An interview with the head of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army on Turkish television reminds the Arab states why they so mistrust President Erdogan. The story is here. The Executive Summary, and then a partial transcript of the interview, follow.
Ahmad Shihabi, a commander in the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) was interviewed on the Turkish Akit TV. In the interview, he was asked whether the FSA would send men to Libya, and answered that they would go “wherever there is Jihad” as soon as the FSA is “finished with the injustice” of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. He added that they would go to help their brothers in Turkestan (China). Shihabi said that the FSA is grateful to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for “what he has done for the Syrian people, on the humanitarian, military, and political levels”. Shihabi concluded that the FSA fighters are willing to sacrifice their lives, their children, and their elderly for the sake of their country and for the sake of the Ottoman caliphate. The interview was aired on January 17, 2020.
Interviewer: Will the Free Syrian Army send men to Libya?
Ahmad Shihabi: Inshallah, we will go wherever there is Jihad. We won’t stop. As soon as we finish with the injustice of Bashar, we will be among the first to go wherever there is injustice. Inshallah, just like we will crush the injustice of Bashar, we will crush the injustice suffered by our brothers in [East] Turkestan.
Ahmad Shihabi declares the willingness of the Free Syrian Army to go wherever they are needed to fight Jihad. But only, he says, after “we finish with the injustice of Bashar.” Since, after nine years of civil war, a half-million dead, five million outside the country and six million displaced inside the country, Bashar Assad has taken back almost all of Syria, it will be a very long wait indeed for Shihabi’s fighters to enroll in any other Jihad.
And Shihabi’s second claim is palpably absurd: “we will crush the injustice suffered by our brothers in [East] Turkestan,” meaning China. How exactly will the Free Syrian Army, which currently has, at most, 25,000 men under arms, “crush” the two-million-man People’s Liberation Army, with its planes, tanks, drones — the second most powerful army in the world?
The vivid oriental imagination of Ahmad Shihabi is at work; it’s so much more fun than reality. And so many Arab and Iranian clerics and leaders have expressed the same wild fantasies, promising their followers that “next year” they will conquer Jerusalem, or that they will wipe out the Great Satan, or take over Europe within a few decades.
“We thank the Turkish government and the great Turkish people. We are grateful to President Recep Erdoğan for what he has done for the Syrian people, on the humanitarian, military, and political levels. We have not been treated as Syrians but as brothers. In the words of President Erdoğan: We are the ansar [those Medinans who helped Muhammad and his followers] and you are the muhajireen [the earliest Muslims] .We are willing to sacrifice our lives, our children, and our elderly for the sake of our country… for the sake of the Ottoman Caliphate.”
Notice how Shihabi, in his peroration, mentions the sacrifices he and his men are willing to make – their lives, their children, their elderly, at first “for the sake of our country,” and then, at the end, “for the sake of the Ottoman Caliphate.” That will please Erdogan, who has repeatedly shown his neo-Ottoman inclinations. Erdogan fantasized in 2018 about creating a pan-Islamic military force – clearly he thought that it naturally would be directed by the Turks, with himself in the role of padishah – that would be able to crush Israel. Erdogan is now interfering militarily in Libya, once part of the Ottoman Empire and a place where, Erdogan insists, many Turks still live; he hopes to ensure the rule by Fayez al-Sarraj, leader of the Government of National Accord (GNA) that is Islamist in orientation, which pleases Erdogan, who dislikes the secular General Khalifa Haftar. Erdogan has not hesitated to send Turkish troops into both Syria and Iraq, at different times, to fight the Kurds; he did not seek the permission of the Arabs; he appears to see the Arabs as still subservient to Turkish authority. Erdogan is fond of evoking the Ottoman Empire; in February 2018 he threatened to deliver an “Ottoman slap” (which was often fatal) to the American forces in northern Syria if they tried to prevent the Turkish army from entering to fight the Kurds.
And now we have the head of the Free Syria Army declaring that he and his men are ready to sacrifice themselves “for the sake of the Ottoman Caliphate.” It’s an astonishing statement, one that must have enraged Arabs throughout the Gulf and in North Africa. For they do not remember the Ottoman period of their existence as a happy one; their historical memories are quite different from those of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. While the Arabs remember the savage rule of their Turkish masters, Erdogan remembers a glorious Caliphate, with Turks wisely discharging the responsibilities of rule over so many Muslim peoples.
