Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “liberate al-Aqsa mosque” from Israel after “resurrecting Hagia Sophia” as a mosque on Friday [July 10]. The story is here.
The decision to change the status of the ancient Hagia Sophia church, which had been transformed into a mosque in 1453 and then into a museum in 1934, was made controversially last week.
It follows an increasingly religious authoritarian agenda from Ankara that has made Turkey the world’s largest jailer of journalists, seen dissidents imprisoned for “terrorism” and witnessed increasing military invasions of neighboring countries by Turkey.
The resurrection of Hagia Sophia heralds the liberation of the al-Aqsa mosque, the Turkish Presidency website says. “The resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the footsteps of the will of Muslims across the world to come… the resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the reignition of the fire of hope of Muslims and all oppressed, wrong, downtrodden and exploited.”
Erdogan likely thought that the change in the status of Hagia Sophia would be celebrated by Muslims all over the world, but it hasn’t turned out that way. He claims it has brought about the “reignition of the fire of hope”among Muslims, but so far, an insignificant handful of Muslims have praised the “reverting” of Hagia Sophia to its previous status as a mosque. There have been no delirious demonstrations, nor indeed demonstrations of any kind, among Muslims worldwide, save in Turkey itself. Praise came from one minor figure in Pakistan, a local assembly leader of little consequence, one Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. Nothing was heard from Imran Khan, or any other national figure. The Arab Maghreb Union, which is merely a trade group, expressed support, but there was silence from the maghrebin leaders in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya. The Grand Mufti of Oman, Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalili, expressed his support, but no other religious or political figures among the Gulf Arab states did so. The Muslim Brotherhood was pleased — but praise from the Muslim Brotherhood is not exactly helpful to Erdogan’s image and cause, given how many Muslims regard the MB as a mortal threat. Ekrema Sabri, the preacher of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, was satisfied. And finally, the terror group Hamas praised the move: “The opening of Hagia Sophia to prayer is a proud moment for all Muslims,” said Rafat Murra, head of international press office of Hamas, in a written statement. And that was it. Nothing from Egypt, the U.A.E., Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Iran. Nothing from Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen. Nothing from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Nothing from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan. Nothing from the Arab League or the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
What surely amazed and disappointed Erdogan was how, with 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, save for the handful of positive responses I’ve listed, there were no public expressions of support from Muslim leaders. In Saudi Arabia, not only was there no support, but instead fury that Erdogan had unnecessarily antagonized the entire Christian world without, in the Saudi view, accomplishing anything of real value for the world’s Muslims.
The speech [by Erdogan], which was in Turkish, was translated slightly differently in Arabic and English, apparently as a way to hide part of Ankara’s full views on how it has linked Hagia Sophia to a wider agenda.
In Arabic the speech says that turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque is part of the “return of freedom to al-Aqsa,” essentially meaning Israel should be ejected from controlling Jerusalem’s Old City where al-Aqsa is located.
Perhaps Erdogan wanted to appeal, in the Arabic version of his speech, for Muslim Arab support – that has so far not been forthcoming, save from the half-dozen individuals and groups that I’ve listed above – to the change in status of Hagia Sophia, by presenting it as a kind of condition precedent to the next step, the conquest of Al-Aqsa.
What Erdogan does not realize is that the Arabs are alarmed by Turkey’s moves to extend its influence and power in Jerusalem, and especially in the Old City. A war for influence in East Jerusalem has been brewing between Turkey and certain Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia, over the Turkish attempt to expand its power in Jerusalem. The Turkish government has offered trips to Turkey for Jerusalem Arabs, has delivered aid to Arab neighborhoods, has even supplied teachers to the city’s schools. Turkey’s sustainable investment in Jerusalem is multi-dimensional, through a series of civil bodies, NGOs and grassroots organisations undertaking charitable initiatives and educational programs for the benefit of the Palestinian Arabs. The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Association (TIKA) ,with its headquarters in East Jerusalem, has invested millions of dollars in the restoration of the Old City of Jerusalem and the provision of food parcels to vulnerable people there. It has also supported businessmen and entrepreneurs. Arabs in east Jerusalem have been seen waving Turkish flags.
