Steven Collins
October 25, 2007
As many readers no doubt know, the nation of Turkey is currently in the news for two critical reasons: (A) the threat of open warfare between Turkey and the Kurds in the northern region of Iraq, and (B) a motion in the US Congress that would censure Turkey for the mass death of Armenians about a century ago. Both of these pressing problems have critical ramifications for the USA and the Western nations. Indeed, it is hard to overstate how important it is to the USA and the West to satisfactorily resolve these two issues.
The United States is an ally with Turkey via the NATO alliance, and this alliance is a very important one. Turkey has more men under arms than any other NATO nation on mainland Europe. It has a strategic location on the Bosporus and Dardanelles where Asia and Europe meet. It has been a reliable ally for many decades and it is has wanted to draw closer to the EU and the West. The Turkish military has even forged friendly relationships with the Israeli military, and Turkey is a secular Islamic nation with a functioning Democracy. The USA and NATO have a critical need to keep Turkey in the NATO alliance and on good terms with the West. On the other hand, the Kurds in northern Iraq have been the most stable part of post-war Iraq and they are also friendly to the West. Good relationships with the Kurds are vital to any scenario wherein the current war in Iraq has a happy ending. The Kurds aided the USA in the war against Saddam Hussein and the USA has a huge moral obligation to remain a protector of the Kurds. Based on the above information, the Turks and Kurds should be natural allies, one would think. Think again.
The Turks and Kurds, both friends and allies of Uncle Sam, are on the knife’s edge of a shooting war. Kurdish separatists in eastern Turkey (the PKK) have long made raids and terrorist attacks within Turkey’s borders to obtain independence for the many Kurds who live in eastern Turkey. The PKK raiders then seek refuge in the mountainous Kurdish region of Northern Iraq. Turkey’s patience with these raids and killings is at an end. Turkey has essentially given the USA and Iraq an ultimatum: either you stop these PKK raids or we will send our army into northern Iraq and do it ourselves. I do not think Turkey is bluffing. The issue is also complicated by the fact that lucrative oil fields are found in northern Iraq. The USA has a full-court diplomatic press on to find a peaceful solution which will avoid a shooting war between Turkey and the Kurds. Let us hope one can be found, because much is at stake.
Turkey’s new government has been trending ever-more Islamicist while the Turkish military has been the historic protector of the secular Islamic nation founded by Ataturk after the Ottoman Empire collapsed. The USA is dependent on Turkey for overland supply routes to its forces in Iraq, but the Turkish population has been trending more anti-American because of the prolonged war in Iraq. American-Turkish relations are at a crossroads, and a link to a US News article in its 10-29-07 issue (see below) has a good discussion of this subject. Now for the second issue, which couldn’t have come at a worse time.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in the US House of Representatives have picked this crisis point in US-Turkish relations to consider a resolution which would basically blame Turkey for the “genocide” of over a million Armenians in a conflict which was fought between Armenians and the now non-existent Ottoman Empire almost a century ago. The death of so many Armenians appears not to be in doubt. However, the modern secular government of Turkey is not the government responsible for whatever atrocities were done to Armenians a century ago. The modern government of Turkey exists because of the actions of a visionary Turk, Kemal Ataturk, who founded the secular state of Turkey to avoid the problems and excesses of the old Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire was an Axis power in World War I, an enemy of the USA and the Allied powers. Modern Turkey is a member of NATO, an ally of the USA and the Western powers. So why should Speaker Pelosi want to blame these old atrocities on modern Turkey? Apparently, it is because she has a large bloc of Armenian voters in her California district and she is doing their bidding in this proposed Congressional resolution. Speaker Pelosi and the sponsors of this remarkably ill-timed resolution are jeopardizing the integrity of the entire NATO alliance and the well-being of American troops in Iraq in order to placate Armenian constituents. Mortimer Zuckerman offers some very pragmatic thoughts about this crisis in his editorial in the same issue of US News cited above (see link below).
