Organized Crime

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman and pan-Islamist ambitions have striking similarities to a Turkish American Islamic cleric’s strategy for America.

The ugliness of kleptocracy is often easy to see; in fact, it is inescapable. Those who have visited Libya report that for an oil state it has very unimpressive infrastructure.

“People are dead. Torn to pieces. There are 35 people we don’t know anything about.” -a Syrian militant in Azerbaijan

“The FSA rapes women in Afrin.” Lindsey Snell interviews an FSA militant and others for a look back on the Turkish invasion of Afrin and the replication of this invasion in other parts of Syria.

“I just got back from Libya yesterday,” said Zein Ahmad*, a Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militant in Afrin. “But I had been trying to leave for more than a month.”

Seven years ago, Time magazine heaped lavish praise on Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, portraying his “secular, democratic, Western-friendly” form of governance in the Muslim world as “Erdogan’s Way.”

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — On a recent rainy January night, hundreds of people could still be found in Nour Square, the main protest site in Lebanon’s second largest city.

When Turkish President Erdogan announced he would be sending men from the “Syrian National Army” to Libya to fight in support of the Government of National Accord (GNA), rumors among the Syrian opposition began to swirl.

Iran is facing major challenges to its position as a regional power. Economic problems brought about by mismanagement and corruption and increased by U.S. sanctions have made funding its network of proxy forces difficult. This has led to increasingly disruptive protests in Lebanon as well.

As a ceasefire suddenly brings a pause to nine months of fighting for control of Libya’s capital, Turkish President Erdogan’s promise of military aid and even boots on the ground to the besieged UN-backed Tripoli government appears in a new light: not becoming involved in an endless war.