President Recep Erdogan's son Bilal, in a rally in Istanbul on January 1, promoted the Turkish regime's desire to take over Jerusalem, Israel's eternal capital. He reportedly said: "Now we are here for (liberation) of Al-Aqsa Mosque, for Jerusalem."
It appears to be part of President Erdogan's effort to gin up support for his program of conquest. Consider, only recently, at a speech he gave on December 22, in Mardin, Turkey, a crowd of young people loudly chanted "Mr. President, take us to Jerusalem."
Instead of chiding the crowd about their inappropriate demand, he shockingly responded, "Patience brings victory."
Lest there be any misunderstanding about his intent, Erdogan has implied a number of times since 2020 that Jerusalem belongs to Turkey.
Indeed, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, Erdogan's coalition partner, in an address the very next day, on December 23, reportedly declared that the goal was for Turkey to take Jerusalem. This is in line with Erdogan's resurgent neo-Ottoman posture.
By way of background, the Land of Israel (including Jerusalem) was conquered and controlled by the Ottoman Empire (with Istanbul, Turkey, as its capital) during the period 1517–1917.
The Ottoman Empire was on the losing side of World War I. Under the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, portions of its former empire were ceded to the victorious allies to establish or reconstitute sovereign states. One such reconstituted country was the Jewish State of Israel, and Article 95 of the treaty laid the groundwork for its re-establishment, within boundaries determined by the Principal Allied Powers.
The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey, in effect, reaffirmed the foregoing, as detailed in the 1920 San Remo Resolution and unanimously adopted by the League of Nations in 1922. It was also confirmed by the U.S. in the 1924 Anglo-American Convention.
In summary, under Treaties to which the Ottoman Empire and Turkey are bound and international law, the Jewish people's right to return to their homeland of Israel (then called Palestine), join fellow brethren there and reconstitute the Jewish State there was recognized. As Winston Churchill stated in 1922, the Jews had returned to Palestine "as of right and not by sufferance, and that this was based on their ancient historical connection."
Erdogan's musings are just another example of promoting false narratives and ideologically motivated revisionist history in order to undermine the legitimacy of the Jewish State of Israel. As a matter of fact and law, the nations of the world in the League of Nations and the United States unanimously confirmed the legal right of the Jewish People to the whole of the area west of the Jordan River then called Palestine and now known as Israel.
It is suggested that much of the uproar and machinations regarding the Temple Mount are inspired by pseudo-Muslims (not pious ones), with political and ideological driven agendas, unrelated to prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Indeed, if prayer at the Al-Aqsa was so important to Erdogan, then why doesn't he make an annual pilgrimage there? The last time he reportedly visited was in 2005.
At the same time, there are all sorts of negative reactions, protests and rancor when non-Muslims quietly and reverently pray elsewhere on the Temple Mount. This is wholly inconsistent with the usual religious sensibilities and kindness practiced by those treasuring the sanctity of a site, be it a synagogue, church, mosque, ashram, Buddhist temple or other place of worship, almost anywhere else in the world.
In this regard, it is interesting to note that the Ottoman Empire agreed, pursuant to the Treaty of Paris of 1856 (at the end of the Crimean War) that Christians and Jews were legally permitted to pray on the Temple Mount.
It is important to note that the 1925 A Brief Guide to the Al-Haram Al-Sharif (i.e. the Temple Mount), published by the Supreme Muslim Council (Waqf), refers to the seminal Jewish link to the Temple Mount (citing II Samuel 24:25), as follows:
This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which "David built there an Altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings."
The pseudo-Islamist Temple deniers should be universally reviled for their impudent rejection of their own religious traditions and beliefs in favor of absurd propaganda.
The Guide also focuses on Muslim history and its first encounter with the Temple Mount and notes the Muslim period starting point is the year 637 A.D., when Caliph Omar first occupied Jerusalem. This is a striking rebuke to those who falsely assert Arab Muslims were indigenous to Jerusalem.
As the Waqf's own Guide recognizes, the Jews and their Holy Temple on the Temple Mount were there first. This was more than one and one-half millennia before the Arabs arrived and began their occupation of Jerusalem.
The Guide also explains that the Dome of the Rock is not a Mosque. The actual Arabic name of Qubbat al-Sakhrah is more precisely translated as the Dome over the "Foundation Stone." This accords with Jewish tradition, which refers to this stone as the Even Shetiyah (Foundation Stone). It is where the Holy of Holies portion of the Beit HaMikdash was located.
Hence, the use of the Arabic term al-Quds for the Temple Mount, derived from Bayt Al-Maqdis (Arabic for the Hebrew term Beit HaMikdash).
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is located outside of the holy precincts of the Jewish Temple and is situated on the southern extension of the Temple Mount platform built by Herod.
As Al-Tabari, a 9th-century respected Muslim historian, explains, this was as Omar intended so that Muslims would pray towards Mecca, consistent with Islamic practice and not the place of the Jewish Temple as required by Jewish custom. In this regard, it should be noted that 13th century Ahmad ibn Taymiyya declared with respect to the site of the Dome of the Rock:
"Men of Knowledge who were companions or followers of the Prophet chose the best path and did not exalt the Rock, because it is a quibla mansukha, like the Sabbath … so too, the Rock is exalted only by Jews and some Christians."
It is astonishing that the words of this noted Sunni scholar are simply and callously ignored in favor of the dictates of political ideology by Erdogan.
As to Erdogan's other fatuous remarks about Jerusalem, pictures are worth a thousand words. Just view photographs of the Temple Mount in the 19th century, showing an abandoned site with the Dome of the Rock and other structures in disrepair.
They do not depict what might be expected if this were indeed a highly venerated site, important to the Muslim religion, which, after all, was the official and dominant religion of the Ottoman Empire that occupied and was in firm control of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, at the time.
Jerusalem does not belong to Turkey and President Erdogan's apparent aspirations to re-create a neo-Ottoman colonial empire are nothing more than a dystopian nightmare.
Leonard Grunstein, a retired attorney and banker, founded and served as Chairman of Metropolitan National Bank and then Israel Discount Bank of NY. He also founded Project Ezrah and serves on the Board of Revel at Yeshiva University and the AIPAC National Council. He has published articles in the Banking Law Journal, Real Estate Finance Journal, and other publications. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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