Turkey has a continuous identity crisis. It encompasses a land bridge that connects Europe with the Middle East, and its inhabitants have always been torn between identifying with its eastern Muslim neighbors and western trading partners.
Until recently, this predominantly Muslim nation leaned west. It allied with Israel; it joined nato; it sought membership in the European Union; it became an important partner of the United States in the then-called war on terror.
Now, though, that has all changed. Since 2002, when the Justice and Development Party (akp) came to power under Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this once secular republic has turned to its Islamic roots.
When Erdoğan was elected to a third term by a landslide in June, Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center, said that the nation’s future is certain: “[N]ow Turkey is set on a path that is ending the republic established by Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s. The Turkey of secularism and Western orientation is finished. … In short, the akp is entrenched in power, and can now proceed with the fundamental transformation of Turkey” (Jerusalem Post, June 13).
Is Rubin correct? Is Turkey ready to abandon its connection to Europe and its friendship with the U.S. to cozy up to its Muslim neighbors?
Turkey, the core of a great empire that once ruled the biblical Promised Land for 400 years, is a regional power that profoundly affects Israel. Therefore the Bible, a book that prominently features Israel and its relations with major nations, must not be silent about Turkey. In fact, the Bible has many thunderous prophecies about Turkey, and the only way to understand them is by knowing where this nation is identified in those prophecies.
So who is Turkey in biblical prophecy? For the answer, we must look at its ancient and modern history.