All of this worries the Jordanians and the Saudis, who recognize that Erdogan would like to extend Turkish influence over the Waqf that administers Al-Haram Ash-Sharif (the Temple Mount), including Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The Saudis are now in talks with the Israelis and Jordanians over possible Saudi participation with Jordan in the administration of the Waqf, which until now has been completely in Jordan’s hands, in order to keep Turkey out.
Turkey’s president linked the decision to reviving Islam from Bukhara in Uzbekistan to Andalusia in Spain. This terminology, linking al-Aqsa in Jerusalem to Hagia Sophia and Spain, is a kind of coded terminology for a wider religious agenda. In the Turkish translation the same reference to Spain does not appear to be included as in the Arabic.
Erdogan mentions Spain in the Arabic version of his speech. He apparently did not realize that mentioning Spain in such a context — that of Turkey leading a neo-Ottoman caliphate, stretching from Bukhara to Andalusia — would only anger many Arabs, who consider Spain to belong by right to them, as it was the Arabs, and not Turks, who possessed Islamic Spain for 700 years; Spain was never part of the Ottoman Empire.
As for “liberating Al-Aqsa,” to many Muslim Arabs it already seems “liberated.” In 1967 Israel handed administration of the Temple Mount (with Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock) back to the Waqf, under Jordanian custodianship, while maintaining Israeli security control. Israel has bent over backwards to be solicitous of Muslim sensibilities. Jews and Christians are allowed to visit the Temple Mount only at certain times, and they are prohibited from praying or singing on the Temple Mount. Jordan, through the Waqf, is responsible for all other administrative matters. I suspect that the Arabs collectively will be as unenthusiastic about Erdogan’s attempt to expand Turkish power and influence in Jerusalem – perhaps by winning over Palestinian Arabs to demand that Turkey be allowed to take part in the administration of the Waqf – as they were in 2018 about Erdogan’s plans for a pan-Islamic army.
mortimer says
By turning HG into a mosque, most of the sleeping, oblivious West is unaware of the message: Erdogan is declaring war on everyone. 260 million Orthodox Christians, however, with their massive experience of Islamic domination and persecution, are FULLY AWARE of the message from Erdogan. They are dog meat in the mind of Erdogan. Erdogan is the perfect example of a ‘NEGATIVE NATIONALIST’. He needs an enemy to fight to show the people he is fit to lead. He makes enemies, not friends, just so that people see him as strong. He’s actually a toxic and destructive narcissist.
I don’t know how long Erdogan can FIGHT THE WORLD on his own like this. I doubt the AKP can go on much longer with this loose cannon Erdogan. Surely, the Turks must be getting sick of that man. EU and other Western countries will help Turks to get their country back if they impose sanctions. I hope the sanctions are humiliating for Erdogan. Turkey needs a wake-up call from Europe. They have let this pied piper lure them into an Islamic fantasyland.
gravenimage says
Alas, Russia is saying nothing:
“Why did Moscow call Ankara’s Hagia Sophia decision ‘Turkey’s internal affair’?”
https://www.mei.edu/publications/why-did-moscow-call-ankaras-hagia-sophia-decision-turkeys-internal-affair
william carr says
As I have said many times here
Erdogan is the Hitler of Turkey and the Islamic world in general. He is as ruthless and deceitful as Hitler was in his lust for power. Fortunately the wider Muslim world, unlike most of the Western powers in the thirties, can see him clearly for what he is
David says
It does look that the islamic world is fractured, rather than united, which can only be a good thing. However, I find it difficult to follow who does what to whom, and why.
