evil” – a strong warning ahead of the expected election of a president with a background in political Islam.
Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the military, said in a note on the military’s Web site, that “our nation has been watching the behavior of centers of evil who systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic.”
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, whose bid earlier this year to become president in a parliamentary voting process was blocked by the secular establishment because of concerns about his Islamic past, was expected to win the post on Tuesday.
The statement from the military, which seized power from civilian governments three times in past decades, was issued to mark the 85th anniversary on Aug. 30 of a military victory that was crucial for the establishment of modern Turkey.
“Nefarious plans to ruin Turkey’s secular and democratic nature emerge in different forms everyday,” Buyukanit said in the statement.
“The military will, just as it has so far, keep its determination to guard social, democratic and secular Turkey,” Buyukanit said.
In April, when Gul’s candidacy first came to vote, the military, which had largely stayed out of the public debate, indicated it was willing to become more openly involved.
“It should not be forgotten that the Turkish armed forces is one of the sides in this debate and the absolute defender of secularism. When necessary, they will display their attitudes and actions very clearly,” the military said at the time.
Gul is likely to be Turkey’s 11th president after a third round of presidential voting in the Parliament Tuesday.
He withdrew his earlier bid in the face of mounting criticism from the secular opposition, which was backed by the military and the top court. Huge crowds took to the streets in major cities and demanded that Gul revoke his candidacy for the post.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had picked Gul as his candidate, called early general elections
to defuse tensions. The elections were held July 22, and Erdogan’s ruling party won a resounding victory, which most analysts here interpreted as the people’s support for Gul’s candidacy.
Gul renewed his presidential bid after the elections. In the first two rounds of voting, he failed to get support from two-thirds
of the Parliament, which was required to be elected for the post.
He will need only a simple majority in the third round on Tuesday. His party holds 341 of the 550 seats in Parliament.
Begin Excerpts from THE AMERICAN THINKER, JULY 28, 2011
Turkey and the Restoration of the Caliphate
By Janet Levy
March 10, 2011
Turkey, the supposed bridge between East and West, was, until recently, showcased as a model democratic and secular exception in the Muslim world. Since the days of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk — founder of the modern Turkish state in the 1920s — the Turkish military and courts were assumed to be effectively moderating against the theocratic and ideological hold of Islam evident in Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
However, closer inspection reveals that this has not been the case, especially in the last half century. Instead, what actually exists is the veneer of a democratic republic overlaying an insidious, percolating revival of the Ottoman Empire by way of dormant Islamic fundamentalism and Turkish nationalism. Using financial and political clout on a global scale, Turkey and one of its premier Islamic leaders, Fetullah Gulen, have steadily gathered allies, including even in the United States, to pursue their dream of a global caliphate.
The fight against modernization and secularization never really ended in Turkey, particularly among that country’s rural population, according to author and commentator Andrew Bostom. Bostom reviewed the scholarship of former Hebrew University professor Uriel Heyd, PhD. (1913-1968) who 43 years ago wrote regretfully of his belated recognition of Turkey’s re-Islamization. Dr. Heyd decried as shortsighted the view that the secular state had expunged Islam as a vital force in Turkish life. He traced re-Islamization efforts to the late 1930s and cited the dramatic rise of religious instruction in schools, the proliferation of mosques, Muslim supremacist views of Turkishness — only Muslims could be real Turks — and the return of the five-times-daily public call to prayer in Arabic following the Democratic Party victory in 1950.
Thus, contrary to the current media view, the rise of Islam in Turkey is not a recent phenomenon attributable to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). But the movement toward an Islamic theocracy has indeed accelerated since the 2002 formation of a single-party government with a two-thirds parliament majority and Erdogan’s subsequent election in 2003.
United States and Turkey
Since the end of World War I when the German-allied Ottoman Empire was defeated and the sultanate and caliphate were replaced by the Republic of Turkey, Turkey has been an important U.S. ally because of its size, strategic location and profitable business opportunities for American companies. Although designated a “neutral” country during World War II, Turkey supplied the Germans with substantial quantities of chromites, essential minerals which harden steel for armor.
The Turks didn’t declare war against Germany until 1945, ostensibly to be a party to final negotiations at war’s end. That same year, Turkey became a United Nations charter member and, as part of the U.N. command, participated in the Korean War, thereby earning a much desired place in NATO in 1952.
