The colonial governor's Golden Horn landing with 'Caliph' and 'Sultan' references!..

Following the phone call between Erdoğan and Trump on March 16, 2025, the Presidential Communications Directorate announced what the two leaders discussed, or rather, what Erdoğan said.

According to the information provided, Erdoğan expressed his “full belief that Turkey and the US, as two allies, will advance their cooperation in the new era in a spirit of solidarity, result-oriented and sincere manner,” while conveying that they want the war between Russia and Ukraine to end, sanctions to be lifted to restore stability in Syria, and that “steps are expected from the US in the new era with an understanding that respects Turkey’s interests regarding the fight against terrorism, and that it is necessary to end CAATSA sanctions and resolve the F-16 and F-35 issues.”

As for what Trump said during that call, we learned it a few days later from the Palace’s unofficial spokesperson, Abdülkadir Selvi.

Selvi announced that Trump told Erdoğan, “We will work with you on our regional policies,” and emphasized that it was important for Trump to make this “commitment,” accompanied by the remarks: “I want to share an important piece of behind-the-scenes information that I believe will shed light on regional developments. The world is being shaken by a magnitude 9 earthquake due to the Trump effect. The world, especially our region, is being redesigned.” Selvi also noted that Trump stated he had “appointed a new ambassador to Ankara and that communication could be established rapidly if contact is made with him without needing anyone else.”

What did Erdoğan say 1.5 years later at the Turkey-US “100-year” friendship event in New York, where he went for the UN Summit last month?

He said that thanks to the dialogue established with the US, they have achieved “positive results for our countries in many issues where we witness global effects from Africa to Asia, especially in the Middle East”... that they have a “strong and sincere dialogue with Trump”... that the “conflicts, wars, and crises we face in our region and the world” require Turkey and the US to be in close dialogue... and that we have “strong ties with many regions that hold serious potential, from Syria to Iraq, from the Caucasus to North Africa,” and that we are “utilizing these ties in the most effective way with a win-win understanding.”

These words were the official record that our foreign policy has been officially anchored to the US/Trump.

When the US withdrew its troops from Iraq at the end of September, the Saudi-based Arab News pointed out that “Turkey is preparing to take on a larger role in northern Iraq,” while claiming that “US and Israeli intelligence coordinated with Iranian dissident Kurdish groups in Iraq to prepare them for the purpose of inciting unrest in Iran, that White House officials informed Erdoğan of the plan, and that Erdoğan persuaded Trump to abandon it.”

Around the same time, a columnist for the pro-government media also linked the US withdrawal of its troops from Iraq “after securing its economic and geopolitical rent” to preparations against Iran and argued the following:

“After the US withdrawal, all eyes are undoubtedly turned to Turkey, the region’s new game-setting actor. There is a prevailing belief everywhere that only Turkey can fill the vacuum left by the US. For this reason, a very different process is beginning in Iraq, just as we have seen in Syria, where Turkey will be the most effective actor.”

The “Ottoman Millet System” Message from İzmir

When Trump appointed Tom Barrack as ambassador to Turkey, he tasked him not only with “rapid communication” but also with doing an “extraordinary job.” Perhaps for the “package program” to be implemented in our country and region, he also made Barrack the special envoy for Syria and, some time later, for Iraq.

If we summarize the “extraordinary jobs” of this plenipotentiary shadow of Trump so far;

- Just like the PKK, he linked “setbacks regarding the Kurds” to Lausanne...

- While praising that “Turkey has never been able to fully receive the value and importance it deserves as a major regional actor,” he based his models for the region on the “Ottoman millet system”...

- While posing at the Tersane tourist facilities in the Golden Horn, which belong to Fettah Tamince, whom he used while making Istanbul, not Ankara, his home, he emphasized that the Golden Horn “still whispers its legacy as a 600-year-old Imperial Shipyard portal”...

- In a statement to a Greek newspaper, he explained that “post-1919 nation-state building locked the geoeconomic order of the Eastern Mediterranean,” that “the biggest obstacle to opening the energy reserves in the Caspian to the Mediterranean is Turkey’s nation-state structure,” that “it is time to establish a new order in the Eastern Mediterranean,” and that “the Cyprus issue is an abscess”...

- While stating that Iraq, Syria, and Turkey are of strategic importance for the lasting stability of the Middle East, he said, “Balancing these three countries requires a single, consistent focus for America in terms of contact and leverage.”

- When Israel attacked the Abu al-Duhur Airbase in Syria, 70 kilometers from our border, on August 18, citing reasons such as “Turkish military convoy, arms shipment,” we learned from him what happened before and after this, how Turkey acted “cool-headedly,” and what a “great job” Erdoğan did to lower the tension...

