Turkey to lead an Islamic army against Israel
In December 2017 a Turkish daily newspaper published an article calling for the formation of an army of Islam. It was a call for the Islamic nations of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC], then meeting in Istanbul, to unite against Israel. MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) translated the article which had the title “A Call for Urgent Action”. The newspaper in which the article first appeared is known to be close to President Erdogan. Much of the content was drawn from a website expressing the views of Erdogan’s senior military advisor.
The article states that if the OIC member states unite, it will be the largest army in the world. These countries’ have a total population of 1.6 billion. The number of soldiers in active service in these countries is at least 5 million. Their overall military defence budget, is $174 billion.
In contrast, Israel has a population of 8 million. The number of soldiers in active service in the Israeli occupation forces is 160,000. Israel’s defence budget is approximately $15, billion.
[Source: https://www.jns.org/turkish-newspaper-close-to-president-erdogan-calls-to-form-joint-islamic-army-to-fight-israel/]
Turkish Revival
In commenting on this article Joel Richardson gave two quotes from his book the ‘Islamic Antichrist’ written back in 2003/4. “While there is always the temptation to read one’s enemies into scripture, instead, we should simply take the Bible for what it says. While presently, there is not any pressing reason to see Turkey as the head of an imminent world empire, this is nevertheless, what Ezekiel prophesied.” [Page 94 ‘Islamic Antichrist’ 2004].
“The Turkish Empire was the seat of the Islamic Caliphate. It was not until 1923 that the Islamic Caliphate was officially abolished. Today the Islamic world awaits restoration of the Caliphate. The Bible teaches that someday soon, the Turkish Empire will be revived.” [Page 98 ‘Islamic Antichrist’ 2004].
15 years ago when Joel wrote these words we still looked on Turkey as a secular nation orientated toward the west. Today, Turkey has aspirations to resume its leadership of the Islamic world.
Ezekiel 38: 1 – 7 lists the nations which will come together to make war against Israel at the end of this age. These are Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer, Beth Togarmah from the far North. We identify the nations as follow:
Magog; the historian Josephus records that the Greeks referred to the descendants of Magog as Scythians. The Scythians were the Turkic peoples who inhabited territory stretching from Asia Minor through to the lands of central Asia.
Meshech and Tubal are the ancient names of the Moschi and Tubalu peoples who in Ezekiel’s day dwelt to the South of the Caspian and Black seas.
Persia is todays Iran.
Cush in some translations is identified as Ethiopia. Cush of Ezekiel’s day was located further north in present day Sudan. Some commentators extend Cush to cover all the black races of Africa.
Put was the territory to the West of Egypt. Today it is Libya. Some would say that it includes all of North Africa as far as the Atlantic.
Gomer was known as Gimarrai in the ancient world. It was also known as Cappadocia which is an area of central Asia Minor, today’s Turkey.
Beth Togarmah from the far North is placed by some in South East Turkey. Others locate it in the Caucus Mountains further to the North. The Armenians refer to themselves as the House of Togarmah.
Rosh is Hebrew for chief or head. Therefore Gog is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Gog as leader of this coalition has a strong connection with modern Turkey. All the nations identified in Ezekiel are strongly Islamic.
Is the call for an army of Islam the beginning of the fulfilment of the prophesied coalition of nations which will seek to destroy Israel?
The threat from Iran
On 12th February MEMRI reported on another article in the Middle East press.
“A 9th February 2018 article on the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese website Dahiya claims that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently rejected an Israeli demand, relayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, to remove some 70,000 Iranian long-range missiles that Hizbullah has deployed throughout Syria and are aimed at Israel.
The article claimed further that Syria and Hizbullah will wage a “joint missile campaign” against Israel, and that Iranian experts are ready to launch missiles at Israel from every part of Lebanon and Syria.
According to the article, Assad has instructed his army to help Hizbullah construct and camouflage missile silos across the country. Moreover, intense activity is underway to bring more Iranian missiles to Syria via Iraq, so that within a year Hizbullah will have 500,000 missiles in Syria, in addition to the ones it has already deployed in Lebanon”.
Quoting from the article; “The enemy is now surrounded along 450 kilometers of its border by Hizbullah missiles and Iranian experts [who are ready] to fire these missiles into occupied Palestine from every part of Lebanon and especially from every part of Syria. Hizbullah wishes to expand its missile arsenal in Syria, so that, if the war lasts a long time, it will have large reserves of Iranian long-range missiles”.
“That is why intense activity is underway along the Iran-Iraq-Syria route to transport the Iranian missiles [to Syria]. Iran has over two million long-range missiles, and it is acting to provide Hizbullah with an arsenal of long-range missiles to be deployed throughout Syria. The missiles have a range of 1,100 km and can reach occupied Palestine from every point in Syria”.
“If the Israeli enemy remains idle and does not wage war for a year, Hizbullah will deploy half a million missiles on Syrian soil, in addition to [its missiles in] Lebanon, but especially throughout Syria, so that Israel’s planes will find it difficult to target Hizbullah’s bases there.”
“Syrian President Dr. Bashar Al-Assad has permitted the Arab Syrian army to extend every necessary assistance to Hizbullah, which is secretly digging underground missile silos in which to install missiles and automatic missile launchers. The silos will be equipped with large doors that rise to a height of three meters to allow the launching of a missile, and then immediately close and lie flush with the ground, so that the Israeli planes cannot discover [the silos].”
In another development Russia is considering deploying the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in Syrian. The S-300 can engage multiple aircraft and ballistic missiles up to 300 km (186 miles) away and is considered an extremely advanced system that would be a significant upgrade to Syria’s defensive capabilities. Israel had been so concerned about it that Jerusalem made a huge effort to convince Russia not to sell it to Syria a few years ago because it would make a successful air strike much more difficult to achieve.
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