By Jonathan Spyer.
The Turkish leader sounds and acts as an enemy of Israel. It is time for him to be properly recognized as such.
On July 28, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appeared to threaten violence against Israel. Speaking in his hometown of Rize, Erdogan said: "We must be very strong so that Israel cannot do these ridiculous things to Palestine. “Just as we entered Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we could do the same with them.”
Erdogan's comments were widely reported. However, Reuters He noted that the Turkish president "did not explain what kind of intervention he was suggesting." It is true that the Turkish Islamist leader did not go into details. However, the statements cited offer a clue as to what he was referring to, which deserves further attention.
Erdogan's choice of examples should be carefully noted. After all, Türkiye has carried out many military interventions in its recent history.
Just half a century ago this year, Turkish airborne forces carried out a swift invasion into Cyprus. Turkish troops are currently engaged in an indefinite incursion into Iraq against the insurgent Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).
However, the Turkish president chose not to refer to any of these feats of the Turkish armed forces. Instead, he mentioned two recent, minor interventions: in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.
It can be assumed that he did not choose these examples at random. It is therefore worth taking a look at Ankara's form of intervention in these conflicts, to be aware of what the Turkish president may be hoping to prepare for Israel.
Turkish interventions in Libya and Karabakh, unlike those in Cyprus and Iraq, were mainly characterized by the important role played by non-state organizations and combatants proxies [proxies].
In 2020, I carried out an in-depth study of Turkey's interventions in Libya and Karabakh, in cooperation with my colleague Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a native of Turkey. We observe that in both cases, the recruitment and deployment of combatants proxies It was managed by the Turkish private security company SADAT, under contract from the Turkish Government.
SADAT International Defense Consulting Company was founded in 2012 as the only private defense consulting company in Turkey. The company was founded by Brigadier General (retired) Adnan Tanriverdi and 22 comrades-in-arms who were expelled from the Turkish Armed Forces for their support of political Islam. Melih Tanriverdi, Adnan's son, is the current CEO of the group.
A strong relationship to fuel the flames
Tanriverdi Sr. and Erdogan have known each other since 1994, when both served in Istanbul, Erdogan as mayor and Tanriverdi as commander of the city's Maltepe military base. The two leaders forged a strong relationship. Following the failed July 2016 coup attempt, Tanriverdi was appointed senior military advisor to Erdogan.
He then led a comprehensive reform of the Army. He closed the military academies, which were bastions of Turkish secularism, and replaced them with a National Defense University. The latter institution recruited students from Imam Hatip religious schools.
On January 8, 2020, Tanriverdi had to resign due to a controversial speech at the third Congress of the International Islamic Union in December 2019.
In Libya, SADAT recruited among Turkish-aligned Syrian rebel fighters and was responsible for their enlistment, travel and deployment to Libya in defense of the Muslim Brotherhood-associated Government of National Accord (GNA) of Fayez al Sarraj.
On the ground in the country, SADAT worked in close cooperation with a Palestinian Islamist, Fawzi Boukatif, in the deployment of Syrian fighters.
According to a report by the US Army Africa Command, submitted to the US Office of Inspector General on August 28, 2020, approximately 5.000 Syrians fought with the GNA in Libya. The report, according Jane's Information Group, noted that "Syrians fighting for the GAN are paid and supervised by 'several dozen' military trainers from a Turkish company called SADAT, which also trains militias aligned with the GAN."
These fighters played an important role in the Sarraj Government's successful expulsion of General Khalifa Hafter's forces from the entire Tripoli area.
Similarly, in Nagorno-Karabakh, SADAT recruited and deployed Syrian fighters, in cooperation with the official Turkish Armed Forces.
Fighters were offered monthly fees of between $1.500 and $2.000 for agreeing to serve in the South Caucasus. The contracts were for three to six months. The main recruitment centers were in the cities of Afrin, al Bab, Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad. The fighters crossed the border at Kilis and were then transported to Gaziantep airport. From there, SADAT chartered A-400 transport planes and flew them to Istanbul Airport, and from there they boarded flights to Baku, Azerbaijan.
SADAT is unlikely to charter planes and send fighters to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank any time soon. But the model under which the Turkish state cooperates and contracts with ostensibly private Islamist bodies to pursue objectives that go beyond Ankara's official diplomatic objectives and relations deserves close examination.
In fact, SADAT has a great interest in Israel. Tanriverdi, in a 2019 speech translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, said that "the Islamic world should prepare an army for Palestine from outside Palestine. “Israel should know that if it bombs [Palestine], a bomb will also fall on Tel Aviv.”
The interest seems to be more than merely rhetorical. In 2018, the Shabak (Israel Security Agency) accused the organization of transferring funds to Hamas. A Turkish academic, Cemil Tekeli, was arrested by Israeli security agents and charged with money laundering. Later, Tekeli's photo with Tanriverdi also appeared in the newspaper Makor Rishon.
Following the October 7 attacks, a group of experts maintained by SADAT issued a statement in support of Hamas' actions. The declaration proposed the formation and deployment of an "Islamic army" to end Israel's "occupation."
Thus, Erdogan's listeners would have understood well what their president meant with his statements. The Turkish leader was implying that proxy warfare methods [proxies] that have characterized Turkish activity in the region over the last decade could also be applied to the Israeli-Palestinian context.
Erdogan is known for his rhetorical verbosity and flamboyance. In this case, however, it would be a mistake to dismiss his statements as mere talk.
Turkey's continued domiciliation of an active Hamas office and provision of Turkish passports to Hamas operatives is a matter of public record.
In July 2023, Israeli customs authorities intercepted 16 tons of explosive material on its route from Turkey to Gaza, disguised as construction material. Therefore, Erdogan and Turkey's support for Hamas is already well beyond the realm of rhetoric.
Proxy war activities need to be closely monitored [proxies] of Türkiye and, in particular, the role of SADAT.
The Turkish leader sounds and acts like an enemy of Israel. It is time for him to be properly recognized as such.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
BECAUSE HE IS AN ISLAMIST ANTI THE STATE AND THE LEGITIMATE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, HIS RACE WAS ALWAYS LIKE THIS, WILD, ANTI-SEMIST, AND ANTI HUMANITY LIVES ISRAEL.
SAVAGE ARE THE ZIONISTS KILLERS KILLING CHILDREN, SAVAGE IS NETANYAHU AND ALL OF HIS TEAM OF KILLERS, HIM AND HIS TEAM ARE THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE LOCKED UP FOR MURDERERS SSSSSSSSSSSSSS
The answer to the question is simple: Because Turkey is a member of NATO and if there is a war it will want to invoke Article 5, which would make Israel have to fight against France, Great Britain, the United States (The three countries with nuclear weapons) , Germany and all of Europe (Plus Canada and Turkey)