ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — In a newly released ISIS propaganda video the extremist group threatens Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan and Kurdistan region President Masoud Barzani.
In the 17 minute-long video, several Turkish ISIS members appear and speak. One of the militants is from Turkish Kurdistan and speaks in the Kurmanci Kurdish dialect.
The Turkish ISIS militants asked Turkish people to join the Islamic State. “The border that exists now is placed by the Jews. There is no good left in Turkey because they do not follow the Quran and Islamic principles,” the militants said in the video.
They also talked about Kurds, saying “the Kurds are stuck in their nationalist conflict and have become secularists,” while showing pictures of Barzani and Ocalan.
“Now the Kurds have become infidels and apostates living in the countries where the rule of Islam is missing,” the Kurdish militants said. He went on to implore Kurds to leave nationalism and gather under ISIS’ self-described caliphate.
In the video another Turkish militant appears and threatens Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), saying “they are liars, and secularists faking Islam.”
He also attacked Erdogan, calling him an apostate propping up Baghdad’s “Safavid” government. Safavid is a reference to Iran and its historical Safavid dynasty, which was instrumental in the growth of the Shiite sect of Islam considered heretical to ISIS.
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