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Turkey is a dangerous Islamic supremacist state under its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has expansionary goals of a revived Ottoman Empire with himself as caliph. And he’s getting closer. Now Erdogan is threatening Israel over Syria: “Israel rebuffs ‘imperialist’ Turkey after Erdogan says it must withdraw from Syria,” by Amy Spiro, Times of Israel, January 15, 2025:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Israel must withdraw its forces from Syria or it will cause “unfavorable outcomes for everyone.”
“The aggressive actions of the forces attacking Syrian territory, Israel, in particular, must come to an end as soon as possible,” he said during a meeting of his party in Ankara.
“Everyone should take their hands off Syria and we, along with our Syrian brothers, will crush the heads of Islamic State, the YPG and other terrorist organizations in a short time.”….
To which the Israeli Foreign Ministry rightly responded:
The aggressive imperialist actor in Syria (as well as in northern Cyprus, Libya, and other areas in the Middle East) is Turkey itself, and it is advisable for the Turkish president to avoid unnecessary threats. The State of Israel will continue to act to protect its borders from any threat.
The West needs to wake up to see the full threat that Turkey poses to Western interests. Erdogan has has practically declared Syria to be Turkish territory, with the new jihadist thugs now ruling as his proxies. Turkey’s Syrian “brothers” are the new al-Qaeda-linked jihadists under Syrian leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who now goes by the name Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa. Al-Sharaa was leader of the Syrian opposition, the Salafist Al-Nusra Front, a.k.a. the Front for the Conquest of the Levant. Its goal was conquest: to overthrow Al-Assad and establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law. He became leader of the offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
A little background about HTS will demonstrate how grim the Turkish-Syrian alliance is for the West, and how the HTS is aligned with Erdogan’s grandiose visions: Abu Jaber Shaykh preceded Ahmed al-Sharaa. He was a Syrian rebel commander and senior leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). He stated the purpose for which HTS was formed: “to safeguard the gains of the revolution and the land that was liberated with the blood of thousands of martyrs.” He also declared HTS to be the merger of all opposition factions; all others were “dissolved and disintegrated.” His declaration was intended “to distance HTS from the legacy of al Qaeda’s official arm,” which he and others (including Ahmed al-Sharaa) now argue “no longer exists.” Abu Jaber ushered in a unified “blessed revolution” to topple Assad’s regime, and stated that his “brothers” in HTS were at “the forefront of the Syrian jihad.” He warned “all Sunnis in Syria of the dire circumstances they would face should the war be lost.”
Erdogan likewise calls the new Syrian leadership his “brothers.” Erdogan also endorsed the Taliban, and stated that “Turkey has nothing that contradicts their beliefs.” Last month, the Taliban congratulated the Syrian jihadist rebels, and expressed the hope that “the power transition in Syria would lead to the establishment of a government aligned with ‘the aspirations of the people and Islamic values.’”
Turkish ambitions for regional hegemony are advancing quickly. The worst thing the West can do would be to normalize relations with Syria and fund it under the pretense of humanitarian aid, since the money will certainly end up in the coffers of the HTS, just as it did the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Another significant player affected by the Turkish-Syrian accord is the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which played a vital role as an American ally in Syria during the military campaign against the Islamic State. The SDF has also successfully targeted Islamic State sleeper cells that are “scattered across the country’s east.” But Turkey views the Kurds, who seek an independent state, as mortal enemies. And thus Ankara sees the SDF as an affiliate of its enemy. the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkey has thousands of its troops in northern Syria and backs its proxy forces there. Since the fall of Assad, fighting has intensified between the SDF and the Turkish backed Syrian National Forces (SNF) “over control of the Tishrin water dam on the Euphrates River. The SNA aims to expand its territory in SDF-controlled regions east of the Euphrates,” which would translate as a victory for Turkey as well.
The Kurds benefit from Western support, while their Turkish opponents (and Saudi Arabia) embrace Syria’s new jihadist leadership and are seeking to legitimize it by calling on dhimmi Western leaders to lift sanctions. Yet even French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated his support for Syria’s Kurds, and pledged “not to abandon ‘freedom fighters.’”
To support the new Syrian jihadist regime would be to betray the Kurds.
Recently, General Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), requested that Trump maintain the 2000 American military troops in the region, “warning that a retreat would risk a resurgence of Islamic State in the country.” Abdi also warned that ISIS have been plotting to “strike detention centres holding IS prisoners.” They hoped to “take advantage” of the fact that Kurdish forces were “’mainly having their hands full’ in defending their region from Turkey and its allied Syrian National Army (SNA).”
10,000 ISIS fighters are jailed inside Syrian detention centers, while and tens of thousands more of their jihadi family members are in displaced person camps. This potentially enormous army of jihadists is a grave threat to the region and the world.
Iran, meanwhile, has reportedly agreed to supply 1,500 suicide drones to the Kurdish YPG/PKK group in Syria, in order to “counter Turkey’s military operations.” This does not reflect on the Kurds any more than the fact that Iran offered to send firefighters to combat wildfires in Los Angeles reflects on the U.S. Iran is desperate and on the defensive, and knows what a Trump administration means for it: crippling sanctions.
The only positive here is the Shia and Sunni sectarian divide, which leads jihadists to kill jihadists and stymie each others’ goals.
The situation in Syria is grave: Turkey and Saudi Arabia want the West to accept the new al-Qaeda linked jihadist Syrian leader Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa as legitimate, when in reality, he’s a dangerous, lying jihadist whose polished Western demeanor is no more than a scheme. Turkey wants to wipe out the SDF and the Kurdish desire for an independent state, while it also wants Israel out of Syria. Turkey is a NATO member which urgently deserves to be expelled. If that is not legally possible, then NATO should be dissolved and reestablished under a new alliance minus Turkey.
It’s critical that Turkey, which every day shows itself more clearly to be an inveterate foe of Israel and the West, be stymied in its efforts to use Syria to expand its Islamic imperialist ambitions. It has become more menacing and emboldened since the fall of Assad, as that outcome was devised by Turkey, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.