On Aug. 17, news broke that the Islamic State (IS) released a video threatening Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the seven-minute video, three men with rifles sit cross-legged in rocky terrain. Only the one with the graying beard, known by the alias Abu Ammar, speaks in fluent Turkish, with carefully repeated Arabic sayings spread throughout the message.
Unlike other IS videos, this one has an amateur feel. The video focuses on Erdogan exclusively, with photos of the Turkish parliament “as a sign of going against God’s laws” and Erdogan meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House. Abu Ammar charges that Erdogan failed to rule with Sharia (Islamic law) and went along with “Americans, Jews, crusaders, the atheist PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] as well as the Free Syrian Army and Saudis.” Intriguingly, Abu Ammar labels Free Syrian Army members as friends of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The video continues to explain how the apostate Erdogan sold Turkey to the PKK and crusaders. By cooperating with the PKK, the Free Syrian Army and the Americans, Abu Ammar argues, Erdogan has paved the way for the massacre of Muslims of Damascus and sold out the holy values of all Muslims. He echoes the Turkish opposition stance that Erdogan continued on the road of servitude to the Americans in order to stay in power.
Halfway through the video, as a map of Turkey appears, two flags divide over the country. In the west is the US flag, and the PKK takes over the eastern parts. Asserting that this warning is his religious duty, Abu Ammar asks the people of Turkey to rebel against these forces. First, they are to repent. They are to deny foreign concepts such as democracy, secularism, civil laws, nationalism and any non-Islamic terms until their war becomes the holy jihad and their dead become the martyrs. Making only one reference to Quranic verses, the IS sheikh says, “Fight against the allies of Satan [evil], as the order of evil is weak.” (Quran 4:76) He then calls upon believers in Turkey to help IS anywhere, as much as they can, and rush to join the caliphate fighting the evil.
Following the video's release, daily Vatan reported that Abu Ammar was actually a 47-year-old Turkish citizen, Fatih Acipayam, from the city of Bursa. Acipayam had sold his bakery to allegedly join IS in Syria, along with his wife and four children.
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