Author: Haitham Al-Haddad

Ties between Türkiye and Syria have for centuries been brotherly. Despite the tensions brought about by the behavior of the tyrannical Assad dynasty, links between the two countries go far beyond the brutal excesses of a single family. The pair were in the same country for over 400 years during the Ottoman period. But the roots go deeper still. In fact, it was Damascus’ historic Umayyad Mosque that inspired the architecture of both the Diyarbakır Grand Mosque and that of Izmir’s Isa Bey Mosque as well. How fitting, then, that Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) chief Ibrahim Kalın prayed at…