Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan long has declared his intention to restore the Ottoman Empire.
Time magazine notes Erdogan has been tightening "his grip on social media freedom" and even is considering pulling Turkey out of what "is known, now farcically, as the 2011 Istanbul Convention, a treaty of the Council of Europe that commits countries to protecting women from domestic violence."
There is truth in Erdogan's well-known attempts to "resurrect" the Ottoman Empire "or to style himself a sultan," Time said.
Now, the Middle East Media Research Institute says Erdogan has moved beyond his previous stance.
Erdogan has declared there is "no power" that can stand in his way.
"We will not hesitate to sacrifice martyrs in this fight – are the people of Greece, France, certain North African and Gulf countries prepared to make such sacrifices?"
Erdogan's remarks came in a recent speech in Ankara.
The Turkish leader said his country is not a society with an army, but a "nation that is an army within itself."
He warned his nation's "enemies" that he will "not hesitate to sacrifice martyrs."
He charged Greece, France, North Africa and the Gulf countries have "greedy and incompetent leaders," claiming that Turkey never colonized; it was "a civilization" that conquered.
"When we combine our technological superiority, our fully developed human resources, and our spiritual power ... with Allah's permission, there is no power that can stand in the way of this country," he said.
Time reported Erdogan is modeling himself after the Ottoman Empire's ninth sultan, Selim I, who saw "during his lifetime that the Ottoman Empire grew from a strong regional power to a gargantuan global empire."
The article said: "We should be wary of Erdogan’s embrace of Selim’s exclusionary vision of Turkish political power. It represents a historical example of strongman politics that led to regional wars, the attempted annihilation of religious minorities, and the monopolization of global economic resources.
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