BY APPO JABARIAN
Executive Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine (English-language print edition)
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Much of the devout Muslims around the world now have come to realize that Ankara has been exploiting the political Islam for several decades.
In direct contrast to devout Turkish followers of Holy Islam in Turkey and especially God-fearing Konya, officialdom Ankara has been long-exploiting the Muslims worldwide feigning being ‘Fellow’ Muslims. For decades, Turkey mistreated rich Muslim countries to siphon off billions of dollars only to turn against them by showing its true persona.
Like his Ottoman predecessors, neo-Ottoman Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies in his faltering Justice and Development Party (Turkish: “Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP”) have long been suspected of being deeply involved in several extremist terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and others.
Azerbaijan’s despotic President Ilham Aliyev is Erdogan’s junior partner in the exploitation of political Islam.
Recently, Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ally, chairman of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and Sen. Robert Menendez’s false accuser Akif Cagatay Kilic visited the United States to help rescue Turkey’s deteriorating public image as a pariah state and a major international sponsor of terrorism.
According to certain diplomatic sources in Washington DC, Mr. Kilic’s U.S. ‘mission’ “potentially entailed delivery of veiled Turkish threats to the United States boasting that “Turkey can flood Europe and the United States with millions of refugees including thousands of embedded ISIS terrorists.’”
Mr. Kilic has been a suspected secret supporter and/or possibly an enabler of a number of terrorist organizations. During the past decade, the Erdogan government has been heavily linked to ISIS and other terrorist organizations. By default, many Turkish government officials are some type of secret allies or facilitators of ISIS and other terrorist groups. During Fall of 2020, Turkey has actively recruited thousands of terrorists from Turkish-occupied northern Syria and Pakistan and dispatched them to various parts of the world including Libya and the Armenian Republic of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh.
Erdogan and a number of his Turkish allies are accused of being top supporters of ISIS/Al-Qaeda; a proponent of a series of war crimes perpetrated by his Turkish, Azerbaijani and ISIS terrorist allies during the 44-day terrorist aggression against Armenians in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh in Fall 2020.
Adding to Turkish woes, a few weeks ago, the United States government placed Turkey on a list of countries accused of recruiting children as soldiers. Turkey’s inclusion in the list also marks the first time a NATO member is cited in the Child Soldier Prevention Act (CSPA) list, according to senior U.S. officials, reported Ahval News on July 01.
Turkey and Azerbaijan are the world’s most aggressive confiscators, desecrators and destroyers of Christian churches in many cases, converting them into stables or mosques. Several knowledgeable Western observers note that “The destruction of several Christian churches and for that matter Muslim places of worship in northern Syria and parts of Iraq are linked to ISIS and other extremist terrorists that are directly bankrolled by Turkey.”
Erroneously certain Western entities equate Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s actions as acts by Muslim entities. In reality, both Turkey and Azerbaijan are facing growing criticism in the Muslim world for abusing their status as ‘Muslim’ countries and exploiters of political Islam. There are numerous devout Muslim individuals, organizations and states that are categorically opposed to the exploitation of Political Islam.
As a longtime student of Devout Muslim vs. Political Islam studies, it is my humble opinion that the West must foster a discerning eye to accurately differentiate between Devout Muslims and Turkish, Azerbaijan, Pakistani, and certain Arab exploiters of Political Islam.
Lucky for Christians in the Middle East, there are millions of devout Muslims who do not support or approve of the existence and/or exploitation of Political Islam. As you may notice, there are literally hundreds of Christian churches throughout Arab and Iranian Middle East extending from the Persian Gulf all the way to North Africa’s Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. None of them have been targeted for destruction except by exploiters of Political Islam such as Turkey, Azerbaijan and Pakistan and their proxies in Turkish-occupied or ISIS-controlled northern Syria and Iraq.
There is a stark contrast between a host of Christian-friendly Muslim majority states such as Iran, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Egypt and others on the one side vs. Turkey and Azerbaijan on the other. While Iran is credited for allocating a sizable portion of its state budget for the upkeep of Armenian and other Christian holy places in Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan — the exploiters of Political Islam have been systematically destroying Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and other Christian places of worship or converting them into warehouses or mosques. Forcibly converting churches into mosques in Muslim Arab world or Iran? It’s unheard of. Whereas forcible conversion of such Christian places of worship into mosques or outright destroying them is commonplace in Turkish-occupied Western Armenia, Turkish-occupied Armenian Cilicia, Turkish-occupied Assyrian Merdin, Turkish-occupied Greek Pontus, Turkish-occupied Smyrna and Turkish-occupied Constantinople, Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus; Azerbaijani-occupied Armenian Nakhichevan and Azerbaijani-occupied segments of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh.
There are definitely devout Turk Muslims. But does Turkey and Azerbaijan care about The Muslim religion? Absolutely not! All they care about is the exploitation of Holy Islam for Turkic/neo-Ottoman expansion into the Middle East and Central Asia. Turkey is also exploiting the West by feigning being a ‘champion’ of Democracy in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world.