Scripture for Today, 12-14-20: Daniel 8=Goat & Ram

​Daniel 8:19-21

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Iran and Turkey:

On a Collision Course?
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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." 

Update:
Iran & Turkey: Iran Fears Turkey is Fueling Separatism in Azerbaijan 

12-14-20, TVUIsraelNews – In recent days during a state visit to Azerbaijan, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan reviewed a military parade marking Azerbaijan’s victory in the 1990’s over Armenia in a bloody war which saw them seize other outlying regions belonging to Azerbaijan.
 
Russia brokered a ceasefire in the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by locking in the Azeri gains, as well as the deployment of Russian peacekeepers to the region. In a separate deal, Moscow and Ankara also agreed to jointly monitor the truce. It failed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55292613
 
While he was in Baku, Erdoğan recited an Azeri-Iranian poem about the division of Azerbaijan’s territory between Russia and Iran in the 19th century. Tehran was immediately incensed over the remarks, out of apparent concern they could fan separatist tendencies among Iran’s Azeri minority. Both nations have summoned their ambassadors to return home from the other nation over the incident.
 
The northwest Iranian region of Azerbaijan borders on the independent state of Azerbaijan, that is a former Soviet Republic. Azeris observe Shi’ite Islam – which is the same as Iran’s official state religion; Turkey’s state Islamic religion is Sunni.

On its website Iran’s Foreign Ministry said:  “The Turkish ambassador was informed that the era of territorial claims and expansionist empires is over. Iran does not allow anyone to meddle in its territorial integrity.”
 
And Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif fumed in a Twitter post: “President Erdoğan was not informed that what he ill-recited in Baku refers to the forcible separation of areas…from (the) Iranian motherland. NO ONE can talk about OUR beloved Azerbaijan.” [..]
 
Speaking alongside Azeri counterpart renewing his call for a change of the Yerevan government Erdoğan said his nation doesn’t “hold any grudge against Armenian people – our problem is with the Armenian leadership.” [..]
 
Azeri President Aliyev stated that “If the Armenian leadership draws the right consequences from the war, drop their unfounded claims and look into the future, they also have a place in this platform. We are open to this.”

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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.”