- In the very strange receptions he held in Ankara on September 9 and in Istanbul on September 17, on the occasion of the July 4 US Independence Day, which was supposedly postponed due to the NATO Summit, he used expressions such as: “You had a 500-year world dominance spanning three continents... I promise you; a clarity will be born out of chaos. This union formed by Turkey, America, and our neighbors could be that magic potion that will carry us to a new beginning” and “You have eight countries on your border. You are surrounded by seas on four sides. You probably have one of the most difficult zip codes in the world. While trying to explain this, I do the same to my boss, there are about 150 prophets from Abraham to Muhammad. He didn’t go to the Caribbean, he didn’t go to South America, he didn’t go to Canada; he came here. If they couldn’t reach peace, what is the probability of us reaching it in this short process?”...

- While drawing attention to the importance of defense cooperation between Turkey and the US, he said, “We trust Turkey extremely for all kinds of regional alliances”...

The “Caliphate” Message from Istanbul

Our latest agenda regarding this man, whom the opposition wants to be declared “persona non grata” and whom the government refuses to criticize, is his receptions in Istanbul.

His hosting of Syrian Foreign Minister al-Shibani on October 8 and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein on October 10 is being debated.

YENİ Party PM member and former ambassador Namık Tan criticized Tom Barrack, who was appointed to Ankara but does not even deign to reside in Ankara, for holding his official receptions at Fettah Tamince’s facilities in the Golden Horn, and called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “Will you summon this person, who chooses an ideal regime for Turkey as he pleases and now sees no harm in hosting foreign ministers of other countries on our soil, and ask for an explanation? If you do not have the power to do this, explain what kind of dependency relationship you have entered into with Trump and why you are so afraid of the US administration, so we know!”

But these are not Barrack’s first receptions!..

For example, he hosted Syrian Foreign Minister al-Shibani in Istanbul on June 15 and August 17.

It was reported that in the first of the meetings, “bilateral relations between the US and Syria and steps that could be taken to develop these relations” were discussed, and views were exchanged on “efforts to ensure and maintain stability in the region,” while in the second, “lifting sanctions on Syria” and the “reconstruction process” were discussed.

Pay attention to the pose in the second meeting in particular; al-Shibani is like a well-behaved student with a tie, and Barrack is like a boss in sportswear...

As for the October 8 meeting that became the agenda; while the Syrian side announced that “bilateral relations and developments closely concerning the region, especially Iraq, were put on the table” during the meeting, Barrack shared the following:

“Syria is a key component of the Middle East Rubik’s Cube and is helping the region find an algorithm to lower temperatures in its neighborhood. I was pleased to discuss our shared priorities in combating regional threats with Syrian Foreign Minister al-Shibani today. History rarely offers a region the chance to rearrange its own pieces; it is offering such a chance right now.”

The feature of the “Rubik’s Cube” is well known; when the puzzle is solved, each face of the cube consists of a single color!..

YENİ Party’s Namık Tan claimed that after the meeting with Barrack, the two Foreign Ministers did not “deign” to visit our Foreign Minister, but even if Fuad Hussein did not, al-Shibani came to Ankara on the same day and stopped by both Hakan Fidan and MIT Undersecretary İbrahim Kalın.

Yes, procedure is important; but since the essence is just as important, let’s look at the messages of the colonial governor regarding his meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.

- “We talked about the close and lasting alliance between Iraq-US-Turkey and the regional effects we all face, the challenges that no nation can overcome alone,” he said...

- He emphasized that “Baghdad’s envoys have been docking at this port since the time of the caliphs” and that “continuing this dialogue here” felt right to him...

- While recounting the history of the Golden Horn, which extends from “Greek colonists to Constantine’s New Rome and Fatih Sultan Mehmet,” he said, “For sixteen centuries, every envoy sent first to Byzantium and then to the Sublime Porte landed under these domes; on one shore were the embassies, on the other the sultan, and the water between them was the negotiating table. To stand here is to stand where East and West meet and, for longer than almost anywhere else, preferred to talk instead of fight. Atatürk’s Republic carried this legacy forward, and Turkey today still continues to be the place where the world comes to find each other, as it has always been in this port.”...

And by what coincidence, the pro-government media columnist, who interpreted the US withdrawal of its troops by saying, “A very different process is beginning in Iraq, just as we have seen in Syria, where Turkey will be the most effective actor,” argued the following one day after Barrack’s post, stating that the status quo in Europe and the US is now blocked:

“For this reason, the number of those who see the pluralistic Ottoman millet system as the most reasonable solution in the administration of Western societies that have become multicultural is increasing. Because the six-century-old Ottoman Empire is the only administrative system that officially recognized three monotheistic religions, not just in the Middle Ages but even in current modern times, and guaranteed the coexistence of different ethnic and religious segments. No other state that surpassed this universal political paradigm has been seen in history. That is why the Ottoman’s universal asabiyyah (social cohesion) is once again becoming a beacon of hope for humanity.”

It is now so obvious where we are being taken with Trump’s and Barrack’s boat!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

October 14, 2026