Erdogan’s biggest mistake so far in his dealings with the Arabs was his backing of Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. His support for the Brotherhood continued even after Morsi’s imprisonment and death. He has thereby enraged General El-Sisi, as well as Crown Prince Mohammad of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Nayaf of the UAE, all of whom regard the Muslim Brotherhood as threats to their rule. His interference in Egypt’s politics is seen as neo-Ottoman meddling by a Turkish ruler who still thinks, a century after the end of the Ottoman Empire, that he has a legitimate role to play in Egypt, in Libya, in Syria and in Iraq.
If the Turkish intervention in Libya goes well, and Fayez al-Sarraj’s forces, with Turkish support, defeat General Haftar’s fighters, Erdogan may request that a grateful Libyan government pay Turkey for the cost of its intervention and the continued presence, should it prove necessary, of Turkish troops. And that will further enrage other Arabs, seeing that sum as akin to the moneys the Ottoman Turks demanded when they taxed those they ruled over. And they would not be pleased, either, with a long-term presence of Turkish troops in a fellow Arab state, which they would interpret as “neo-Ottoman” – a word that is now much in evidence in postings about Erdogan.
Should Fawaz al-Sarraj lose, despite support from Erdogan, a victorious General Haftar will promptly expel Turkish forces, a humiliation for Erdogan that could have consequences for his popularity at home. And the Turkish armed forces, too, would share in that humiliation, and unsurprisingly, would blame Erdogan for the fiasco, for deciding to intervene in the first place. Though the army has been purged of Erdogan’s perceived enemies, those whom he deemed too secular or supposedly were supporters of Fethulleh Gulen, there are those now in the military, seeming loyalists, who would nonetheless be angered by a loss in Libya that was entirely avoidable if Erdogan had not been so dead set on interfering in the Libyan civil war.
For the West, and especially for America and Israel, the weakening of Erdogan would be welcome – his removal from office even more so. It could be the result of a coup by those generals who would blame him for a loss in Libya; it could be through an electoral loss in 2023. He has only one friend left in the Middle East, Qatar, and Qatar is now a pariah state in its own neighborhood, where Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain have all instituted land, sea, and air blockades.
This summer he renamed two formerly Greek-owned drillships that Turkey had bought. He changed the name of the first to “Fatih” (“Conqueror” in Turkish) after Muhammad II, the conqueror of Constantinople known as “Muhammad Fatih” (Muhammad the Conqueror), and changed the second drillship’s name to “Yavuz” (meaning “Resolute,” the epithet given to Yavuz Sultan Selim, “the resolute Sultan Selim,” the first Ottoman sultan,who gave himself the title of caliph, and thus the ruler to be regarded by his subjects as the successor of Muhammad and the protector of all Sunni Muslim states. Use of these two names was correctly taken as a sign of Erdogan’s deep affection for these celebrated Ottoman conquerors, and his interest in resurrecting an umma to be united under the rule of Turkey and, of course, himself.
Erdogan’s interventions in four Arab states – Egypt (to support Morsi and the Brotherhood), Syria and Iraq (to suppress the Kurds), and Libya (to support the Islamists of the NGA), his delusions-of-grandeur plans to head a pan-Islamic army against Israel, his braggart-warrior talk of delivering “Ottoman slaps” to the Americans, and his fond memories of the Ottoman Empire expressed through his naval nomenclature, do not win over the Arabs, but fill them with understandable dread. Were he a wiser man, he would be doing his best to reassure them that he has no neo-Ottoman schemes. He would pull back Turkish troops from Arab lands, keep Turkish ships from any further adventurism in laying claim to the eastern Mediterranean, stop talking about a possible war “between the crescent and the cross,” and refrain from expressing pride in an Ottoman past that others remember quite differently.
But we are not talking here about a restrained and thoughtful ruler, a profound practitioner of statecraft. We are talking about Recep Tayyip Erdogan. So expect more of the same, from this Padishah in his palace – the 1150 room Ak Saray (White Palace) – as he promotes what he sees as a past of Ottoman greatness but that other Muslims, outside of Turkey, would much rather forget.