The United States and Turkey enjoyed close bilateral relations through the post-Cold war period.
Today the government in Turkey has moved away from the West, particularly the United States and Israel, and toward Iran and Syria, effectively changing the balance of power in the Middle East and across the globe. Turkey is actively and more openly pushing for Islamization and an expanded role for the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2007 on Turkish television, Erdogan admonished Westerners’ use of the term “moderate Islam,” by declaring, “These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam.
Islam is Islam and that’s it.”
That should have set off alarms in the West and extinguished any fantasies of Turkey’s role as a pillar of “moderate” Islam. Erdogan had made earlier alarming statements, similarly ignored as in 1994, while mayor of Istanbul, when he avowed, “Thank God Almighty, I am a servant of the Shariah.” Further confirming his strategy in 1996 after he was dismissed as mayor, the future Prime Minister stated, “Democracy is like a streetcar. You ride it until you arrive at your destination and then you step off.” Since 2002, the Turkish government has been pursuing a version of Islam closely aligned with the Wahhabi extremist Islam of the Saudis.
Islamization and Turkey
The Erdogan government publicly claims to be democratizing Turkey but has curtailed freedom of the press, jailed and sued journalists for criticizing the government and confiscated newspapers and sold them to AKP sympathizers. AKP supporters have infiltrated the military and are suspected of wiretapping and evidence fabrication against retired military officers. Erdogan lowered the age for judgeships in order to replace nearly half of all judges with his younger AKP sympathizers. He also removed banking regulatory board members and replaced them with Islamic banking officials and is reported to have received significant financing from Saudi Arabia, including a known Al Qaeda financier.
Anti-Semitism and attacks against Christians and Catholics have increased in Turkey. Expressions of Armenian heritage and culture have been denied, church property has been confiscated, Armenian instruction has been limited to two hours per week (although Sunni Islam classes are required in Turkish public schools) and it is illegal to discuss the Armenian Genocide. Although Turkey previously enjoyed good relations with Israel, the Jewish state is now declared an enemy of Turkey and the media has promoted an anti-Semitic TV series and several anti-Semitic films. Last year, instead of sending aid through legal channels to Gaza and despite Israel’s appeals to the government to stop the action, AKP officials openly supported the Gaza flotilla in partnership with the Global Muslim Brotherhood network. Turkey facilitated the purchase and departure from Turkish ports of the lead flotilla ship, the MV Mavi Marmara. Further, the AKP is closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood whose spiritual leader — Yusuf al-Qaradawi — calls for Islamic domination of Europe. That Turkey, a NATO member, should have such alliances is quite concerning.
In 2010, Erdogan received a human rights award from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and recently refused to impose sanctions on Gaddafi’s regime, even as Gaddafi has used fighter jets to kill his own people.
Just this past week, Erdogan visited Germany and told an audience of 10,000 Turkish Germans (of three million in Germany) not to assimilate but to remain part of Turkey. Turkey has used Germany as a strategic base in Europe and sends young Turks, who have fulfilled their military service, into Germany through the extremist Islamic Society of Milli Gorus (IGMG). IGMG members with German-born daughters are encouraged to marry off their daughter to these Turkish males so that they can obtain permanent residency status and create a fifth column of Turkish Islamists. Trade between Turkey and Iran increased by more than 86% last year and Turkey has been supplying Iran’s missile program. In return, Iran has agreed to contribute $25 million to the AKP for the upcoming election in June.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai recently announced in a joint press conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that he would be pleased to see Taliban officials setting up an office in Turkey as part of a “new phase” of building bridges and integrating the extremist group.
Fetullah Gulen and Turkey
A significant component and AKP ally in the changing face of Turkey has been the influential Gulenist Movement led by Fetullah Gulen, a powerful force in Turkey for over four decades. Gulen began a grassroots movement in the 1970’s with the Islamist political party, Milli Gorus, a worldwide Islamist movement with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. AKP emerged from Milli Gorus to restore Islamic religion and culture.
