The Ottoman Empire
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The United States in a presidential election year is and in the Baltic Sea. always weak on foreign policy. Obama has a limited amount of time left in office and he is desperately It is an understatement to say that the political trying to ride out his last year without getting climate in the Middle East is close to a boiling point, involved in a war in the Middle East. This strategy and if the United States and England fail to take the creates a dangerous situation for the United States lead and defuse the situation, there could be a full and our allies. scale war in Syria. Before I get into what is happening there today, it is first necessary to know Obama wants to be known for shutting down the the history of the area. war in Iraq, scaling back in Afghanistan and re- opening the door to Cuba. All communist THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE dictatorships are well aware of this weakness and The Ottoman Empire came into being around 1300 we have seen North Korea flexing its muscles, China A.D. by Turkish tribes who were inspired by Islam to is expanding its man-made islands in the South China make war against Christians and expand the Muslim Sea and Russia moving aggressively in Syria, Ukraine faith. Their barbarity was similar to what we see in European American Evangelistic Crusades P.O. Box 166 Sheridan, CA 95681 · 916.944.3724 · www.eaec.org ISIS today. In time, this fledgling empire expanded Mark Sykes and France by François Georges Picot. A east, west and south, and at its height, it conquered secret agreement had been worked out two years Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Persia, Saudi Arabia, earlier on April 26, 1916, which became known as Yemen, Egypt, Sudan and the entire North African the Sykes-Picot agreement. The Russian government coast to Morocco. also agreed to divide the Ottoman Empire, which took place at the surrender of the Axis powers in Most of the people living in the empire were Muslim 1918. but there were pockets of Christianity. The Sultans used brute force to make different ethnic groups Lebanon and Syria became independent nations comply with the laws issued from Istanbul. Taxes under the protection of France. England was given were collected and all men could be conscripted into control over Palestine. Northern Iraq became a military service. French province with the city of Mosul as its capital; the rest of Iraq became a British mandate, which also In 1918 at the end of World War I, the Ottoman included Kuwait, Persia and the smaller Gulf States. Empire which had been aligned with Germany was divided by the British and French governments. The Allies failed to take into the consideration the England was represented at the Paris meeting by Sir many ethnic groups that were split apart by their 2 arbitrary political lines. The largest of them were the The Zionist Jews in Palestine waged a guerilla war Kurds, who did not receive their own nation. Some against the British from 1945 to 1948, when they Kurds ended up in Persia, some in Iraq, some in Syria announced the political State of Israel. and a large portion were in Turkey. This would foment a revolt that is still simmering today. During the war that broke out in 1948 against the Arab states, millions of Palestinians were driven out The Allies completely disregarded the fact that all of Israel and ended up in refugee camps in Syria, Muslims are not the same. The two main groups are Jordan and Egypt. These three nations refused to Sunni and Shiite. They hate each other with a allow the Palestinians to settle in their respective vengeance and have been at war since 800 A.D. nations and they live in refugee camps to this day. This was done to pressure the Israeli’s into taking Most Persians are Shiite; half the population in Iraq them back but Israel has refused to do so. is Shiite and there are Shiites in Syria and Lebanon. The rest of the Muslim nations are Sunni. A REPORT FROM THE DAILY ALERT On February 19, 2016, the following report was There is an additional ethnic group called the Druses published by the Jewish news agency “Daily Alert,” who dwell in Syria and Lebanon and want their own which is published every day except Saturdays. It is country. There is also the Alawites, an Islamic sect in prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major Syria, with a few living in Turkey and some in American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Lebanon. The Alawites made up 12% of the Syrian Center for Public Affairs. population before the civil war broke out and the Assad family descends from this sect. When Bashar “Youssef Courbage, research director of the French became the current dictator over Syria and replaced Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) in Paris, his father Hafed al-Assad, he continued the ruthless notes that in Syria, the Alawites now have a fertility oppression of the people in Syria. The Assad family rate of slightly more than two children per woman, has been using the Alawite population to rule and which is close to European averages, while the suppress the Sunnis, Syrian Christians and the Sunnis still have five children per woman, though Druses.1 the Sunni urban upper classes had a fertility rate similar to the Alawite elites. The United States and the Soviet Union invaded So far, the Syrian civil war has killed some 90,000 Persia in 1941 and divided it into two zones – régime soldiers and 80,000 rebels. Northern Persia and Southern Persia. When the World War II ended, the United States forced the The Alawite camp, which ruled over 21.5 million Soviet Union to give up Tehran and its portion of Syrians five years ago, now control just 10 million, Persia. England was forced to relinquish Iraq, which or 63% of the 16 million people still in the country. it had taken when France became occupied by Of those, Syrians still in the country, some 6.5 Germany in 1940. England also gave up Jordan and million have been uprooted, redrawing the later Egypt and Yemen and all the other former communal map and contributing to the creation of more ethnically or religiously homogenous areas. French territories they also held. Religious minorities (Alawite, Christians and Druse) Dictators from 1945 until the present day have come that represented just 22% of Syria’s total population and gone in different nations and there has been no are now 41% of the population in the territory stability in the region. controlled by the régime in Damascus. 1 www.eaec.org/desk/07-13-2014.htm 3 The Sunnis form the great majority of refugees was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face fleeing the country. One-fourth of Syria’s toward the ground. population - 5.3 million people - fled between 2011 And, behold, an hand touched me, which set and 2015. With this, the proportion of Alawites me upon my knees and upon the palms of my increased from 10% to 13% and the Arab Sunnis hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man decreased from 64% to 61%. The proportion of the Christian community fell from 5% to 3%. greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto The exile of several million Syrians has also had a thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken profound effect on Jordan and Lebanon. In Jordan, this word unto me, I stood trembling. the influx of 600,000 Syrians after the arrival of 1 million Iraqis has distinctly reduced the proportion Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for of Palestinians in the population. from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself In Lebanon, the arrival of 1.5 million Syrians has before thy God, thy words were heard, and I doubled the Sunni community there, far am come for thy words. outnumbering the local Shia community.” But the prince of the kingdom of Persia THE SPIRIT WORLD withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Many Christians understand that the unrest in the Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help Middle East is in reality a battle of the spirit world me; and I remained there with the kings of between Satan and God’s holy angels. This was Persia. revealed to the prophet Daniel about 400 years Now I am come to make thee understand before Christ. what shall befall thy people in the latter days: “And in the four and twentieth day of the first for yet the vision is for many days.” (Daniel month, as I was by the side of the great river, 10:4-14) which is Hiddekel; “Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and unto thee? and now will I return to fight with behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose the prince of Persia: and when I am gone loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: His forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. body also was like the beryl, and his face as But I will shew thee that which is noted in the the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as scripture of truth: and there is none that lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in holdeth with me in these things, but Michael colour to polished brass, and the voice of his your prince.” (Daniel 10:20-21) words like the voice of a multitude.