Turkey, the Revived Ottoman Empire, the Strategic Importance of the Bosporus, and Ezekiel

Submitted by Michael S, Aug 16, 2017 at 07:04

Hi, Plamen

I was just commenting on Israpundit about Kurdistan, comparing the breakup of the Ottoman Empire to the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Your living in Bulgaria is therefore significant to me, as I ponder these things. Specifically, I was pondering the fact that over the centuries, certain empires have arisen that ignore the constraints of national identities such as "Kurds", "Bulgarians" and "Slovenians".

One such empire is the Ottoman Empire, centered on Constantinople/ Istanbul. Modern Turkey is a diminished continuation of that Empire, whose major geographic feature is control of the Bosporus. Before the Ottoman Turks, the Bosporus was controlled by the Byzantine Greeks and Romans; and it is curious how closely the Ottoman Empire, at its greatest extent, paralleled the Eastern Roman Empire (under Justinian) at its greatest extent.

The key was and is control of the Bosporus. It was important in the past, because it commanded the important land and sea routes to China. Today, it controls access of the Russian Black Sea Fleet to the Mediterranean; and as China develops its "One Belt, One Road" policy, it will again become important in its original function.

Erdogan is certainly using Islam to forge a personal bond with the Turkish masses. He will continue to use Islam, particularly the Sunni flavor of it, to incorporate disgruntled Sunnis from areas recently taken from ISIS (I expect him to move into and annex the Syrian Kurdish areas, soon after the US abandons them). It is not his Sunni religion, though, nor a nostalgic longing for the "good old" Ottoman days alone that are drawing him to a vision of Imperial revival: the new geographic importance of the Bosporus is also a significant factor.

Just this past week, I was rather shocked to see that Erdogan had stopped his support of the anti-Assad rebels in Syria "as a favor to the Russians and Syrians". In fact, this MAJOR shift in stated objectives in Syria opens the way for a full-blown strategic partnership with Iran. That partnership is an essential part of the Biblical prophecy of the Turko-Iranian attack on Israel, mentioned in Ezekiel 38-39. While people have been speculating all over the map about the Syrian theater over the past few years, the momentum toward that prophecy has been a steady guideline. We'll see how it develops.

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