David says
The EU impose sanctions on Turkey? Have I missed something here?
mortimer says
Praising or encouraging Turkey to revive the Ottoman Empire is the VERY LAST THING that most Arabs and most Muslims from other countries are going to do.
In my experience, Turkey is the MOST HATED country within the Muslim world, exceeding even the hatred towards the US or Israel.
It seems Erdogan is so narcissistic and deluded that he thinks other Muslims actually like Turkey and that they would WANT him to be their ruler and their sultan!
He’s starting to look mental.
Lavéritétriomphera says
In France we have a proverbial phrase that illustrates the severity of the Ottomans toward the Arabs : “Traiter quelqu’un de turc à maure – Imitating the behavior of the Turks towards the Moors (Arabs)” which means that someone is treated very harshly by his oppressor.
mortimer says
Note that the author of Don Quixote was enslaved by the Turks and then sold to North African Moors before being ransomed. Miguel Cervantes’ theme in Don Quixote was the righting of injustice against defenseless people and the liberation of those unjustly and cruelly detained.
william carr says
Mortimer. Thanks for that interesting detail
gravenimage says
+1
mortimer says
Reply to
And, of course, TÊTE DE TURC (English: whipping boy, fall guy, patsy or souffre-douleur).
Orthodox Christians have been made the TÊTE DE TURC of Erdogan.
Lavéritétriomphera says
Bonjour Mortimer,
“Tête de turc” is a 19th century expression. There were dynamometers in the fairs, on which one had to strike as hard as possible. They were represented in the form of a face surmounted by a ribbon. In a figurative sens, “Turk’s head” means a person who is mocked, usually badly.
Amitiés
gravenimage says
Thanks, Lavéritétriomphera.
Janice Mermikli says
Agreed, but “STARTING to look mental”? He’s looked mental for years!
Goofy says
Let us start by boycotting Turkey as a holiday destination and let us boycott their products in our markets.
Buraq says
I suggest that every reference to Erdogan’s reestablishing the Hagia Sophia as a Mosque be described as ‘the redesecration’ of the Hagia Sophia. Hammer the point home relentlessly.
Westman says
Erdogan hasn’t realized that Islam is an Arab religion and Arabs are not going to allow another non-Arab Caliphate?
Mustafa Ataturk set Turkey on the road to progress and economic security. Erdogan is destroying that progress for a mess of pottage and terrorist friends.
Tony Naim says
Whether Arab, Turk, Persian or Kurd, all peoples of the MENA area rely on political Islam to derive their political norms and values, even though they may hate each other’s ethnicities or they may not want to be ruled by each other under a unified Islamic banner, they still share the same aspirations in a political sense.
However, Despite the fact this post focuses more on the poor public support for Erdogan’s theft of Hagia Sophia among Arabs, it conceals the underlying truth of general approval for Erdogan among the public in All Arab countries for his move. Simply because there has not been one single significant voice who opposed this forced conversion among Arabs.
With Islam becoming a global force, especially in the west, the rest of us will never be safe from its malicious political grip without its reform. Let’s not fool ourselves, such reform will come as a result of pressure from without and not from within the Arab world.
Steve says
Exactly
RichardL says
I trained with islamic militaries. They were all comically bad, except one: the Turkish military. Their SOF are on par with what the continental Europeans have. I once chatted with the military attachés of Britain and Switzerland and we talked about the Egyptian military. The Brit estimated that they would need one brigade to destroy the Egyptian military. The Swiss looked at him with an astonished face and responded: surely you mean a battalion! We had a good laugh about it. The Turkish SOF I trained with had no respect for the other islamic armies either and never headbanged with them but had beers with us.
jewdog says
The good news is that Turkey is now an adversary to several entities outside of Israel: the Syrian regime, the Libyan LNA, Egypt, the Saudis, Greece, Cyprus, the Kurds etc. That takes the heat off of Israel to an extent and ultimately it harms Erdogan. The Turkish economy is also in bad shape. Hagia Sofia was a distraction from his failures.
