MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : ERDOGAN’S INVASION IN RELIGIOUS TERMS OF TRADE
Special Dispatch No. 8359 | November 11, 2019 MEMRI – The Middle East Media Research Institute
Turkish Government, Twitter Users Describe Invasion Of Northeast Syria In Religious Terms: ‘The Lord Commands Us To Be Violent Against The Unbelievers’; ‘In Times Of Jihad’ A Muslim Army Makes ‘Its Enemies’ Blood Flow Thunderously Like Waterfalls’
Introduction
On October 9, 2019, the Turkish military began bombarding northeast Syria ahead of its invasion of the region. Its campaign has continued since then as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pursues his stated goal of a “safe zone” 32 kilometers deep inside Syrian territory along the Turkey-Syria border. Since the invasion began, the Turkish government, including the Ministry of Religious Affairs and President Erdoğan himself, have described the invasion in religious terms, as have members of the Turkish press. Members of the Turkish public have voiced their support for the invasion in religious terms on Twitter.
Invasion Framed In Religious Terms By Turkish President, Ministry Of Religious Affairs, And Press: ‘The Lord Commands Us To Be Violent Against The Unbelievers’
In the evening on October 9, hours after the invasion began, Turkey’s Ministry Of Religious Affairs announced that Chapter 48 of the Quran, titled Al-Fath (“The Conquest”), would be recited and prayers would be offered for the success of the invasion at morning prayer the following day at 90,000 mosques across Turkey. A video uploaded to the Internet on October 9 shows Turkish soldiers riding a bus reportedly heading to the Turkey-Syria border listening to a recitation of the same chapter of the Quran.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs issued on October 11 its weekly Friday sermon, which cited Quran 9:20: “Those who have faith and migrate and who make jihad in the path of Allah with their property and their lives are greater in rank in the sight of Allah. And it is those who are the attainers.” The sermon, delivered at 90,000 mosques across Turkey, also cited a hadith compiled by both Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim: “Oh people! Do not wish to meet your enemy [in battle]. Ask Allah [that you] stay far from curses and calamities, but when you do meet your enemy, be patient, and know that paradise is under the shade of swords.” The sermon warned the congregations that “those who wish to erase us from the stage of history have never given up their labors. But those who are eyeing our homeland, which is watered with the sacred blood of our martyrs, who want to divide up our nation, are condemned to lose today just as they did yesterday.”
On October 25, in a speech after the Friday sermon at the Çamlica Mosque in Istanbul, President Erdoğan said: “The Lord commands us to be violent against the unbelievers. Who is that ‘we’? Muhammad’s ummah. But he commands us to be merciful among ourselves. We will be merciful among ourselves, and we will be violent against the unbelievers, as happened in Syria.” In an October 11 column on Akittv.com.tr, Turkish columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak wrote of the invasion: “We are not demons throwing the people’s bodies into hell as wood, we are the soldiers of salvation trying to save them from the fire of hell. In our tradition, the prestige and magnitude of our victory will be measured not by how much blood is spilled, but by how little. The soldiers of jihad going on the path to martyrdom show fastidiousness in their duties to Allah.”
Erdoğan Praises Jihadis Who Two Days Earlier Were Filmed Mutilating Corpses Of Kurdish Fighters: “They Are People Who Frighten Death… Who Pursue Death”
Fourteen thousand fighters from the Syrian National Army, also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, have been fighting alongside the Turkish Armed Forces in its invasion of northeast Syria. On October 22, a video of members of the Syrian National Army’s Faylaq Al-Majd mutilating the corpses of Kurdish soldiers near Kobani, Syria was uploaded to the Internet. The man filming the video said: “The corpses of the PKK and YPG pigs are under the feet of the mujahideen of Faylaq Al-Majd.” Pointing at one of the slain women, he said: “This is one of the whores you sent to us.” The men in the group chanted: “Allah akbar!” The following day, at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special representative for Syria James Jeffrey said of the Syrian National Army that “many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes.”
In an 80-minute interview broadcast on October 24 on Turkey’s state-run TRT news network, President Erdoğan answered questions regarding the invasion. In that interview, he said of the Syrian National Army: “In this battle, there is the Turkish Armed Forces, but along with it, which we must not forget, is the Syrian National Army. The Syrian National Army, along with our armed forces, entered this battle in a self-sacrificing way, and up to today they have had 97 martyrs. And, as you know, we have 20 civilian and seven military martyrs. Their number of injured is much higher than ours. And they are people who frighten death. They are people who pursue death.”
Turkish Twitter Users Support Invasion In Religious Terms, Referring To Jihad, Martyrdom, Unbelievers, And “Caliph RTErdoğan”
Many Twitter users referred to the invasion in religious terms. All the tweets in this report included the hashtag #OperationPeaceFountain, indicating that they were in reference to the invasion, and they are here categorized loosely into those that mention jihad, martyrdom, unbelievers, President Erdoğan as caliph, and the Turkish army as mujahideen, “the Army of Muhammad,” and “the army of Islam,” though many of the tweets used more than one of these terms. While many tweets were entirely original, others quoted various sources, including: Quran verses, hadiths, religious scholars, companions of Muhammad, historical figures such as 11th century Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan, 12th century sultan Saladin, 13th century founder of the Mongol Empire Genghis Khan, and 15th century Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, and Turkish poets such as Yahya Kemal, Arif Nihat Asya, and Ekrem Şama.
While most of the images in the tweets are of Turkish soldiers, sometimes praying and sometimes in combat, other images include: a Turkish flag modified to include Quran verses about conquest; and a map of Turkey expanded to include within Turkey’s borders much of what is now northern Syria and Iraq, as well as Greece, Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, and Cyprus. Another image used in the tweets showed Turkmen fighters from the Syrian National Army using a Turkish nationalist hand gesture. Some tweets had Ottoman themes, including an image of the Ottoman coat of arms, a flag used by the Committee of Union and Progress, references to an Ottoman marching song, and a message to President Erdoğan from one user that “if Allah grants it we will make you sultan, we will establish the Ottoman [state] and make you the caliph.”