The foundation of Gulen’s teachings is that state and religion should be reconnected and the country re-emerge as part of a pan-Turkic regional power. A 2009 article in the Middle East Quarterly by Rachel Sharon-Krespin titled “Fethullah Gulen’s Grand Ambition” quotes sermons delivered by Gulen on Turkish television in 1999 which provide insights into his methods
[——-]
Beginning in the 1970’s, Gulen began establishing a worldwide network to promote Islam and Turkish nationalism. His followers have since established hundreds of schools in over 110 countries. Gulenists operate an Islamic bank with over $5 billion in assets and own significant print and broadcast media properties, NGOs, think tanks and a publishing company. Gulen recruits Turkish youth by providing housing and education and grooms them for careers in the legal, political and academic professions. In recent years, the AKP passed legislation allowing graduates of Islamic high schools entry into Turkey’s universities, guaranteeing Islamist leadership in the future. Gulen controls the majority of schools, universities and dormitories throughout Turkey.
His followers remain loyal and donate up to one-third of their income to the movement. In Turkey, Gulen and the AKP together control the police, the intelligence services and the media and actively recruit diplomats for their utility as foreign intelligence satellites. Overall, the holdings are valued at up to $50 billion.
Members of the Gulen movement extend Turkey’s influence across the globe and occupy important positions running several media outlets and controlling multiple organizations that facilitate the dissemination of their message worldwide. A visit to a Gulen interfaith and cultural center in Houston illustrates the politically attuned nature of the movement. Signed photographs of local and state politicians and other prominent people are strategically placed at the building’s entry way, implying acceptance of the center’s activities and giving the impression that the center is an integral and respectable part of the community.
In 1998,Gule n was convicted (since acquitted in 2006 by Erdogan’s AKP government) by the Turkish government for “trying to undermine the country’s secular institutions, concealing his methods behind a democratic and moderate image” and went into voluntary exile in the United States. Outside of Turkey, Gulen’s goal has been to educate a foreign leadership sympathetic to an Islamist Turkey. But his schools are prohibited in Russia and Uzbekistan banned his madrasas and arrested eight Gulenist journalists for involvement in extremist organizations. In the Netherlands, the movement is being investigated for suspicion of being an Islamist fundamentalist network.
Gulen, Turkey and the United States
In the United States, Gulen operates the largest charter school network in America and enjoys the cooperation and protection of the U.S. government. His schools stress intercultural dialogue and tolerance. They include a curriculum that teaches the Golden Age of Turkey or the period of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish language, dance, culture, cooking and Islam, all financed by American taxpayers.
Meanwhile, his worldwide network reaches into U.S. politics through aggressive lobbying, political donations and paid trips to Turkey for members of Congress and their staffs. The Gulen Movement in the United States represents itself as a multi-faith global organization designed to bring together businesses, educators, religious leaders, journalists and others. Gulen has placed many of his followers in large U.S. engineering firms, NASA, the White House, universities and Hollywood. Through his U.S. State Department contacts, he has procured H1-B visas to staff his schools with Turkish followers.
Turkey through Gulen wields considerable power in American politics and is actively involved in lobbying Congress to promote its interests in Washington. Gulen was recently honored under Texas State Resolution No. 85, which recognized his contributions and promotion of world peace, with the Texas legislature describing the Gulen movement as fostering intercultural understanding and tolerance. During the 2008 election cycle, a Turkish-American couple, Yalcin and Serpil Ayasli — founders of Hittite Microwave, a U.S. military contractor — gave more money, $424,050, to politicians and political action groups than anyone else in the United States.
In subsequent years, the Ayaslis have ranked among the country’s top 20 donors. The couple’s donations have been geared specifically toward advancing U.S. relations with Turkey and promoting Turkish interests, including stopping the Armenian Genocide Resolution. On this issue alone, “Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker”, a service that tracks lobbyist interactions with government officials, reported that Turkey lobbied Congress on the Armenian Genocide Resolution and hired foreign agents to work with influential people outside of the government, spending $3.5 million and logging over 2,200 total contacts, including 100 with the executive branch.
Until recently, Turkey presented its foreign policy as pro-Western. Before the 2002 elections in Turkey, Gulen secured an invitation for Erdogan to the White House, which was construed by the Turkish electorate as a U.S. endorsement. Although the United States has an air base in the country, in 2003, Turkey blocked the use of its bases for U.S. ground troops in the lead up to the war in Iraq.
