Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
The imperial ambitions and expansionist vision of Turkey’s Islamist-led government have once again been made clear through comments from a senior official in charge of training and promoting new officers in Turkey’s military, the largest of any NATO member state after the United States.
“341 years later, Vienna has fallen,” Erhan Afyonci, rector of Turkey’s National Defense University, wrote to X on July 2, shortly after Turkey’s soccer team beat Austria in the UEFA European Football Championship.
He was referring to the failed attempt by Ottoman forces to capture Vienna in 1683. Vienna was an important trading post and strategic city whose capture would have furthered Turkey’s expansion into Europe. Afyoncí also honoured the memory of Grand Vizier Merzifonl Kara Mustafa Pasha, who led the failed military campaign.
“To the soul of Merzifonl Kara Mustafa Pasha, who gave his life for Kizlielma. [Red Apple] “Blessings before Vienna and to all our martyrs,” he wrote.
In Turkish literature, “Kizil Elma” refers to a prophecy of conquering lands far beyond existing borders and achieving world domination through a pan-Turkish/Islamic movement, and an ambition to establish a global empire in the mythical hinterland.
A screenshot of a tweet by Erhan Afyonk comparing winning a soccer match to conquering Vienna.
The expression is frequently used by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other government officials in public speeches.
On August 26, 2020, the anniversary of the Battle of Manzikert, Erdogan recited a nationalistic poem, saying, “The brave men shed their blood, the flag began to fade, and Anatolia began to become a homeland.” [for Turks]To [march towards] Kuzulerma, hey, Kuzulerma.”
The battle marked the beginning of Turkish domination of Anatolia, which was then ruled by the Byzantine Empire. In 1071, the Seljuk Turks, the predecessors of the Ottoman Empire, defeated the Byzantine army, which was mainly composed of Greeks, and began the Turkification of Anatolia.
Erdogan posted his remarks on X along with a propaganda video showing Turkish Seljuk soldiers on horseback wielding swords and arrows, footage of the Turkish military’s modern warfare weaponry, and a photo of Erdogan holding a bow.
Erhan Afyonci (right) walks alongside Turkish President Erdogan as they visit the National Defense University for a graduation ceremony on July 7, 2023.
Kizilyelma clearly symbolizes the expansionist and territorial ambitions of New Turkey under Erdogan. In many public speeches, Erdogan has argued that Turkey should not be confined to its current borders, and that in his heart, Turkey’s real borders extend far beyond its current borders.
For example, at a rally in Turkey’s western Izmir province on January 5, 2019, President Erdogan declared that it was his view that Turkey’s western Izmir province’s true borders stretch from Vienna to the Adriatic Sea, the northern Black Sea, and East Turkestan, including China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
This concept has been reinforced in a variety of ways to anchor it in the Turkish psyche. For example, the government funded a popular TV series, “Kızılelma,” which airs on state-run TRT, depicting the efforts of Turkish intelligence agency MIT to promote this utopian vision. Additionally, a new version of the Bayraktar armed drone, manufactured by defense contractor Baikal and owned by President Erdogan’s son-in-law, is also named Kızılelma.
In an article published in Sabah, a government newspaper owned by Erdogan’s family, Afyonci described Kizil Yelma as “the embodiment of the desire and efforts of the Turks to dominate the entire world… Abandoning this ideal would mark the beginning of the decline of the Turkish nation.”
In another article written two days before the Turkish soccer team was to play against the Austrian team, Afyonci explained that Austrians had historically lived in fear of Turkey because the Ottoman army had launched a military campaign against Vienna.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed the graduating class of the National Defense University on July 7, 2023.
In many of his articles, Afyonci looks back at historical conflicts between Turkey and various NATO allies and argues that the current problems between the Erdogan government and the United States, European countries, Russia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are rooted in this legacy. He tries to justify the government’s foreign policy failures through his revisionism and convinces the public to ignore the shortcomings of the Erdogan government.
Afyonci is not just any figure in Erdogan’s government: Such is his loyalty that the president himself handpicked him to be rector of the National Defense University (Miri Savunma Universitesi) despite him having no military experience, a rare move for someone overseeing a military institution.
The university was suddenly established by the government in 2016 to replace the Military Academy (Halp Akademie), which had been training top officers for the Ottoman and Turkish armies since 1848. The National Defense University trains both commissioned and non-commissioned officers for the Air Force, Navy, and Army, and reports directly to the Ministry of Defense. Graduates have promising careers ahead of them, with the potential to rise rapidly through the ranks to become generals or admirals.
Two of the university’s four vice presidents are also civilians with no connection to military education or war strategy — Serdar Salman, a metallurgist academic, and Talat Kambolat, a lawyer with expertise in traffic regulation — and their selection criteria appear to be solely based on their unwavering loyalty to Erdogan’s Islamist political vision.
Turkish President Erdogan attended the inauguration of the Naval War College’s mosque during the National Defense University graduation ceremony on August 31, 2022, with a Turkish imam leading the prayers.
The university is part of Erdogan’s broader effort to reshape the Turkish military into a force dedicated to defending the regime and advancing political goals that do not necessarily align with Turkey’s national security interests.
Erdogan used the false flag coup attempt in 2016 as a pretext to purge nearly two-thirds of the generals and 81 percent of staff officers who are vital to the military’s operational and planning capabilities. Within months of the coup attempt, a total of 10,468 officers, roughly one-third of the entire general corps, were removed from the Turkish military.
The creation of the National Defense University emerged in this vacuum as a special project aimed at training a new generation of officers, with the effort focused on aligning recruits with ideological affinities within Islamist, nationalist and neo-nationalist camps and fully subservienting them to Erdogan’s Islamist political system.
The committee that vets university applicants is headed by Afyonci and includes members of the Turkish paramilitary group SADAT (Uluslararası Savunma Danışmanlık İnşaat Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Şirket), which has acted as a military contractor supporting Erdogan’s projects in Syria, Libya and elsewhere.
SADAT founder Adnan Tanriverd visited Libya in May 2013 and met with Libyan military officials.
SADAT was founded by Erdogan’s former chief military advisor, retired General Adnan Tanriverdi, who played a key role in advising the president on mass purges of military officers and the appointment and promotion of new officers. Tanriverdi continues to support Erdogan informally, viewing him as the long-awaited Mahdi. He has been involved in promoting pan-Islamist policies, including the idea of creating an Islamic league equivalent to the NATO alliance with the support of Iran and other Muslim countries.
The indoctrination of cadets at the military institution in line with Afyonci’s neo-Ottoman vision poses a major challenge for Turkey’s allies and partners: Though Turkey is a NATO member, officers educated at the university are indoctrinated with the belief that Turkey’s allies bear ill will towards Turkey and should therefore be considered enemies.
