What did the United States look like to Ottoman observers in 1803? In this map, the newly independent U.S. is labeled “The Country of the English People” (“İngliz Cumhurunun Ülkesi”). The Iroquois Confederacy shows up as well, labeled the “Government of the Six Indian Nations.” Other tribes shown on the map include the Algonquin, Chippewa, Western Sioux (Siyu-yu Garbî), Eastern Sioux (Siyu-yu Şarkî), Black Pawnees (Kara Panis), and White Pawnees (Ak Panis).
The Ottoman Empire, which at the time this map was drawn included much of the Balkans and the Middle East, used a version of the Turkish language written in a slightly modified Arabic script. Ottoman script works particularly well on maps, because it allows cartographers to label wide regions by elongating the lines connecting individual letters.
This appears to be the first Ottoman map of the United States, but Ottoman maps of North America have a much longer history. The first were the 16th-century nautical charts of the famous Ottoman cartographer Piri Reis. Some of the last, drawn before the new Turkish Republic switched to Latin script in 1928, show air routes spanning the continental U.S.
American relations with the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century were either commercial or missionary. American missionaries to the empire first tried to win Christian converts. But after meeting with little success, they turned to creating schools to spread the much more popular American gospel of English fluency and engineering excellence.
At times, the mercantile and missionary impulses came into conflict, such as when Greek Christians rebelled against the Ottoman sultan. Many Americans felt their government had a moral duty to stand with co-religionists against a Muslim despot. The U.S. government, however, felt a more pressing duty to stand with its merchants and sea captains, who’d been doing brisk business with the sultan. Supposedly, it was in recognition of U.S. support of the establishment that the empire later sided with the Union during America’s own civil war.
A Turkish army tank holds a position on a hilltop, with the Syrian town of Kobani in… Read More
The U.S. said Turkey agreed to help train Syrian rebels and allow use of its military bases as part of the campaign against Islamic State, as Turkish officials cast doubt on the extent of the accord.
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said yesterday that Turkey has made a “new commitment” in the fight against the jihadist group. Her comments followed U.S. efforts to persuade Turkey to play a bigger role in the fight against Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq and is gaining territory along the Turkish border.
It wasn’t immediately clear which bases would be involved. There’s no agreement to use Incirlik in southeast Turkey, a base for past U.S. operations, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. Turkey agreed to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels, while details such as where training will take place yet to be clarified, he told state television today. U.S. military officials are due in Turkey this week for further talks.
While Turkey has previously pledged to join the campaign, it hadn’t said what it would be willing to contribute militarily. The NATO member had ruled out sending ground troops into Syria unless the U.S. broadened the campaign to target the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
‘New Commitment’
Al-Qaeda’s Heirs
Turkey is now willing to join Saudi Arabia in offering territory to be used to train moderate rebels who could fight Islamic State on the ground in Syria, Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “That is a new commitment,” she said.
The Obama administration, while saying Assad must go, has stopped short of taking any military action against his regime and has limited its airstrikes to Islamic State targets. The U.S. has ruled out sending its own troops into combat on the ground in Syria and Iraq.
Rice also said Turkish “facilities” could be used by “the coalition forces — American and otherwise — to engage in activities inside of Iraq and Syria.” She didn’t name any specific bases.
Such a move would give U.S. aircraft close access to targets in neighboring Syria, such as the Kurdish town of Kobani, where Islamic State is making gains.
“That’s a new commitment and one that we very much welcome,” Rice said.
Islamic State may capture Kobani within days if the U.S.- led coalition doesn’t step up airstrikes to help, Faysal Sariyildiz, a lawmaker in the Turkish parliament, said in an interview at the border with Syria yesterday.
Not Essential
The Pentagon, taking into consideration political sensitivities of Arab allies, hasn’t disclosed which air bases it uses in the region to conduct strikes in Syria and Iraq.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said U.S. military officials will be in Turkey this week to review the plan for training and equipping Syrian rebels.
The Obama administration is under pressure from domestic critics to take more aggressive military action as the airstrikes do little to keep Islamic State from seizing new territory.
While Turkey has pressed the U.S. to establish a “buffer zone” and no-fly zone in Syria, Rice said there are no plans to do so. “We don’t see it at this point as essential to the goal of degrading and ultimately destroying” Islamic State, she said.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will host more than 20 defense ministers from coalition countries tomorrow at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington to discuss the campaign against Islamic State. President Barack Obama is scheduled to stop by the meeting.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Lerman in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vince Golle at [email protected]; John Walcott at [email protected]; Maura Reynolds at mreynolds34@bloomberg.
