Free Republic

Dalton Thomas discusses the biblical, prophetic, and geopolitical implications of the rise of Turkey as a regional power.

Children victims of the Armenian Genocide EDITOR'S NOTE: April 24, 2020 is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, marked annually to commemorate the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago, a mega-crime the nation of Turkey has never acknowledged. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." – Ephesians 6:12Decades ago when I was very young, my grandmother, Mary Kupelian, told me a haunting story I've wondered about ever since. As I sat in the kitchen of her cozy little...

The Ottoman Empire was once among the biggest military and economic powers in the world. So what happened?At its peak in the 1500s, the Ottoman Empire was one of the biggest military and economic powers in the world, controlling an expanse that included not just its base in Asia Minor but also much of southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The empire controlled territory that stretched from the Danube to the Nile, with a powerful military, lucrative commerce, and impressive achievements in fields ranging from architecture to astronomy. But it didn’t last. Though the Ottoman Empire persisted for...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the Kuala Lumpur Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Muslim nations looking to fight back against future sanctions are exploring an age-old approach — using gold dinar and bartering. Leaders from Qatar, Iran, Malaysia and Turkey met during the Islamic summit in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the matter this week. “With the world witnessing nations making unilateral decisions to impose such punitive measures, Malaysia and other nations must always bear in mind that it can be imposed on any of us,” Malaysia’s 94-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told Reuters. “I have suggested that...

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council held its periodic hearing on the Middle East. In her capacity as president of the Security Council for December, US Ambassador Kelly Craft invited Adele Raemer, a resident of Kibbutz Nirim near Gaza, to address the council. This is the first time an Israeli from the south will speak to the Security Council. In her address, Ms. Raemer asked the council: “Have you ever had to run for your life? When I hear the Red Alert early warning system for incoming rockets, I know that I have between 5-10 seconds to get to someplace...

In high school, Jamal Khashoggi had a good friend. His name was Osama bin Laden. “We were hoping to establish an Islamic state anywhere,” Khashoggi reminisced about their time together in the Muslim Brotherhood. “We believed that the first one would lead to another, and that would have a domino effect which could reverse the history of mankind.” The friendship endured with Jamal Khashoggi following Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan. Khashoggi credited Adel Batterjee, listed at one time as one of “the world’s foremost terrorist financiers” by the Treasury Department, with bringing him to Afghanistan to report on the fighting....

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that the Islamic State remains a “complicated” foreign policy challenge and is actually stronger in some corners of the world today than it was before having its self-proclaimed “caliphate” decimated by U.S.-backed forces in Syria and Iraq. “There are certainly places where ISIS is more powerful today than they were three or four years ago,” said Mr. Pompeo, who asserted that President Trump “is very focused on making sure that we apply the right resources against the problem.” Mr. Pompeo’s rare acknowledgment of the Islamic State’s threat, a group President Trump has claimed...

ISIL has largely taken over control of a huge camp in northeast Syria, and there’s no plan for what to do with the 70,000 people there (including more than 50,000 children). The United States and Europe must immediately address this urgent national security and humanitarian crisis, before a new caliphate is established while we watch. After the fall of Raqqa and the coalition defeat of ISIL’s strongholds, President Donald Trump announced that “100 percent” of the caliphate had been destroyed. But the tens of thousands of ISIL fighters and family members left over were herded into massive fenced internally displaced...

President Trump would have designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization right after his inauguration in 2017, but has faced strong opposition from the Swamp JULY 12, 2019 BY BARENAKEDISLAM This latest push for the designation appears to be the result of Trump’s recent meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. “The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in May. Be sure to watch the video at the end where Muslim...

Filmmaker Ami Horowitz has just released a brilliantly done 15-minute video, exposing leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in their own words as they continue their mission started in the 1920s of creating a global Islamic caliphate throughout the entire world. Their target, according to key Muslim Brotherhood leaders as well as experts interviewed by Horowitz, is a complete takedown of the United States of America. The Muslim Brotherhood began in Egypt "as a religious and social organization. It as over the years metastasized to become the largest global Islamic organization in the world with branches in dozens of countries," Horowitz...

There are several truisms about the Iranian regime. It is a deeply intolerant, religiously fanatical regime with a death grip on power through suppression and a corrupt system of bribes, payoffs and family connections.Tony Soprano has nothing on the mullahs’ regime.Like any insular group of Mafiosos, the mullahs ruling Tehran are a deeply paranoid bunch. They regularly suspect traitors in their midst and engage in periodic purges that would do Josef Stalin proud; right down to public hangings.They also desperately manipulate—sometimes clumsily—social media and the Internet in general in a vain attempt to trash opponents and to stifle debate about...

