“We do see the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. So, as much as Belgrade, he's talking about Jerusalem, as much as Athens, he's talking about, you know, other cities like Cairo and other cities inside the Middle East,” Yanarocak told CBN News. “So, I don't think that it only can be limited within the boundaries of the Middle East.”The Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire, began more than 700 years ago, eventually controlling Southeast Europe as well as parts of West Asia, North Africa and the Middle East up to the early 20th century.
After World War I, the Allied powers partitioned the Ottoman Empire, including what the British then called Palestine. Yanarocak says, December's fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad opened the door for Erdogan to implement his goal of reviving an empire beginning with Syria. “We all witnessed that since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, the Turkish president provided everything he has (provided) to the Syrian opposition. And he is turning, the current Syrian administration as his core ally. By providing some civilian services like paving the roads, railways, providing radars, and repairing airports and other facilities, Turkey is creating here a very important dependency from the Syrian side,” Yanarocak explained. (Read More)