SAFI says
Nothing from Egypt, the U.A.E., Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Iran. Nothing from Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen. Nothing from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Nothing from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan. Nothing from the Arab League or the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
With respect to Mr Fitzgerald but one can make an even longer list of all the Christian countries and institutions who remained silent before this major provocation(not the first in Erdogan’s long running cultural jihad btw) or those christians who did make a statement but which was nonetheless a pathetically weak one, usually something-something “tolerance”, something-something “we are concerned” or something-something “this is a universal momument that brings different faiths together” etc etc all the while the muslims I’ve seen who did speak, all unequivocally affirmed the Hagia Sophia belongs rightfully to Islam and Muslims only, full stop and it’s none of our kafirs business.
…Also it’s not accurate that Iran made no statements…
https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/07/14/iran-felt-joy-when-hagia-sophia-was-converted/
Abbas Mousavi, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said they were happy to see the opening of Hagia Sophia for Islamic worship.
Mousavi commented saying: “For the opening of Hagia Sophia for worship, which was accepted with satisfaction by the people of Turkey and Muslims, we also felt joy.”
Referring to the reactions of some countries to this decision, he said that “The situation of Hagia Sophia is an internal matter of Turkey. “This is an issue that needs to be assessed in the context of Turkey’s national sovereignty.”
gravenimage says
Arabs React to Erdogan’s Big Plans
………….
The Arabs have good reason to be leery of efforts to revive the Ottoman Empire. Of course, Christians and Jews suffered the most. but Arab Muslims did not fare well, either.
elee says
Let ’em fight it out, and a plague on both their houses.
Patrick B. Ludwig says
Arabs and other people – muslim or not – have not forgotten the brutal oppression they suffered by the hands of Turkey.
For centuries the corrupt ottoman empire suppressed, enslaved and looted its provinces, subjecting the people to torture, imprisonment and even to genocide, vs. Armenia, Greece, Bulgaria, Kurdistan etc.
All of this while purporting to be the legitimate Califate and the leaders of all muslims. And they gathered enormous riches by this claim.
After choosing the wrong side in tge Great War, they were finally sacked and chased away in disgrace. Not last by the uprising of their oppressed provinces.
For these reasons, Turks from Anatolia – a bastard people, not to be confused with real Turks of noble Turkic origin – are among the most hated people in the near and middle East. In fact, they are even hated by Central Asian, aka. true Turks, for their never ending claim to supremacy.
Erdogan is a very typical specimen of this bastardisation. Nobody can trace his origins. He embodies a mischmasch of just about every people in and around the the black sea, the mediterranean and everybody else passing through the region, leaving their genetic traces in Asia Minor.
A reinstatement of anything similar to the ottoman empire will be met with the greatest scepticism and opposition by the rest of the muslim world.
SAFI says
I’m afraid that’s not entirely true. Not everyone in the muslim world is equally opposed to the “neo-ottoman” vision. In certain countries (like Pakistan for example) there is a good number of people who actually view the idea of Turkey leading the “Ummah” positively. In my experience of talking to muslims I’d say even among different parts of the Arab world there seems to be significant variation in how an “Arab” from Egypt(which used to be under direct turkish rule) and an “Arab” from Algeria(Barbary states were only under nominal ottoman protection but de facto independent) might view the (neo)ottomans
Lavéritétriomphera says
Pakistan was part of India.
Peoples have short memories but the Ottoman Empire is finished. No Arabic governments want to compromise their independence for Turkey’s benefit.
gravenimage says
Other Muslims want to be head of the Caliphate, as well…
gravenimage says
The problem with Turkey is not one of ethnicities. The problem is Islam.
OLD GUY says
He is an islamic cult leader wanting to rule the world. Little man wanting to be just like Hitler.
Martin Bernard Vink says
This sounds like Revelation 17:11. Must be coincidental. There were not seven Caliphates were there?