Historical clip of Erdogan reading famous poem of Islamic conquest

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This is a rather significant historical clip of now dictator of Turkey, Racip Erdogan, reading a famous poem of Islamic manifest destiny to a crowd in a speech. you can hear a jubilant “Allah hu ackbar” at the end where the video finishes.

Thanks to Amy Mek who sent it in, and an anonymous translator from Turkish to English who checked to make sure this is indeed the first 4 lines of this famous poem.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

3 Replies to “Historical clip of Erdogan reading famous poem of Islamic conquest”

  1. The poem was by Ziya Gökalp “a pan-Turkish activist of the early 20th century”.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recep_Tayyip_Erdo%C4%9Fan#Imprisonment

    Not exactly an islamist:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziya_G%C3%B6kalp
    “Influenced by contemporary European thought, particularly by the sociological view of Émile Durkheim,[3] Gökalp rejected Ottomanism and Islamism in favor of Turkish nationalism.”

    Erdo?an made those lines up. I found a translation of the original, which is called “Asker Duas?” (A Soldier’s Prayer), in Archer’s thesis “Before Gökalp and After Gökalp: Ziya Gökalp and Literary Turkism, 1876-1923”. See pages 64-66:
    “A rifle in my hand, faith in my heart,
    I have two desires: Religion and the homeland…
    The army is in my heart, the sultan is great…
    Aid the Sultan, oh God!
    Prolong his life, oh God!
    Our path is holy war (gazâ), martyrdom is its end,
    Our religion asks for loyalty and service,
    Our mother is the homeland, our father is the nation,
    Make the homeland prosperous, oh God!
    Uplift the nation, oh God!
    My banner is the Oneness of God (Tevhît), my flag is the Crescent (Hilâl)
    One is green, the other is red,
    Take bitter revenge on the enemy for Islam,
    Make Islam prosperous, oh God!
    Ruin its enemies, oh God!
    Our commanding, powerful fathers,
    Our sergeants, corporals, chiefs,
    Our ordered and respected laws,
    Make the army in good order, oh God!
    Make our banner superior, oh God!
    Many brave heroes in the battlefield,
    Became martyrs for religion and country,
    Let the hearth give off smoke, let hope not be extinguished,
    Do not let the martyr be mournful, oh God!
    Do not let his end be powerless, oh God!”

    This poem was written in response to the Balkan Wars. He called for the destruction of Russia during WWI.. Russia is the pan-turkists’ natural enemy due to geography, and at the time also because of ideology (pan-Slavism).
    Btw Erdogan of course referenced the Hagia Sophia, which was a church not a mosque, and is a museum now. Islamists want to turn it into a mosque, probably why he mentioned it.

  3. Either resist or be suffocated. The beast will not eat you last, so there is no refuge in betrayal.