How this crisis unfolds has huge implications for how prophecy will unfold in the future. As readers of this blog know, Ezekiel 38 prophesies that Russia, China and Iran will lead a large alliance of nations in a military attack against the latter-day descendants of the ten tribes of “Israel” (located in the USA, UK, Europe, etc.). While many nations in this final “Axis” are named, others are not. Ezekiel 38:6 prophesies that “many people” will be in this final attacking alliance. That phrase is cryptic and allows for other nations not named to be part of Russia’s allies in the end-time.
It is my view that the modern Turks are primarily the descendants of one of the chief clans of Edom (Esau, the brother of Jacob). One of the chief clans of the Edomites were the people of Teman (Genesis 36:8-11). Indeed, the entire land of Edom was apparently once named after the Edomite clan of Teman (Genesis 36:34). Ancient languages did not include vowels so the consonants of this Edomite clan were “T-M-N.” This also happens to be the consonants of the Ottomans (“TT-M-N”), and I believe the Ottoman Empire preserved the name of their ancient ancestor, Teman, the grandson of Esau. Genesis 36:11 and 33 also indicate that the formative names of Edomite clans included “Omar” and “Bozrah.” My books identify the modern Arabs as the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, but the people of Edom also historically lived to the east of the ancient Promised Land and close to the Ishmaelites. The name “Omar” is prominent in Islamic/Mideastern regions and a very famous 7th century AD Caliph was named Omar. The famous “Dome of the Rock” in Jerusalem is also named “the Mosque of Omar.” The Edomite name of Bozrah is preserved today in the Iraqi city of Basra (both have the consonants “B-S-R”). If Turkey is foolishly provoked into severing its relationships with the NATO and Western nations due to the Pelosi resolution, it is likely to drive Turkey into the waiting arms of Russia and Iran. Let us hope that does not happen. The Edomites are not named in Ezekiel 38 as allies of Russia in the end-time so it is not predestined to occur.
Ask yourself the key question, “Who benefits?” from a rupture in US-Turkey relations? The answer is clear: Russia and Iran benefit. Since Russia clearly benefits from any such rupture, let’s see if a connection to the current crisis is possible. We already know that the Armenian community in the USA is prodding Speaker Pelosi to consider a resolution which will anger, and perhaps permanently alienate, Turkey. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s leader, is increasingly hostile to the USA and NATO and has been reported to be very angry that NATO has advanced its borders to include the old Warsaw Pact nations in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. There is no question that Putin is furious that the US intends to place anti-missile batteries in Poland and the Czech Republic. Putin would dearly like to arrange some “pay back” to the West. Armenia is a former part of the USSR and is closely allied today with Russia. Do you suppose that Putin (wily ex-KGB boss that he is) would think of having Armenians in Russia’s allied state to lobby Armenians in the USA to place a resolution hostile to Turkey before the US Congress in order to sever Turkey from NATO as “pay back” for NATO making alliances with so many nations once allied to Russia? It would be sweet vengeance for Putin if he could pull it off. If this is what is occurring, then Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the US Armenian community are unwittingly agents of Russian policy goals in pursuing a resolution to censure Turkey at this time. If Pelosi’s resolution passes, it could rip NATO apart! Pelosi’s resolution couldn’t have come at a better time for Russian/Iranian interests and at a worse time for American/Western interests. That she is unable to grasp this painfully-obvious fact speaks volumes about Pelosi’s leadership abilities in the US House.
Watch carefully how this crisis unfolds. If Turkey abandons its alliance with NATO and moves closer to Russia and Iran, then the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 is likely to be fulfilled in a manner which will be especially harsh on America and the European nations. If Turkey stays with the West, the western alliance will be in a much stronger position in what is prophesied to become a climactic World War III at the end of our age. For more information on this prophesied war, please read the report entitled “What Ezekiel 38-39 Reveal about a Future World War III” (available at the Articles link at this website).
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/world/2007/10/18/an-ugly-truth.html?PageNr=1
http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/mzuckerman/2007/10/18/mortimer-b-zuckerman-thinks-it-is-the-wrong-time-to-rile-turkey.html