ANKARA, Turkey — The Obama administration on Monday began the work of trying to determine exactly what roles the members of its fledgling coalition of countries to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria will play, with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel huddled with the leaders of the one country the administration has called “absolutely indispensable” to the fight: Turkey.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, met Monday with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, to gauge Turkey’s willingness to participate in an American-led coalition against the militant group ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Credit Reuters
But after hours of meetings here, there were no announcements of what the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might do. In fact, Turkish officials meeting with Mr. Hagel eschewed the news conferences that usually accompany high-level visits from American officials.
Rather, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, warned on the state-run Anatolia news agency that weapons sent by Western countries to fight ISIS could end up in the hands of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which Ankara considers a terrorist group.
“We have expressed our concerns,” Mr. Cavusoglu said. “It may not be possible to control where these weapons will go.”
Turkish officials raised concern about a host of issues surrounding the coalition, including the safety of 49 Turkish diplomats who have been taken hostage by ISIS, and whether the growing international effort to arm Kurdish fighters in Iraq against ISIS could embolden Kurdish militants in Turkey who have been seeking autonomy for the country’s largely Kurdish southeast. Turkish Kurds with the P.K.K. have fought with Kurdish pesh merga fighters in northern Iraq against ISIS. Turkey is also grappling with an influx of more than 800,000 Syrian refugees — the largest Syrian refugee population after Lebanon’s.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with Mr. Erdogan on Monday, Mr. Hagel said that Turkish officials had expressed to him their concern about the P.K.K. But, he added, “They didn’t indicate to me in any way that they saw the P.K.K. as a more significant threat than ISIL,” using an alternative acronym for ISIS.
The Obama administration wants Turkey to crack down on the flow of foreign fighters who have used the country as a transit point to Syria to join militant groups fighting there. The United States also wants to be able to use Turkish military bases to begin operations, including airstrikes, on ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria if President Obamadecides to attack inside Syria.
“By geography, Turkey is going to be absolutely indispensable to the ongoing fight against ISIS,” a senior defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Because of just where they sit, the access we currently already have militarily and the cooperation we have militarily.”
Mr. Erdogan, at the NATO summit meeting in Wales last week, met with Mr. Obama and said Turkey would become the only majority Muslim country so far to join what Mr. Hagel termed a “core coalition” of 10 countries fighting ISIS. Mr. Obama said after the meeting that he would welcome Turkey’s participation in his coalition.
But Turkey has several times balked at allowing the American military to use its bases for operations in the region — most famously in Iraq in 2003. Mr. Erdogan himself has a complicated relationship with Mr. Obama. The two initially formed a close personal relationship during Mr. Obama’s first term, and Turkey was the first majority Muslim country that the American president visited after taking office.
But the relationship soured over differences on Egypt and Syria, and deteriorated even more when Mr. Erdogan suggested that a conspiracy involving the United States was behind a corruption investigation by Turkish prosecutors that targeted him and his inner circle.
Mr. Hagel said the tensions between the United States and Turkey should not get in the way of joining in the fight against ISIS. “Yes, we’ve had our ups and downs in the relationship, but what’s interesting is it has never broken,” Mr. Hagel said.
“Now,” he added, “we have a situation in the world today that presents a clear and new set of very real threats.” Mr. Hagel said the United States expected that Turkey “will be involved in all of our efforts, as articulated by the president, to build a coalition to deal with ISIL.”
People across the U.S. expressed outrage on social media after a flag associated with radical Islamic terror groups was found flying outside a Garwood, New Jersey, home. The militant flag, a symbol routinely used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, has since been taken down “voluntarily,” according to a police spokesperson.
Garwood Police Chief Bruce D. Underhill confirmed in an email to the Washington Free Beacon that his officers are “aware of the situation” and “have taken the appropriate steps.” However, he denied that police “ordered” the resident to take down the flag.
(Twitter/Marc Leibowitz)
“At this time, the flag in question has been voluntarily taken down. No further comments,” Underhill added.
The flag garnered national attention after a Twitter user posted a photo of the ISIS-associated flag outside the home as well as the resident’s address.
A Turkish flag remains displayed outside the home, but the black militant flag has been replaced with a new flag “that appears to resemble the blue-and-white-stripped flag of Greece,” according to the Free Beacon.
The Islamic militants of ISIS, or ISIL, have been advancing across northern Iraq, leaving a bloody trail in its wake. The radicals ultimately hope to overthrow the Iraqi government, bringing them one step closer to establishing an Islamic caliphate.