The successor of Kashmiri terrorist Burhan Wani, Zakir Musa has been eliminated by security forces in an encounter in Tral, reports India Today. The police said that the identities of the terrorists killed have still not been verified. An encounter ensued between terrorists and the security forces in Dadsara village of Tral in Pulwama district in south Kashmir on Thursday evening. Trapped, the chief of Ansar Gazwatul Hind, Musa, died in the gun-battle. Divisional Commissioner Baseer Ahmad Khan informed that the schools and colleges across the Kashmir division will remain closed tomorrow (24 May) as a precautionary measure. Zakir Musa,...

as Islam's appeal to women ever been conveyed in fewer words? That's a moment from NPR's extensive coverage of ISIS families after the fall of the Caliphate. The piece can take some deserved hits for making monsters sympathetic. But the bad guys have families. Their wives and children admire them. It can be a mistake to forget that. And this trip to ISISland is like a look at Germany or Japan right after the war. Or like a visit to the Red Square with old women kissing Stalin's portrait. "This is injustice — we pray for the caliphate to return,"...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Jonah Kyle. Click image for full size rendition, then use your brower's print command to print puzzle.(Full disclosure: I am Jonah Kyle)All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half of the puzzle into the white squares on the grid pattern belowEach letter must stay in its own columnEach letter may be used exactly onceBlack squares represent spaces and do not get lettersGray squares represent punctuation marks or numbers and do not get lettersSome words will continue from...

A four-year military operation to flush the Islamic State from its territory in Iraq and Syria ended on Saturday as the last village held by the terrorist group was retaken, erasing a militant theocracy that once spanned two countries. Cornered in Baghuz, Syria, the last 1.5-square-mile remnant of the group’s territory in the region, the remaining militants waged a surprisingly fierce defense and kept the American-backed coalition at bay for months. They detonated car bombs and hurled explosives from drones. Suicide bombers ran across the front line under cover of darkness to attack the sleeping quarters of the coalition. In...

U.S.-backed Syrian forces on Tuesday seized control of an encampment held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, after hundreds of militants surrendered overnight, a spokesman said, signaling the group’s collapse after months of stiff resistance. A group of suspects involved in a January bombing that killed four Americans in northern Syria were among militants captured by the Kurdish-led forces. The taking of the IS camp was a major advance but not the final defeat of the group in Baghouz. Still, fighters from the force were starting to celebrate anyway.

AFP reported Friday that the jihadists straggling out of the last stronghold of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria remain defiant, still vowing to murder Americans. In fact, this has been their longstanding plan, as revealed in a guide to destroying the United States that the jihad group published in its heyday, back in 2015. The AFP report quoted one woman leaving the tiny remaining ISIS domain declaring, “The caliphate will not end, because it has been ingrained in the hearts and brains of the newborns and the little ones.” Another exclaimed: “We have left, but there will be...

AFP reported Friday that the jihadists straggling out of the last stronghold of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria remain defiant, still vowing to murder Americans. In fact, this has been their longstanding plan, as revealed in a guide to destroying the United States that the jihad group published in its heyday, back in 2015. The AFP report quoted one woman leaving the tiny remaining ISIS domain declaring, “The caliphate will not end, because it has been ingrained in the hearts and brains of the newborns and the little ones.” Another exclaimed: “We have left, but there will be new...

Full title: Future of controversial US military base Diego Garcia hangs in the balance after UN rules the Indian Ocean archipelago was illegally seized in the 1960s by Britain and should give be given back to Mauritius The future of a US military base constructed on a British territory in Mauritius has been thrown into doubt after a United Nations ruling on Monday. The UN's high court has ordered the United Kingdom to give the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius after an investigation revealed they'd been seized under illegal pretenses during the 1960s and 70s. This could, however, also cause...

At the end, the Islamic State is little more than a hamlet of tents, pitched in panic between U.S. bombing raids. Inside, there has been chaos, witnesses say. Families have fled. Militants are hoarding food. Some fighters have turned their guns on each other. As U.S.-backed forces surround the last square mile of Islamic State territory, preparing for a final assault on the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz, people who have escaped describe a desperate scrabble for survival in the dying days of the statelet. *** One said she had walked “out of hell.” They described how they had retreated...