Turkish intelligence was involved in abduction and execution of Syrian Metropolitans

[Daniel76]

There is an article translated from the Arabic. Quite interesting, I would say.

It is not a secret that Turkish President Racep Erdogan dreams of the new Ottoman Empire and wants to build it on the ideas of radical Islam.

Erdogan follows the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, namely the superiority of Muslims over all others. The idea of Islamism has become one of the reasons why Turkey supports radical Islamist groups in Syria. Therefore, Erdogan also aims to eliminate the leaders of the Christian minority who live in the Syrian-Turkish border areas in order to expand his influence there.

In April 2013 two Orthodox priests Paul Yazidzhi and John Ibrahim were kidnapped in the suburb of Aleppo in northern Syria. They were seized in Aleppo and were taken to the village of el-Meshed. As it turned out, it is Turkish intelligence that masterminded the abduction of Syrian Metropolitans.

According to the Iranian television channel “Al-Alam” (http://en.alalam.ir/news/1528584), Syrian Metropolitans were held by terrorists on the territory of the Turkish Republic for some time. But Turkish authorities have done nothing to free the priests. Obviously, the President of Turkey commanded not to interfere!

However, not everything went as planned. In July 2013, Magomed Abdurakhmanov, known as Abu Banat from the terrorist group “Katibat Al-Muhajireen” fighting in Syria against Bashar al-Assad, was arrested in Turkey for illegal possession of weapons. It became clear that the fighter came to Turkey for treatment of wounds. During the investigation, Abu Banat claimed to be working closely with the Turkish intelligence, in particular, on a special task to capture and eliminate the Syrian Metropolitans in Aleppo.

In addition, Abu Banat reported that he received walky-talkies and radio beacons from a MIT officer named Abu Jahfer. It is understood that the equipment was used by the Turkish intelligence to monitor and coordinate the abduction of Syrian Metropolitans as well.

Abu Banat attracted the attention of the Turkish police after one of the officers identified him in the video of the brutal murder of Francois Murad who was accused by “Katibat Al-Muhajireen” in collaboration with the army of Bashar Assad. This fact has caused a broad resonance among the public and was covered by the media.

Despite the testimony of Abu Banat on cooperation with the Turkish secret services in the kidnapping of the Syrian priests, Turkish officials tried to hush up the case as it relates to the personal interests of the President of Turkey.

In September 2013, a lawyer Erkan Metin’s investigation revealed the truth about what happened. However, the criminal case against Abu Banat on the fact of mass murder has not been opened in Turkey. Although the Abdurakhmanov admitted involvement in the beheading of more than 70 people, mostly non-Wahhabi clergy, he was discharged from mass murder because the issue “related to the internal Syrian crisis”.

In the same time the member of the Turkish Parliament lawyer Erol Dora argues that according to Turkish law Abu Banat ought to be judged. But the law in the Ottoman state is enforced not by a fair trial but due to the interests of Erdogan.

As a result, July 15, 2015 Abu Banat was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on charges of illegal possession of weapons and involvement in a terrorist group.

Apparently, the reason for such a light sentence against terrorists is precisely that he was acting on instructions from the Turkish intelligence, which in turn executes the orders of the President of Turkey. It is clear that MIT would not allow disclosing the information on cooperation with terrorist groups in Syria.

I think that the Turkish people should think about what else Erdogan could do in the future, given that he cooperates with the terrorists in Syria and orders to kill Christian priests now.

Mary Veil

The article was published in Arabic here:http://www.syriantelegraph.com/?p=151133

Additional sources on this topic:
http://www.aina.org/releases/20140201171648.html
https://www.opendoorsusa.org/newsro...c ... idnappers/

What do you think about it?

[Barbara]

This is a WEAK article appealing to anti-Muslim hysteria.
I have studied Erdogan off and on ever since he came to office. He is not a pro-Muslim Brotherhood person at all.
Nor would he care at all about 2 Syrian Orthodox Metropolitans.
That is all patently absurd.

The only truth i see right offhand in the article is that he would like to reestablish A SEMBLANCE OF the Ottoman Empire. He has not ever shown any inclination to restore the Caliphate. That means the one based in Istanbul. Not any others which have eclipsed that obvious authority which the Ottoman Sultan held for 600 years.
The recent groups claiming this title are tools of The Usual, meant to defame that solid idea which worked well for all those centuries. Muslims all over the world respected the Ottoman Sultan as the Caliph and would do whatever he asked, within reason, of course.

It was the Masonic-influenced Young Turks who rid Turkey of all its prestige and power by dethroing the Sultan and making the office of Caliph defunct.

Erdogan has not talked about reviving any of this, which was the core principle of the Ottoman Empire.
His aims are political and geographical, but not using pathetic tactics like kidnapping Metropolitans to carry out the goals of expanding Turkey's power.

To sum up, I would say this author is in the pay of The Usual....! It's so far off base but readily believed by all Western Christians who have been indoctrinated to see the world this way.