ISIS supporters in Jordan waved black flags and chanted: “The caliphate is coming to Jordan.” (Image source: YouTube)
Since June, Iraq has been facing an onslaught by the Islamic State group and allied Sunni militants across much of the country’s north and west. In recent weeks, the crisis has worsened as the militant fighters swept over new towns in the north, displacing members of the minority Christian and Yazidi religious communities, and threatening the neighboring Iraqi Kurdish autonomy zone.
Izmir beachhead established. PKK raids Gülen Gang in Saylorsburg, Pa.
Candy, flowers and laughing women. Weeping, cursing and shoeboxes.
A pre-raid aerial view of the Gülen Gang’s headquarters, Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, August 7, 2014
By Max Placid / McClatchy Newspapers
In a morning mist, Pennsylvania’s paramilitary forces landed on the Turkish coast at Izmir on August 4. They met no resistance but they did encounter a jubilant Turkish crowd who greeted the Pennsylvanians by bombarding them with Turkish delight candy and Atatürk flowers. As the Rocky Balboa Brigade, an elite unarmed (except for their fists) attack force, sprinted down Martyrs Street, hilariously laughing women streamed into the Kordon, Izmir’s magnificent seaside esplanade. “Go Rocky!” they screamed through tears of joy, “Get Bulent for us!” Of course, they werereferring to the hapless Turkish deputy prime minister who bizarrely admonished Turkish women for laughing in public. It seemed to the surprised Pennsylvanians that they were participating in some sort of weird liberation. As the Balboa Brigade veered left onto Kemalpasha Street tables of sliced melon, white cheese and glasses of rakı (the Turkish national beverage) appeared. But the highly disciplined Pennsylvanians ignored the temptation. “Yo Turks! On the way back! On the way back!” shouted Colonel Rocky Balboa, brigade commander. It was obvious that their immediate objective was not Izmir.
On the home front, on the same day as the Izmir landing, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett launched a pre-emptive pre-dawn raid on the CIA safe-house of an alleged imam, Fethullah Gülen. Gülen is a longtime, infamous ally of the Turkish prime minister. Both have been previously convicted—Gülen in absentia—of seditious behavior. Governor Corbett, now commander-in-chief of the hastily formed Pennsylvania Kombat Kommand (PKK), announced that he is fully aware of the conspiracy between the current Turkish government and what has been labeled the “Hey Pennsylvania” movement. “Gülen and Erdoğan are cut from the cloth,” said Corbett and elaborated in the following statement:
“Together they have conspired to destroy Turkish democracy. They have used the most disgusting, criminal methods in their treason. And I am ashamed to say that America’s CIA aided and abetted their crimes. Regardless of what others may think or say, the people of Pennsylvania have no place for these ‘religious’ two-faced criminals. An undercover gang in Pennsylvania will be quickly uprooted and brought to justice. And that’s the reason for the raid by the PKK.”
The Pennsylvania Kombat Kommand (PKK) is another quickly assembled strike team consisting of a highly-trained special weapons contingent of state policewomen, Pittsburgh Penguin hockey players and the starting lineup of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. All three groups are skilled in insertions, extractions and evacuations.
Jimmy Rollins
The raid of Gülen’s hideout at 1857 Mt. Eaton Road in Saylorsburg, often referred to as “Feto’s Farm,” was a complete success. Silence prevailed as the Kombat Kommand encircled the premises. Guards at the front gate were neutralized by Jimmy Rollins, the Phillies shortstop, who leveled his bat at the two gatekeepers. One of them, a Turk named Imdat Aptal, volunteered immediately to act as an interpreter. In appreciation, Rollins generously autographed Aptal’s copy of Pearls of Wisdom, by F. Gülen.
Thus having secured the entrance, a barrier of interlocking hockey sticks was implaced by the defensemen of the Pittsburgh Penguins. (Note: Being summer, the Penguins wore roller skates in this operation.)
“No one can pass!” ordered Rollins.
“Kimse geçemez!” echoed Aptal.
Immediately thereafter an impenetrable defensive perimeter was established by Rollins baseball teammates and the Penguins.
Meanwhile great wailing and lamentation came from the main house. Beddua this and beddua that, here a beddua, there a beddua, and every so often the word “parallel” was heard .
“What’s all this yelling about beddua?” asked A.J. Burnett, the Phillies big right-handed starting pitcher.
“The boss is angry again,” said Aptal. “He’s bedduaing, I mean, cursing and talking to Allah.”
