New in PJ Media:
Old Joe Biden’s congratulatory message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon his highly questionable (hey, what election isn’t these days?) reelection was boilerplate from whoever writes his tweets, but nevertheless, it revealed yet again the growing gap between the world views of the two men. That gap has serious geopolitical implications that go all the way back to the anniversary that was observed on the day after the Turkish strongman’s reelection: May 29 marked 570 years since the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks and the extinguishing, after over two thousand years of continual existence, of the Roman Empire.
Biden’s Twitter wonk wrote on Sunday afternoon: “Congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Türkiye on his re-election. I look forward to continuing to work together as NATO Allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges.” (Türkiye is what the nation of Turkey has renamed itself so as to minimize comparisons with a certain Thanksgiving bird. Yes, really.) Biden’s mouthpiece is blandly pleased about the prospect of the U.S. “continuing to work together as NATO Allies” with Erdogan’s Turkey, but Erdogan and his supporters have a very different set of priorities.
To celebrate Erdogan’s victory, his followers gathered in Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia mosque and screamed “Allahu akbar,” which does not mean “God is great,” as the Western establishment media routinely claims, but rather, “Allah is greater,” that is, greater than your god. It is a declaration of supremacy with immense implications. Hagia Sophia was built in the year 537 and stood for nearly a thousand years as the grandest and foremost cathedral in the entire Christian world. Then on May 29, 1453, the Ottoman Turks finally succeeded in entering Constantinople, which Islamic jihadis had been trying to do for nearly eight hundred years. Amid unfathomable bloodshed, the Sultan Mehmed II had the Islamic profession of faith proclaimed inside the great cathedral, and was converted to a mosque.
Hagia Sophia then stood for centuries as the Ottoman Empire’s statement of the superiority and supremacy of Islam over Christianity. By the early twentieth century, however, the Ottoman Empire had become “the sick man of Europe.” After siding with Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I, it disintegrated altogether. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the strongman of the newly constituted secular Turkish Republic, attributed the empire’s decline and fall to Islam, which he called “this theology of an immoral Arab” and dismissed as “a dead thing.” In 1934, Ataturk converted Hagia Sophia into a museum, and so instead of being a symbol of Islam’s triumph over Christianity, it became a symbol of secularism’s triumph over Islam.
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Hoi Polloi says
Leave it to a muslim, BHO, and his morally and intellectually decrepit puppet to proclaim Erdogan an ally.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
In the meantime, while remaining a part of NATO (which his opponent in the elections had promised to pull out off, and at least remove the veneer of Turkey & the west being allies), Turkey has signed agreements w/ Syria, Iran & Russia, created a Turkic bloc w/ the ex-stan states, created an alliance w/ Pakistan and has feelers out to Afghanistan
Which is one reason that the US needs to pull out of NATO, and let it morph into a defense alliance for Europe, be it w/ or w/o “Türkiye”
Hoi Polloi says
Absolutely, the US needs to pull out of NATO. I would prefer a US exit from the UN, as well. One can hope.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, I hope the next GOP president does precisely that. Especially Trump. We have to turn our undivided attention towards the Indo-Pacific: at this point, Europe, important though it is, is a hobbyhorse of the Foreign Policy establishment
John Smith says
As I’ve mentioned here before dates seem to be of great significance to Erdogan. So choosing May 29th for his reelection was no coincidence as this was the date Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks.
It was also no coincidence that Erdogan chose to invade Syria on Wednesday 25 August 2016, Because on Wednesday 25 August 1516 the Ottoman Turks also invaded Syria, sparking the takeover of the middle east. Exactly 500 years to the day. Most certainly not a coincidence.
John Smith says
To Robert Spencer,
It seems to me that you are the only one to have made the connection between Erdogans reelection and the fall of Constantinople.
This is not a coincidence it will most certainly happen again. You are the scholar here Robert.,so please keep us informed the next time he comes up with a date, because this is of the utmost importance.
somehistory says
Two great comments, John.
And you are certainly correct that Mr. Spencer gives us all a lot of informative food for thought.
John Smith says
Thank you Somehistory
MD Anthony says
Erdogan will not allow a senile President to insruct him. He can now turn yo Russua and/or China for aircrsaft.
somehistory says
“Turkey has renamed itself” Türkiye
That’s a cause for being thankful. Poor bird suffers enough without having to share its name with a nation full of itself ,and ready for war; enabling a dictator and murderous mozlum.
The Book of Revelation says the nations are being gathered together for Armageddon.
The Book of Ezekiel says the nations to the north of Israel would gather together to fight against the tiny country “without a wall.”