In 2005, Turkey became the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), a 57 shariah law-endorsing permanent delegation to the U.N. whose mission is to safeguard the interests of the Muslim world. This OIC post strengthened Turkey’s Islamic agenda as well as the AKP’s stature. Assumption of anti-U.S. and anti-Israel positions has increased Turkey’s credibility and stature in the Arab Muslim world as it has moved closer to Syria and Iran.
In 2009, Erdogan visited Iran and voiced support for Tehran’s nuclear program and refused to support economic sanctions imposed by the West. The Turkish-Iranian-Syrian alliance provides a hedge against the possibility of an independent Kurdish state, offers significant economic opportunities, enhances Iran’s power in the region, empowers Hezbollah and Hamas, puts pressure on pro-Western Arab countries and represents a serious threat to Israel.
Current Middle East Turmoil and Turkey
The current Middle East turmoil is an opportunity for Turkey and Iran to shift the region toward radical Islamist rule and elevate Turkey’s role as a regional power. The AKP government expects to play a significant role in the evolving Middle East political re-orientation. Turkey was one of the first countries to advise Mubarak to step down and world leaders, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, are turning to Turkish leadership to assist the transitional government. Recently, Hamad Al Khalifa, the prince of Bahrain, sought Turkish intervention with Iran. The Muslim Brotherhood has extolled the virtues of Turkey providing the AKP with leverage in the Egyptian situation.
When the Islamist AKP took over the Turkish government, the Saudis, who were fearful of the threat presented by Iran and mindful of their own lack of power, saw an opportunity to exert influence on the new government and to revive the caliphate. President Gul had worked at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Saudi Arabia for eight years in preparation for the Islamization of Turkey under the Wahhabis. In 1991, he was sent back to Turkey to launch the Islamist movement under Necmettin Erbakan (1926 – 2011), Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister, and, later, the AKP.
Under the Ottomans, Muslim power reached its zenith and the Caliph was transferred from Mecca to Istanbul, home of the Holy Relics and Caliphate Seal today, coveted by the Wahhabis since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. As Turkey is strong militarily, economically and its people are more nationalistic than Arab Muslim countries, the Saudis believed they could benefit from the alliance. With 100 million Islamicized Turks and Saudi funding of aggressive mosque building and dawa (proselytizing) in Europe, the resurgence of the caliphate could be a reality. The Saudis, who are motivated by the resurgence of the Sunni Caliphate, have played a significant role in Turkey’s rise in the Muslim world.
Erdogan in partnership with Fetullah Gulen has made a concerted effort to target the military, take control of the media and stack the courts in order to realize the dream of Neo-Ottomanism — a return to Turkey’s Muslim imperialist past. In their long-term campaign to subordinate the army, the guardian of Turkey’s secular democracy, show trials have been held in which high-ranking military officers and political opponents have been arrested and detained without bail. The defendants stand accused of attempting to overthrow the AKP government. The AKP instigated demands by the European Left to curtail military activity as a condition for Turkey’s E.U. membership, although there is speculation that this was just a pretext for weakening the military and Turkey does not intend to join the E.U. Academics and journalists are also on trial for trying to bring down the government. In 2003, Erdogan used a constitutional amendment to target the courts and the military and secure the AKP’s rule in the country. Erdogan then selected Islamist judge replacements and President Gul appointed pro-Islamic generals and military officers.
Turkey’s move away from the West, its renewed alliances with Islamist regimes and its disavowal of secular reforms in favor of theocratic rule under shariah could precipitate a precarious shift in the balance of power in the world. A portentous event could have been when Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month hosted Nureddin Surin, a Hizbollah-activist and the delegation leader of the MV Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship captured by Israeli as it tried to run the Gaza blockade.
Surin used the occasion to declare, “We are here today with the longing and the determination to build a Middle East without Israel and America, and to refresh our pledge to continue on the path of the Mavi Marmara shahids (martyrs)…..”
The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, took the opportunity to thank the Turkish Muslims for their fight on behalf of Islam. Given the strength of this alliance combined with Saudi largesse and a changing picture in the Middle East, a global caliphate under shariah law could become a reality.
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