If you thought that in Ukraine we finally had a global crisis sans Islam, think again. My first clue was hearing "Allah Akbars" on a Youtube of some anti-Russia protestors (not in news media). Then, a Ukrainian e-pal from Kiev wrote in, noting, "The Kirimli (Tatars) can ask for help Turks and other Muslim peoples. With Hisb-ut-Tahrir or Wahhabites. It could be a new `hot point.' "
The Tatars of Crimea -- at least the ones who have returned to Crimea in the aftermath of Stalin's mass deportations of nearly 200,000 Tatars in 1944, which would kill nearly half of the population -- are Muslim and speak a Turkic language.
According to Al Monitor, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolgu recently met in Kiev with the former speaker of the Tatar National Assembly, Mustafa Abdulcemil Kirimoglu, and declared: “If the term is appropriate, we are in 'mobilization' to defend the rights of our kin in Crimea by doing whatever is necessary.”
If the unnamed sources in the following story out of Turkey are correct --big if -- the term is more than appropriate.
From Turkish news site Aydinlik:
Sources who spoke to Aydınlık newspaper regarding the events in Ukraine have alleged that an intelligence unit linked to the Turkish governmental intelligence organization MİT headed to Ukraine to provoke Crimean Turks against Russia at the request of the United States.
According to the information received by Aydınlık, the US and the EU asked for help from Turkey regarding the events in Ukraine. The Turkish government immediately approved the demand of the US and the EU as it has been done in Syria and Libya, and a Turkish intelligence unit went to Ukraine prior to the start of events. It was reported that a team of Turkish Special Forces also accompanied the intelligence unit. The majority of the team was placed in Crimea, and took up the task of provoking Crimean Turks and mobilizing them against the Ukraine administration.
It was also reported that the intelligence unit has continued its tasks after the former administration was toppled and after President Viktor Yanukovych left the capital city of Ukraine, Kiev. According to information obtained, the Turkish intelligence unit has continued its activities directed at preventing Crimea becoming a pro-Russian autonomous or independent region. The information included details that Russia is aware of the Turkish intelligence unit and this may cause difficulties between the relations of the two countries in the period ahead.
I wonder if this is true. There is, the article points out, a pattern:
Turkey has undertaken a number of critical tasks in problematic regions for the interests of the USA and the EU. PM Erdoğan had issued a permit for contributing to the NATO intervention in Libya from the Turkish Parliament after asking "What is NATO doing in Libya?" Armed paramilitary units sent from Turkey took part in the invasion of Libya and the overthrow of the leader of Libya, colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Some of these militants did not hesitate to give speeches to TV channels in Libya.
A similar situation took place in Syria. Borders were opened to armed jihadist groups and attempts were made to topple the Assad administration through acts of terror. Groups which have entered Syria via Turkey have killed more than a hundred thousand Syrians in the country, and these same groups did not hesitate to rape thousands of Iraqi women in Iraq. The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs both played a critical role in all these developments. MİT officers have personally operated the transfer of weapons to Syria, and military equipments was even seized in trucks and shipments were revealed in the glare of publicity following unnamed tip offs.