ISIL Janissary Army of Sultan Erdogan
Wayne MADSEN In
the days of the Ottoman sultans, Janissaries, mercenaries recruited to
personally serve as the sultan’s private army, wielded tremendous power
throughout the Ottoman empire, which also happened to be the last
Islamic caliphate. The Janissaries were mostly recruited from conquered
Christian peoples in Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria.
Christian families saw their young sons pressganged into military
service as soldier slaves for the Ottoman emperor. Normally, the
families never again saw their sons.
the days of the Ottoman sultans, Janissaries, mercenaries recruited to
personally serve as the sultan’s private army, wielded tremendous power
throughout the Ottoman empire, which also happened to be the last
Islamic caliphate. The Janissaries were mostly recruited from conquered
Christian peoples in Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria.
Christian families saw their young sons pressganged into military
service as soldier slaves for the Ottoman emperor. Normally, the
families never again saw their sons.
Fast
forward the calendar to the present and we see a resurgent neo-Ottoman
leader, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who recently praised the
strong presidential system of government established by German Nazi
Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, providing covert support to the modern janissaries,
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Like the Janissary
Corps of the sultans, ISIL, which has proclaimed its own «caliphate»
over lands stretching from Iraq and Syria to Libya, the Horn of Africa,
and northern Nigeria, is composed mainly of mercenaries. Although many
ISIL mercenaries traveling through Turkey to join the ranks of their
jihadist comrades in Syria and Iraq did so of their own volition, recent
reports suggest that some young people were lured into joining the
jihadist army after being subjected to false promises.
forward the calendar to the present and we see a resurgent neo-Ottoman
leader, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who recently praised the
strong presidential system of government established by German Nazi
Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, providing covert support to the modern janissaries,
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Like the Janissary
Corps of the sultans, ISIL, which has proclaimed its own «caliphate»
over lands stretching from Iraq and Syria to Libya, the Horn of Africa,
and northern Nigeria, is composed mainly of mercenaries. Although many
ISIL mercenaries traveling through Turkey to join the ranks of their
jihadist comrades in Syria and Iraq did so of their own volition, recent
reports suggest that some young people were lured into joining the
jihadist army after being subjected to false promises.
