Turkey's Plan to Liberate al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, A Revival of Ottoman Empire's Power

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                       

President Recep Tayyip Erdogen of Turkey is at it again. He's a power-hungry man, trying to revive the rights of the Ottoman Empire, no doubt, who held Palestine and collected tax money from it for 400 years. it was such easy money for very little imput.  The tax collectors lived there and that was about it from the Ottoman Empire.  The Ottoman Empire took over Palestine, Egypt Yemen, Iraq, etc in 1517.  He's now serving as Turkey's 12th President but was Prime Minister before from 2003 to 2014, and before that was the Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He's been changing, not amiable like so many of his constituents that I've talked to on facebook.  

They erred when they remained on the German side during WWI and lost the battle to the West, and by doing so lost Palestine in the deal.  Now they want to take over Israel's hold on the Temple Mount, site of our Solomon's 2nd Temple where it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.  This part of Jerusalem's Old City also holds mosques as well, for their pattern has been to build their religious sites over or near the Jewish and Christian sites, showing their power over them.  It's like our native American's pattern of taking coup (coo) in battle.  
                                                          

It was after 70 CE when the Romans, who had been occupying Jerusalem for about 150 years up to then, built over the Temple site, a Roman Temple.  Since the Moslem Period, a mosque has stood there which is the Mosque of Omar, also called THE DOME OF THE ROCK.  It's built right in the center of the Temple area in Jerusalem and was built by Caliph Abd al-Malik in about 738 to replace the temporary structure set up by Caliph Omar a century earlier.  It is situated on the traditional site of Mt. Moriah. 
                                                      

Notice Bukhara, Ubekistan is on the green map on right at top

The latest move of Erdogen is that he wants to revive Islam in places that they lost the battle to the Christians so are planning to revive their religion, Islam, from Bykhara/Bukhoro, Ubekistan to Andulusia, Spain.  They introduced Islam by the sword in the first place, so how they will do it again may also be by force.  The force they use may be like all the insults they have been throwing at Israel.
                                                                                                                 

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey was first a church.  Erdogen wants it to be taken over and returned to Islam from their Ottoman Empire days.  It is a historic place of worship in Istanbul that has served as a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, briefly a Roman Catholic cathedral, later an Ottoman mosque, and now a museum.  Built in CE 537, during the reign of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) emperor Justinian I, (my favorite Roman Emperor) , it was then the world's largest interior space and the first to employ a fully pendentive dome. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture"  The complex remained a mosque until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the secular Republic of Turkey.  Hagia Sophia was, as of 2014, the second-most visited museum in Turkey, attracting almost 3.3 million visitors annually. According to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Hagia Sophia was Turkey's most visited tourist attraction in 2015 and 2019.
                                                                       

al-Aqsa Mosque in Old Jerusalem's Temple Mount

In Arabic the speech says that turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque is part of the “return of freedom to al-Aqsa,” essentially meaning Israel should be ejected from controlling Jerusalem’s Old City where al-Aqsa is located.  This is another mosque built in the Temple area of Jerusalem and was built by the Caliph Abd el-Malik in the 8th century to make the site of the legendary flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Jerusalem on his flying horse.  
                                                         

Moshe Dayan at the end of the 1967 war gave Jordan control over the Temple Mount, so I think Israel has seen to it that the place has been liberated enough; so much in fact that Jews cannot even be near it and say a prayer, or the religious Muslim police is on them.  In other languages, Erdogen is not as candid.  He is presenting himself as the bigshot, trying to impress Qatar and Libya.  This leader of Turkey wants to take over the position of the Islamic authority which Saudi Arabia has been holding.  Turkey invaded part of eastern Syria in October 2019 after depopulating the Kurdish region of Afrin in Syria in January 2018. They might tangle with the Russians or the Iranians who have also been in Syria.  
                                                       

Ten years ago , Israeli forces stormed the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-owned vessel that was part of a flotilla seeking to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza by delivering
possibly weapons or ammunition to them.  

This president has been growing more religious as he can become and a harsh critic against Israel.  It was Turkey whose ship, the Mavi Marmara tried to break Israel's blockade with a flotilla of ships, causing some deaths of their own people. 
                                                       

I argue with the maker of the map in that
Jewish towns (not calling them settlements) are not illegal under
international law.  The Oslo accord created this patchwork
quilt of land, and so did the people who built there, according to the
geography of the land, areas A,B,C, etc.  

In recent years Turkey’s religious and political authorities have been making increasingly adversarial statements about Israel, now vowing to mobilize the “Islamic ummah” in June against Israel’s annexation plans.
The Turkish AK Party is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, something outlawed in Egypt.  They are allies of Hamas terrorists of Gaza, as well.  
                                                     

Tan areas are A and B controlled by PA (Palestinian Authority)
Blue is area C; controlled by Israel;
Blue striped is proposed annexation 
Black is no man's land.  

 Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from Shaʻb which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history.  In other words, he's trying to get all 48 Islamic majority states to be against Israel if Netanyahu goes ahead with it.  Jordan has already raised their voice without Erdogan's prodding.  So is the EU, for that matter, and these places are simply stating their view negatively like they always do toward Israel.  

Resource:https://www.maccabeetaskforce.org/education/videos/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw6ar4BRDnARIsAITGzlDoxHe8e58BHrGqV7s6DHAB5JUxpXH9GJmZFwooKSakmLdf62Kbq20aAu-8EALw_wcB
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/turkey-vows-to-liberate-al-aqsa-after-turning-hagia-sophia-to-mosque-634700?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Turkey+vows+to++liberate+Al-Aqsa++after+turning+Hagia+Sophia+to+mosque&utm_campaign=July+12+day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia
https://www.maccabeetaskforce.org/education/videos/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw6ar4BRDnARIsAITGzlDoxHe8e58BHrGqV7s6DHAB5JUxpXH9GJmZFwooKSakmLdf62Kbq20aAu-8EALw_wcB