PETER BUCKLEY says
Similar to what the mullahs in Iran have done, all Erdogan’s attempts to make muslim Turks “more Islamic”, will end up having the opposite effect:
“There are empirical studies that theism is on the rise in Turkey, especially among imam school students. The pollster Optimar found that in 2017, 99% of Turks identified themselves as Muslims, but in 2019, only 89.5% said they were Muslim. An unexpected 4.5% said they were theist, 2.7% agnostic and 1.7% atheist, and 1.6% did not answer.
Another pollster, Konda, who published a survey of 5,800 people, found that Turkish youths were less likely than the wider population to describe themselves as “religious conservative.” They were also less likely to say that they fasted or prayed regularly, or (for females) that they covered their hair. Konda’s survey found the percentage of atheists at 3% while in the past ten years, the percentage of “devout” Turks had declined from 55% to 51%. Konda’s survey also found that those Turks who think a woman must receive her husband’s permission to work had dropped from 69% to 55%.
“Apparently,” said Selin Özköhen, head of the Atheism Association, “Erdoğan’s campaign to raise devout generations has backfired.”
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15440/erdogan-islamic-campaign
Although he is blissfully unaware of it, Erdogan is actually speeding up the collapse of Islam….
Jeff Gonez says
Peter, please always refer to the mullahs by their new designation: “muffinheads”. Thank you!
SAFI says
Is Erdogan the Mahdi? That’s what his wife apparently believes according to turkish whistleblower Ahmet Yayla [at 1h 5m]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgTjSukwCEY&t=3900
Rbla says
“This summer he renamed two formerly Greek-owned drillships that Turkey had bought.”
Interesting that he had to buy them from the hated Greeks instead of having his Turks build them. The reason that the Ottoman Empire lasted so long was the pragmatism of its rulers. Once the indigenous population of Anatolia was enslaved or converted the Turkish rulers slowed down proselytizing among the conquered infidels. It was recognized that Muslims were good for little except jihad. They needed the Greeks and other Christian populations to build ships, palaces, mosques and to run the imperial bureaucracy.
Minas says
I agree, the Turko-Mongolian nomads who rode their jackass’s from the East and finally managed to conquer the Byzantines were good at little else than warfare.
They needed the Greeks and other Christian populations in order to build and maintain their empire They needed to steal their babies in order to raise as hardcore Muslim Janissaries. They needed their women to use as sex toys and rape in order to have their children and improve their bloodlines. Most modern Turks today look more European with little resemblance to their nomadic ancestors.
I’m surprised Greece would actually do business with Ergodan and sell the Turks any technology whatsoever. Not very smart since Islam has had its sights on conquering them and the rest of Europe from the get go.
I was raised with the warning to never, ever, trust a Turk (i.e. any Muslim)
as they will always lie and try to fool you one way or another.
Rbla says
Yes, however I have met a number of Turks who are not at all interested in Islam. Many years ago a Turkish archeologist in New York gave a lecture on his excavations in the ancient city of Aphrodisias. He had evident pride in the achievements of people that he clearly regarded as his ancestors. Ataturk in his attempt to de-emphasize Islam conjured up a Hittite ancestry for the Turks. Since Greeks were the big enemies at the time he studiously ignored the more important ancestral component of the Greek speaking peoples of Anatolia. The hope is that eventually the Turks, and the Iranians, will once again acknowledge the great pre-Islamic civilizations of their countries. And good luck to the Turkish secularists; hopefully they can overthrow the would-be sultan Erdogan. In the meantime Turkey should really be expelled from NATO.
Minas says
Some sources claim that Ataturk ancestors were Dönmeh, followers a of Sabbatean crypto-Jews in the Ottoman Empire who converted publicly to Islam, but retained their beliefs in secret. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B6nmeh
It’s also been claimed that he was a closet homosexual.
gravenimage says
Muslims consider calling people Jews and homosexuals to be insults–that’s all that these Muslims claims about Ataturk are about.
Gail Griffin says
What was his job before? Mayor??
