Scripture for Today: Daniel 8=Goat & Ram

Iran and Turkey: On a Collision Course?
Shah or Sultan? Only one will remain ...

God said, "Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. 20 The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. 21 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia [Turkey]: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king." Daniel 8:19-21

10-11-17, Daniel Pipes, clarionproject.org -- Iran & Turkey rivalry goes back a half-millennium, included 11 wars, and now remains, in the words of the Washington Institute’s Soner Cagaptay, the region’s “oldest power game.” What does the recent accord signify and how will their competition influence the region’s future?
Iranian and Turkish parallels are noteworthy. Both countries have populations of 80 million. (Egypt, the region’s third large country, has 96 million.) Both boast ancient civilizations, long imperial histories, tensions with Russia, and a successful avoidance of European colonialism. In modern times, each came under the rule of a ruthless modernizer after World War I, followed more recently by an even more repressive Islamist.

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In an era of muted anti-Zionism from Arab states, Tehran and Ankara now lead the charge, with the Islamic Republic of Iran loudly denying the Holocaust and the Republic of Turkey comparing Israelis to Nazis.In several ways, Iranians lead Turks, but the latter are catching up.

Their most major difference concerns the attitudes of their subjects. Whereas Khamene’i enjoys the support of only about 15 percent of the populace, Erdoğan can count on some 45 percent, affording Erdoğan a legitimacy and confidence that Khamene’i can only dream of.

Tensions have reached the point that Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group finds Tehran and Ankara “on a collision course.” Left unchecked, he expects the present dynamics to point “toward greater bloodshed, growing instability and greater risks of direct … military confrontation.” More poetically, Cagaptay observes that the Middle East has room for “one shah or sultan, but not a shah and a sultan.”