[Daniel76]

Thank you for your opinion and knowledge! You know volumes more than I do about Erdogan... but I've remembered the saying "You will know them by their fruits" at first . Moreover, why has Turkey made it so that any future Patriarch of Constantinople must be a Turkish citizen whether Erdogan "whouldn't care at all" about orthodox clergy?

P.S. I've seen another article on this issue. It provides some more details and sources. The website seems to be reliable, IMO: http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/?p=45942

[Barbara]

Thank you, Daniel !

I thought this rule was already in effect. I don't follow this subject about EP - Turkish state relations.
But I rather assumed the law already existed.

This restriction likely would be founded on political fears rather than any anti-Christian sentiment. Why is that ?
Because Turkey has been worried about traitors in its midst for a century now. Few people realize how many ethnic groups and religions exist side by side in Turkey, not always comfortably. It is not a monolith of Sunni Muslims as most Westerners have been indoctrinated to believe.

There are all sorts of Islamic sects such as the Alawis [not the same as the Syrian Alawis who are a Shia offshoot ]. The Turkish Alawis -- or Alevis in Turkish -- are a Sufi order based in Haji Bektash [ or Hacibektas with a cedille on the 's' in modern Turkish script - as opposed to Ottoman Turkish which by the way was written in beautiful Arabic calligraphy ]. { i visited the obscure Anatolian hamlet and was welcomed warmly at the mausoleum of the founder of the Bektashi order, Haji Bektash. All foreign visitors are always welcome, anywhere, by the way, with no pressure whatsoever to join any branch of any religion in Turkey ! Just thought I would while on the subject negate a choice myth or two clung to dessperately by Westerners who want to see the worst in Turkey and Turkish Muslims.]

A lot of Turkish history is bound up with the Bektashis, who were often members of Janissary Corps of the Ottoman Sultans. Fierce and renowned fighters : not against Christians in particular but instead inadvertently during the process of the Ottoman Empire's geopolitical expansion. Thus Turks were not fuming away at the Serbian Orthodox or Bulgarian Orthodox 'infidels' of their time. Nor at the Greek Orthodox, nor were the Ottomans intent on chasing the Catholics in the Austrian Empire. They were interested only in doing what every Empire does : expanding their territory !

One must understand the psychology and history of Turkey to form a fair image.
So much distortion is foisted on the US and North American publics that it is obviously deliberate misrepresentation.

Even proponents of 'alternative' political viewpoints today are heaping blame on Erdogan which I don't believe is much justified. I ignore all the yakking about how he sponsored this fake organization operating - with the fullest media coverage possible : ahem ! - in the current Middle Eastern scene. His accusers should look squarely at Israel instead ; surely they coordinate ALL operations. They don't need Turkey to do much but acquiesce perhaps in some cross-border [Turkey-Syrian border points] undertakings.

In any event, there is no need for Turkish Muslim leaders past or present to persecute Christians in their midst !
It was Fatih Sultan Mehmet II who immediately upon conquering Istanbul issued a decree to protect the Christian popluation. It said that Christians must be allowed to continue worshipping in security. The 15th century Sultan insisted on being able to appoint or approve Greek Patriarchs who were elected. If he had wanted to persecute the Orthodox Christians, the Sultan would have done so ! This was a mild restriction, comparatively. Instead, he provided specifically - and fairly - for the rights of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch to govern his own community without Turkish governmental interference. Another rule has been always in effect that the Greek Churches in Istanbul and probably throughout Turkey can not ring their bells on Sundays. That was the complaint I heard issued most by Orthodox Christians in Istanbul. One has to consider that they are a small minority, though. Not half the country. Even in America, unlike the UK, one never hears church bells. Only a rare Orthodox Church will toll its beautiful bells. Few others churches do. The vast majority here are secularists and agnostics/atheists. It's something to think about.

[Daniel76]

Thanks! I'd also like to ask who is/are "The Usual" you mentioned in your first reply?

[Barbara]

Ah, come to think of it, this is the anniversary of the repose of the father of that same Sultan, who even surpassed his son by benevolence shown toward Christians in his reign. No, it was yesterday, Feb. 3.
I could not get here, but I saw that you had replied, Daniel, by looking at the Forum without signing in.
So I searched this out specially.

That made me laugh ! Yes, it sounds funny, "The Usual". Since this is a Private Forum, I expressed this in shorthand, figuring all here will know at least in general to which forces I referred.

It's IsNOTreal and its lackies : virtually all politicians of any prominence from both right and left in the US, Western Europe, the old ANZAC { Australia and New Zealand} and major media corporations in all these countries which pound in the same old untruths year after year, decade after decade until the entire Western world is saturated with programming and barely can raise an eyelash to question ANYTHING at all dictated by The Usual - !

[Daniel76]

Thanks. I assumed so but wasn't confident enough.