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Erdogan wants the Ottoman Empire, not Europe

Reader comment on item: Erdoğan Leads Turkey to the Precipice
in response to reader comment: EU rescues the sultan....

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Oct 21, 2015 at 13:17

Hi, Alexandros. You said,

Can anybody answer how visa policy and opening negotiation chapters with EU help the Turkish authorities tackle human trafficking? Doesn't thic mean automatically that Erdogan uses refugees as a leverage towards EU and that he either can control human trafficking as he wish or that he is just promising empty letters? How can Europeans brag over such negotiations where they are treated as stupids by the sultan?

It is stupid, as you say, to think of allowing Turkey into the Schengen zone, which would put all refugees in Turkey immediately inside the heart of Europe. Angela Merckel is simply trying to make a deal with the "sultan", as you correctly call the one who sits on a golden throne in a 1000-room palace, swapping favors (short of EU membership) in return for not letting so many migrants through into Greece (and thence to Germany). Erdogan knows he holds all the cards here, and does not intend to fall for Merckel's bluff.

If I were Erdogan, I would press the Germans, instead, to back, both politically and militarily, the establishment of a "no fly" zone in northern Syria that essentially would become a "No Kurd" zone. Erdogan has continued to flirt with the Europeans, while making his real play in the Middle East. He knows he's not a "European" but a Muslim who wants to create a Sharia caliphate centered on himself (with his right-hand man Goebbels, in the person of Davotuglu). Any dealings with Europe are simply leverage to obtain that ultimate goal. His territorial ambitions in Europe, so far as I can see, are to become master of Greece and Serbia, not a pawn of Germany.

Turkey is interesting to me, in the way it fits in with the prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39. The Ottoman Empire was at its peak in the 1600s, when the Polish captain John Sobieski drove his forces from the field before Vienna. By the time of Napoleon, around 1800, the Empire was in rapid decline; and over then next 120 years, it was parcelled out among the European powers. Even today, not many people seriously contemplate Turkey as ever becoming more than a regional power; but the power of russia has loomed in people's thinking while the Ottomans have faded from memory. For this reason, most students of prophecy have thought that Russia was somehow the "Gog" of Ezekiel 38. I have maintained for years, however, that everything in that passage of scripture points to Turkey. With the arrival of a nationalist tyrant there who openly challenges the great powers and puts on imperial pretensions, people should seriously consider the writings of Ezekiel.

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Reader comments (20) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
1And the sad part is that Israel will gallop to the rescue [141 words]Anon.Feb 21, 2016 09:01228175
Excellent Analysis [31 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Gary SackOct 23, 2015 11:18226032
1But Washington position is indeed ambiguous [100 words]BorisGFeb 21, 2016 11:00226032
the old lines on the map have run their course [24 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
David W. LincolnOct 22, 2015 17:07226014
1EU rescues the sultan.... [215 words]AlexandrosOct 19, 2015 14:39225708
1Demoracy [69 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
IsaacOct 19, 2015 11:03225706
Turkish democracy detailed [154 words]Michael SOct 23, 2015 02:56225706
1EU rescues the sultan.... [215 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
AlexandrosOct 18, 2015 21:29225694
Erdogan wants the Ottoman Empire, not Europe [443 words]Michael SOct 21, 2015 13:17225694
Jerusalem Did Not Figure in the Center of the Ottoman Life [289 words]M. ToveyOct 26, 2015 15:49225694
Prophecies concerning Turkey [727 words]Michael SOct 28, 2015 06:54225694
How Far North...Again? [48 words]M ToveyNov 2, 2015 18:46225694
The tyranny of democracy [30 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Vadim AnshelevichOct 18, 2015 01:02225682
not surprised [12 words]krauser robertOct 17, 2015 22:13225680
Support Turkish Seculars and Kurds [214 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
DaveOct 17, 2015 08:56225677
On NATO Expulsion [28 words]DaveOct 20, 2015 20:03225677
erdogan and obama [64 words]DianneOct 17, 2015 00:25225673
Erdogan is no fool [28 words]SunshineOct 16, 2015 21:52225671
Asynchronous development [82 words]George KeselmanOct 16, 2015 20:12225669
Isnt Erdogan a bit like Obama'? [81 words]Jacques HadidaOct 16, 2015 19:43225668

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