Chief Advisor To Turkish President Erdoğan: 'The Islamic World Should Prepare An Army For Palestine From Outside Palestine'

Retired Turkish general Adnan Tanrıverdi is founder of Turkish security firm SADAT International Defense Consulting[1] and has been a chief advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since August 2016. Tanrıverdi spoke at the "International Israel Ethnic Discrimination Conference: Dimensions, Applications, And Methods Of Struggle," which took place on November 29-30, 2019, at the Mariott Hotel in the Şişli district of İstanbul and was organized by the Islam Dünyası STK'ları Birliği ("Union Of NGOs Of The Islamic World").[2] According to a report in Turkey's state-run news agency Anadolu Ajansı, in his speech at the conference, Tanrıverdi "emphasized that it was not possible for the Islamic world to give up on Jerusalem," and that "Israel governed 85 percent of Palestinian land." Tanrıverdi said: "The Islamic world should prepare an army for Palestine from outside Palestine. Israel should know that if it bombs [Palestine] a bomb will fall on Tel Aviv as well."[3]

Adnan Tanrıverdi's Background

Adnan Tanrıverdi served in the Turkish army's Artillery Corps and headed the Home Front Command in northern Cyprus. He is an expert on asymmetric warfare and was dismissed from the Turkish military in 1996 for his Islamist leanings. Former Turkish army officer Ahmet Yavuz described Tanrıverdi as "an enemy of Atatürk," referring to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, who organized the state on secular principles. Yavuz also said that Tanrıverdi's dismissal from the army was not surprising. Tanrıverdi later became chairman of the board of the Association Of Justice Defenders (ASDER),[4] which, through its Justice Defenders Strategic Research Center (ASSAM),[5] made recommendations about the restructuring of the Turkish military. Some in the press have said that the changes to the Turkish military following the July 2016 attempted coup are similar to the changes that ASSAM recommended.[6]

Adnan Tanrıverdi is chief advisor to President Erdoğan.

Tanrıverdi can be seen in a photo taken at a high-level meeting in January 2018 ahead of Turkey's invasion of northern Syria in that month, one aim of which was to take the city of Afrin, Syria. In the photo, from left to right, appear: Presidential Press Secretary İbrahim Kalın; then Undersecretary to the Prime Minister and now Vice President Fuat Oktay; then Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli; Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu; then deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ; then Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım; President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; then Chief of the General Staff and now Defense Minister Hulusi Akar; then Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdağ; Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu; Secretary General of the Presidency Fahri Kasırga; Hakan Fidan, head of the Milli İstibahrat Teşkilatı (MİT), which is Turkey's national intelligence organization; Chief Advisor Adnan Tanrıverdi; and then Chief Advisor and now Minister Of Industry And Technology Mustafa Varank.

Tanrıverdi, second from right, in a meeting of the most senior Turkish officials ahead of a major military operation in January 2018.

Past Content From Turkish Security Firm SADAT, Which Tanrıverdi Founded

On December 12, 2017, ahead of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak, which is close to President Erdoğan and his ruling Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP), published an article  titled "A Call for Urgent Action," which also appeared on the paper's website under the title "What If an Army of Islam Was Formed against Israel?" The article called on the 57 member states of the OIC to form a joint "Army of Islam" to besiege and attack the state of Israel.[7] The main points of the article were taken from the website of SADAT International Defense Consulting, which Tanrıverdi founded. For a detailed report of this event, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No 7371 Turkish Newspaper Close To President Erdogan Calls To Form Joint Islamic Army To Fight Israel, March 7, 2018.[8]