Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
Turkish private military contractor Sadat, a paramilitary unit loyal to the Islamist president of Turkey, has advocated the idea of Turkey supporting and helping the Taliban, a group it has called a resistance movement, establish a Sharia state in Afghanistan.
A research piece published on September 13, 2021 by Ali Coşar, a retired colonel and board member of Sadat, advocated that Turkey help the new Afghanistan run by the Taliban in cooperation with Pakistan, Qatar and Malaysia.
Dismissing the description that the Taliban is a terrorist organization, Coşar said, “They [the Taliban] are members of a resistance movement that fought against colonial America for 20 years to take over the government and establish a state that practices Sharia. …” He pointed out that the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks had also ruled under Sharia when they governed states in the past.
Recalling that Sadat has been advocating the Islamic Union, with a joint military force, Coşar disclosed that ASSAM, the Association of Justice Defenders Strategic Studies Center, an organization affiliated with Sadat, was about to complete a roadmap for realizing the Islamic Union.
“In the 21st century, religious warriors who once again prioritized asymmetrical warfare and embraced martyrdom and becoming veterans for their homeland prevailed over the conventional superpowers backed by special forces in the mountainous Central Asian terrain,” he wrote.
Concerned about the Taliban’s overtures to Western powers, Coşar urged the group not to yield to concessions demanded by the West and to carefully choose the states it will cooperate with.
Article by Ali Coşar that was published on ASSAM’s web page on September 13, 2021:
Ali_Cosar_Assam_article
Coşar and his associates at Sadat and ASSAM wield significant influence in the military, defense and foreign policies of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Sadat was founded by Adnan Tanrıverdi, a former military officer who served as a chief advisor to Erdoğan for years. He was one of the architects of a massive purge of pro-NATO officers including many generals from NATO’s second largest army in the aftermath of a false flag coup bid in 2016.
Sadat, officially Sadat Uluslararası Savunma Danışmanlık İnşaat Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi, is currently run by Tanrıverdi’s son, Ali Kamil Melih Tanrıverdi, a hard-core Islamist, as chairman of the board.
Sadat has been involved in a number of Arab and African nations, providing military training and offering counseling in military and defense strategies. It helps promote the Turkish defense industry, which by and large is controlled by Erdoğan’s family and associates. It has played a critical role in the massive purge of pro-Western officers from the Turkish military since 2016 during which 80 percent of all flag officers were dismissed and/or jailed on fabricated charges.
It assisted in the training of jihadists in Syria and Libya and helped procure arms for Islamist fighters who share similar ideological views with the Erdoğan government. It coordinates its actions with Turkish intelligence agency MIT, Turkish diplomats and defense officials.
President Erdoğan made clear that he has nothing against the Taliban and in fact shares the Taliban’s ideology. Speaking on July 20, 2021 Erdoğan said his government would negotiate with the Taliban, which he said should feel comfortable engaging in dialogue with Turkey, as opposed to the Americans. He justified his reasoning by underlining that “Turkey has nothing against the Taliban’s ideology, and since we aren’t in conflict with the Taliban’s beliefs, I believe we can better discuss and agree with them on issues.”
The Taliban expressed pleasure with what Erdoğan said and announced it would view Turkey as an ally rather than an enemy after taking over Kabul and cementing control of the entire country.
Coşar is not the only one in Sadat and its affiliate ASSAM to publicly declare that Turkey should work closely with the Taliban. Ersan Ergür, vice president of ASSAM, wrote on June 28, 2021 that peace and tranquillity would come to Afghanistan after NATO and other invading forces withdrew. “However, the only necessary and sufficient condition for this to happen will definitely be the continuation of Turkey’s presence in Afghanistan in terms of military power,” he added.
Ergür further maintained that Turkey would lead the establishment of a regional Islamic pact called the Near East Regional Islamic Federation by bringing Afghanistan and other countries together as envisioned in ASSAM’s earlier proposal for the Confederation of Islamic Countries.
During the annual Islamic Union Congress organized by ASSAM in December 2020, Adnan Tanrıverdi presented the defense structure of the “Asrica [Asia and Africa] Islamic Countries Union.” According to the presentation, the main goal of Asrica, which comprises 61 countries, is “ensuring that the Islamic world will again be viewed by history as a supreme power.” Istanbul will be the capital of the union.
Sadat and ASSAM are known for their push for anti-Semitic discourse in Turkey and abroad. Retired colonel Nejat Özden wrote on ASSAM’s website on July 16, 2021 that the world is ruled by the Jews and that “there will surely come a day in the future when trees and stones will speak and say, “O Muslim! Come and kill the Jew hiding behind me,” an apocalyptic prediction often voiced by radicals.