Walter Sieruk says
In all fairness to Erdogan, maybe in the far- or not so far future there might be a restored Ottoman empire which Erdogan hadn’t the power to actually take a part in the building of this neo-Ottoman caliphate .
For there is one Bible interpretation of Bible prophesy that such a restored Ottoman empire might come to be but last no longer than seven years. before its totally destroyed. The head and chief of this new Islamic empire would not be Erdogan but a powerful Imam ,Caliph and Sultan all rolled together in one man called the Mahdi.
Therefore to explain give some Bible based information with authorized Islamic literature also taken into account and yet not to go into detail and that state that this is a theory of Bible prophecy and not a complete prophecy fact. This is what might happen. This awful and terrible conflict in the twenty -first century is part of the war between the Judo- Christian West and the Islamic East. The Mahdi will arise in the Middle East he will appear a wonderful man to many people, in reality he will be wicked man and will be so very deceitful and lying to he will seem, very much, like a good righteous and rightly guided man who will make a short and false “peace” in the Middle East. The Mahdi with have a partner who will be the false “jesus” of Islam. This Islamic ”jesus” will give Christian’s a choice , which is convert to Islam or die by beheading, this is the Koranic way to killing non-Muslims, as in 47:4. Those vicious murders of Christians in the future are predicted in the Bible. As seen in Revelation 20:4.
Furthermore in Israel the Mahdi “shall divide the land” Daniel 11:39. [K.J.V.] between the Jews and Muslims and the Mahdi will also by many deceiving lying signs and wonders, will unify Shi ‘ite and Sunni Islam together common goal destroying the State of Israel ,once and for all. The Mahdi will then take the all the military force of Islam with Satanic intention of totally destroying the Jewish State, one and for all. The when the Second Coming of real Jesus will occur .This is at the Battle of Armageddon where the final and complete defeat of the Mahdi, along with false ”jesus,” and his Islamic military forces. After the great Victory there will be then the total destruction of Islam. As found in the Bible in, for example, Ezekiel chapter 37 and 38. Zechariah Chapter 12 and then 14:9-21 well as in Revelation 19:11-21.
There is an Christian Arab pastor ,Michael Youssef who had written two well researched and informative books about the Islamic messiah called the Mahdi the are END TIMES AND THE SECRET OF THE MAHDI also the book entitled JESUS , JIHAD AND PEACE Furthermore, another Christian author on the topic of the Mahdi and prophecy is other than pastor Youssef is Joel Richardson who wrote THE ISLAMIC ANTICHRIST :THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE BEAST and the other book entitled THE MIDEAST BEAST : THE SCRIPTURAL CASE FOR THE ISLAMIC ANTICHRIST.
jewdog says
Turkey may intervene directly in Idlib to save the sinking ship, now kept afloat by the FSA. That would pit the Turks against the Russians and Iranians, which may result in much larger scale fighting, bogging down a lot of bad guys. The probable outcome would be a Turkish defeat, although a drawn out meat-grinder could also result. Either way, I hope E gets sucked in, and then spat out.
gravenimage says
Erdogan’s Neo-Ottoman Dreams Are Not Working Out
………………
Ha hah!
Giacomo Latta says
”we will go wherever there is Jihad. We won’t stop. As soon as we finish with the injustice of Bashar, we will be among the first to go wherever there is injustice”
My dear Shihabi, trust me when I tell you that injustice exists in Pakistan, Turkestan, Xyzistan and all countries where Islam is dominant so keep your focus on these countries. And good luck!
WithPurpleAbandon says
“It’s an astonishing statement, one that must have enraged Arabs throughout the Gulf and in North Africa. For they do not remember the Ottoman period of their existence as a happy one; their historical memories are quite different from those of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. While the Arabs remember the savage rule of their Turkish masters, Erdogan remembers a glorious Caliphate, with Turks wisely discharging the responsibilities of rule over so many Muslim peoples.”
Islam’s logic dictates that a Caliphate has to be ruled by an ethnic Arab. The Caliphate has to be Arab-centric by necessity. The mere fact that ethnic Turks have ruled Arab muslims for so long must have been the greatest dishonor Arab muslims could ever have had to endure in history.
Pretty simple: Arab muslims don’t like to be ruled by non-Arabs, muslim or otherwise.