Islamist in Turkey preparing for Civil war? ‘Islamist armament’ in Turkey is worrying.

Islamist in Turkey preparing for Civil war? ‘partisan armament’ in Turkey is worrying. (yavuzbaydar).

Today’s Turkey is without a doubt a powder keg, reminiscent of Yugoslavia, which because of Milosevic’s divisive nationalist drive, disintegrated after a blood bath.

One of the most worrisome aspects of Turkey today is the concrete signals of armament of individuals, as an element of fierce partisanship.

As Erdoğan raised the decibel level of his speeches again lately, questioning Turkey’s current borders, and the validity of Lausanne Treaty, which as a foundational document established modern Turkey, signed and sealed in 1923, new (or old) maps were visible in Turkish TV channels and newspapers, showing Mosul and northeastern part of Greece, beyond Thessaloniki, as the ‘Greater Turkey’.

Irredentism, and revanchism that comes along with it, is on the table. No matter what the intentions behind claims of ‘revenge of history’, whipping up the Turkish masses is a fearsome fact.

The ostrich-like European leaders and the EU Commission may refuse to admit it, many of them mesmerized by the illusion of the realpolitik, but the reality in Turkish ground is filled with similar, worrisome signs, piling up by every day that passes.

Irredentism may be a slowly brewing fact, but another most recent development should be paid the outmost attention: the announcement and preparations for the armament of the the AKP members en masse.

Turning the ruling party into an armed force had already landed on Turkish agenda, some days after the botched coup, which took place July 15.

Under the slogan ‘never again!’ some AKP officials said, that ‘civilian preparedness’ was necessary to resist new coup attempts. One of them was Şeref Malkoç, a Chief Advisor of President Erdoğan who announced that ‘licenced firearms should be distributed to the people.’

Ever since then, such calls echoed strongly. A swift support came from the militia-like organisation, ‘Ottoman Units 1453’ (Osmanlı Ocakları 1453) – whose date refers to the conquest of Istanbul – that launched the hashtag ‘AKArmament’ (#AKSilahlanma) on social media.

Its leader, Emin Canpolat, wrote, first:

‘This one is a call for all the brothers. Arm yourselves for the motherland, for the flag and for Erdoğan.’ At a later call, he added: ‘Erdoğan is the motherland; he means the flag for us. We will die, and kill, for Erdoğan’.

Soon after, the hashtag topped the social media traffic.

Messages like ‘AKYouth and AKMilitia is getting ready. We stand ready to fight till the last drop of our blood. Matryrdom is our holy goal!’ or ‘We are ready REIS, tell us to hit, and we shall. Tell us to die and we shall. We shall enter Aleppo and Mosul!’ were in intense circulation.

(The term ‘REIS’, could be translated as ‘the Chief’, falling slighly short, or not, of ‘Führer’.)

Abdullah Şanlıdağ, a columnist with the fiercely anti-semitic, anti-west daily, Yeni Akit, wrote:

‘Don’t be afraid this nation of ours. Don’t. They know exactly who to kill.’

But, these public rants have not remained as outbursts, symbolizing a new trend of political hooliganism. Some days ago, it was transferred to the official rhetoric, and developed into an AKP pledge.

It was the newly appointed Minister of Interior, Süleyman Soylu, who broke the news. At a large meeting of the ruling party, in the Anatolian city of Afyon, he said:

‘We shall deliver each and every official of our party. We shall also equip them with security guards. We will also see to it that they are protected by long-range weapons.’

In a recent local TV appearance, the governor of the northeastern Black Sea town, Rize, said that licensed weapons were delivered in large numbers to those who ‘donate money’.

Comparing his time as governor in an Aegean city of Manisa, Erdoğan Bektaş said:

‘I delivered five times more weapons in three months that I had in Manisa in two years.’

He added that he would personally provide firearms to people, ‘should the coup attempt happen again’.

In a more spectacular development, Turkey’s most powerful state institution – which seems top have taken over the role as the chief tutelary body, from the military – the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), declared that it had launched a project to establish ‘Youth Units’ in the mosques across Turkey.

It was a high-level representative of Diyanet, Yaşar Yiğit, who broke the news.

‘At the first stage we are now done with the infrastructure in 1.500 mosques’ he said, adding:

‘We have a total of 85.000 mosques and we intend to establish youth units in 45.000 of them. God willing, we will have it in more than 20.000 of them by 2021.’

From every vantage point, it is clear how the pattern is set. Hmmm......And the 'Erdogan Jugend' is a fact! 

The data speaks for itself. A parliamentary commission last year issued information that, as of the end of 2013, there were a total of roughly 20 million firearms, of which 85 % were unlicensed. Turkey ranks 14th among 178 countries in individual armament, and in the past years it has noted an increase of more than 50 %.  Read the full story here.