From “Blue Homeland” to Reuniting the Ottoman Empire?

From “Blue Homeland” to Reuniting the Ottoman Empire?

“Mavi vatan,” or “blue homeland,” has become a common phrase in Turkish political life. It is most often used as a shorthand expression for Ankara’s maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean. Central to these interests is the presence of large deposits of natural gas off the coast of the island of Cyprus.” R. Gingeras See…

How Ertugrul Resurrected the Muslim Imagination

How Ertugrul Resurrected the Muslim Imagination

This piece contains spoilers for the TV series Dirilis: Ertugrul (Resurrection: Ertugrul). It was called Lion of the Desert. The film, funded by Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and directed by Moustapha Akkad, told the story of Omar Mukhtar, the legendary Libyan and Senussi revolutionary who fought against Italian colonialism during the early 20th century.  As…

The Battle for Jerusalem: Turkey’s Erdogan Stakes His Claim

The Battle for Jerusalem: Turkey’s Erdogan Stakes His Claim

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn’t mince his words at this month’s opening of parliament. In his first assertion of a claim to a lost non-Turkic part of the Ottoman empire, Mr. Erdogan declared that Jerusalem is Turkish. “In this city, which we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is…

The ‘Clean Break’ Doctrine: A Modern-Day Sykes-Picot Waging War and Havoc in the Middle East

The ‘Clean Break’ Doctrine: A Modern-Day Sykes-Picot Waging War and Havoc in the Middle East

In 1996 a task force, led by Richard Perle, produced a policy document titled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” for Benjamin Netanyahu, who was then in his first term as Prime Minister of Israel, as a how-to manual on approaching regime change in the Middle East and for the destruction…