M. Bitar, R. Mansour:

          The issue of the Syrian“  has become confused for those who cohabit in Syria with the issue of the Caliphate, especially the Ottoman  , These people are no longer able to determine the priorities of their identity and belonging in a way that is consistent with the conditions of Syrian citizenship, All of this has motives and causes, most of which may still be centered in the collective unconscious, but they have begun to manifest   consciously , which we notice in some of them during their timid, inexplicit positions, positions that are fake, deceitful and lying.

 The issue of frankness and publicity is a matter of time, Those who now practice their Ottomanism intentionally and in a camouflaged manner will practice it openly in the future,  What has settled in the dark will surface in the feelings in appropriate circumstances and will appear publicl, We think that the extent of the public manifestation in the future will be greater than expected, and some will consider it a surprise, Ottomanism has crept into the conscience of some, not because it is a germ that was forcibly transferred to this conscience, but because it is a state with deep roots in history, Even before the First World War, there was a Syrian Islamic group that promoted submission to the Ottoman Caliphate, because it did not consider the presence of the Ottomans in Syria an “occupation” but rather a “legitimate” state derived from the legitimacy of the Caliphate in general, whether Ottoman or Arab.

The development and growth of Ottomanism is subject to many religious environmental conditions and objective circumstances, including the diminishing necessity of ijtihad (development)regarding the vague and ambiguous international Islamic state or caliphate, which was difficult for those who wanted it to achieve, Therefore, ignoring it became inevitable, In the context of the inevitability of ignoring the great international Islamic state or caliphate, Turkey appeared with imperial characteristics and took an alternative position to the greater international Islamic caliphate. What helped this appearance were Turkey’s successes in achieving remarkable economic growth and relatively good stability, then Erdogan’s success on many occasions in practicing what is called public relations, All of this suggested to many Syrians that Erdoganism is a religious movement, and its success was a success for religion, The saying “Islam is the solution” found in Erdoganism proof of its correctness. Thus, these people transformed Erdoganism into a caliphate, and Erdogan into the Commander of the Faithful. 

Why a great international Muhammadan Caliphate?? Let’s start by reviving the Ottoman Caliphate that lasted at least 400 years,In other words, the attention of Islamists has shifted from the greater international Islamic Caliphate and has centered around the Ottoman Sultanate or Caliphate, which some Turkish politicians have tried to promote openly, as did the former Turkish Prime Minister  oglu, Erdogan has inspired Islamists that he is a faithful Islamist who is capable of arranging political and life affairs in a way that achieves what Islamists aspire to… i.e. the Islamic Caliphate!

Here it is necessary to point out the grave errors committed by some Arabs in their assessment of Erdogan’s Islamism and successes, Erdogan is a Muslim, he calls himself pious, and he also calls himself the president of a secular state, The economic successes that have appeared have nothing to do primarily with the virtual Islamization practiced by Erdogan, but rather the successes go back to the heritage of Turkish secularism, which began with  Ataturkism and developed into the religiously ambiguous Erdoganism, The architect of the economic successes that appeared in Erdogan’s era was the deceased Prime Minister Ozal, Ozal was one of the founders of the economic growth, which Erdogan attributed to himself during the first ten years of his rule,Now Ozal’s policies have been exhausted and the rampant economic decline has begun, which has led and will lead to crises that will first destroy Erdogan.

In this country, there were several trends that interacted and dealt with the Ottoman history that lasted for about 400 years, The first trend dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century, It was the Arab and Syrian nationalist trend from which the Baath and Syrian nationalists derived most of their intellectual pillars, This trend saw that the Ottoman authority was an entity of the Turkish national element, which occupied several countries, including Greater and Smaller Syria, and the Ottoman Empire was responsible for the cultural decline of those countries, including Syria, This trend stands to this day far from Turkey, especially after its recent Ottoman manifestations of occupations and annexation of Syrian land, Afrin, Alexandretta, Cilicia and others.

There is another trend with a significant influence, which is the sectarian trend that sometimes hid under the Ottoman fez and other times under the traditional religious turban, This trend began promoting submission to the Ottomans in the early twentieth century, but was defeated by the nationalist trend, and resumed its activity after 1928, i.e. after the birth of the muslim  Brotherhood, until it became bloated in the past decades, and its bloating reached its peak in these years, which witnessed its military wing represented by ISIS and others, and a political wing, the Muslim Brotherhood, The Brotherhood movement tried in its founding political literature to restore the Caliphate in any way possible, They failed and reached the conclusion that the Ottoman Caliphate is sufficient as a beginning, and the withdrawal from the greater Caliphate state is temporary, and is subject to the concept of empowerment and gradualism, which is the basis of traditional Islamic political and advocacy work.

The Ottoman awakening in the souls of some of those who practice cohabitation in Syria is dangerous for Syria, These people have placed themselves in the boat of alienation from Syria, and classic betrayal of it, Their ingratitude has reached the point of supporting Turkey in its efforts to occupy parts of Syria, as if Syria were colonized by the Syrians and the Ottomans had nothing to do but liberate Syria from the Syrians and annex what was possible to the Ottoman Caliphate, which represents for them a legitimate status legitimized by religious thought.

The essence of religion is international and is very different from the essence of the homeland, Whoever wants a Syrian homeland must preserve it, not preserve Turkey or anyone else or the Islamic nation in general, It is not permissible for  Syrian to beat for the Ottoman-Turkish occupier while he has a Syrian personal identity in his pocket, There is no Ottoman interesse as an alternative to the Syrian interesse in Syria, The homeland of those who believe that the Ottoman Caliphate does not represent a colonial occupation of Syria, and that Turkey has not and will not occupy Syria, is Ankara, not Damascus!