“Yeah? Well you come with me and tell him that he better watch his mouth and that he’s being busted in the name of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
“Of course,” said Aptal.
Behind the mansion a backhoe was digging huge holes in a green field. Inside the mansion, sobs were gushing from the main office, as smiling police women searched Gülen and his premises. The air was electric. The full horror story of religious intrigue, espionage, prostitution, forgery, blackmail, narcotics trafficking, judicial corruption and treason might soon be revealed.
It was. The bookcases in the main office were not bookcases at all. Officer Mary Jane Stonebreaker leaned against a copy of Love and Tolerance, also by F. Gülen. and—wow!—the bookshelves suddenly swung open to reveal a vast storage vault. Endless ranks and rows of boxes filled the space. A warehouse of shoeboxes!
“Who lives here, Imelda Marcos?” asked the astonished police officer. “What the heck is this place? A shoe factory or something?”
Ryan Howard
Ryan Howard, his 36-ounce Louisville Slugger bat acting as her backup weapon, opened one of the boxes, this one labeled T. Erdog.
“This is a money factory, Officer Stonebreaker.”
“Gee, I only touched the book,” said the policewomen with an ironic laugh. “What would have happen if I read it?”
“Yeah,” agreed Howard, “I make 25 million dollars a year with the Phillies. These guys make that much in a day. We’re both in the wrong business.”
“But at least we’re honest,” said Officer Stonebreaker.
“Yeah,” said the big first baseman, “Let’s find this creep so you can bust him.”
Meanwhile the results of the outside excavation and the inside investigation were being displayed in the lobby. In addition to firearms and enough explosive devices to launch Pennsylvania into the afterlife, evidence of the long-term, continuing connection of the subversive relationship between the Gülen movement and the Erdoğan government abounded, to wit:
A box of counterfeit Marmara University graduation diplomas.
30 years of handwritten correspondence, birthday cards, thank-you notes and travel post cards between Gülen and Erdoğan. The latest from Erdoğan, dated July 4, 2014 and encoded in Turkic-English as follows:
DEER ESTEAMED FRIEND FETO, WE SHURE FOOLING THEM NOW. ALL THINK PARRRALLLELLL STATES IS TROO. HA HA HA. TANKS A LOT FOR STASH FOR KASH. I WILL BE A PRECEDENT OF TURKEY SOON NOW FOR SHURE. YOU BETCHA IN VON MINIT OR TOO. PLEEZE GIVE RIGARDS TO LOAF OF BREAD FRIENDZ AT AGENTSY. HEH HEH HEH. MEANS CIA. RTE
Scores of video cassettes revealed the auditioning of Deniz Baykal body-doubles. Outtakes show Fethullah Gülen sitting in a director’s chair wearing a beret and smoking a cigar. Every time he yells “CUT!” he takes a drag on his stogie, blows smoke, then curses frantically.
Feto Inc. Listening Device
Listening devices.
15 automatic signature machines.
37 cash counting machines.
Barrels of dice. Cartons of playing cards. Cases of poker chips.
236 new copies of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Treason, Blackmail, Falsification of Evidence and Embezzlement.
7,698 copies of How to Fool All the People All the Time.
11 copies of The Joys of Montage, Subterfuge and Sabotage.
4,789 copies of How to Plant Evidence and Ruin People’s Lives.
A truckload of hypodermic syringes.
The search continues. “It is astonishing how these religious hypocrites use crime in the name of God,” said Governor Corbett. “We will continue to press the attack at home. And we are pleased to hear from Colonel Balboa that the Turks are with us. Pennsylvania Kombat Kommand! Your immediate objectives are Ankara, the parliament and the prime minister! Forward!”
All Gülen Gang personnel were booked at the Saylorsburg police station. Under the terms and provisions of the Patriot Act of 2001 and the Espionage Act of 1917, the accused gang members were remanded to the Monroe County Correctional Facility in Stroudsburg pending completion of the investigation.
The former employee at US National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden, has revealed that the British and American intelligence and the Mossad worked together to create the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Snowden said intelligence services of three countries created a terrorist organisation that is able to attract all extremists of the world to one place, using a strategy called “the hornet’s nest”.
NSA documents refer to recent implementation of the hornet’s nest to protect the Zionist entity by creating religious and Islamic slogans.
According to documents released by Snowden, “The only solution for the protection of the Jewish state “is to create an enemy near its borders”.
Leaks revealed that ISIS leader and cleric Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi took intensive military training for a whole year in the hands of Mossad, besides courses in theology and the art of speech.
