Bekir Gündoğdu
In a video I came across on social media, an Iranian woman wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh said: “We took Iraq under Bush, Syria under Obama, Yemen under Biden, and Trump will give us Palestine.” These words made the past 20-25 years flash before my eyes like a film reel.On the evening of November 29, Syria’s resistance forces made a surprise move by entering Aleppo, effectively liberating a city that had been occupied by the regime and Iran. Faced with this unexpected maneuver, regime forces and Iranian settlers fled in panic. The resistance forces then liberated Tel Rifaat, previously occupied by the U.S.-Russia-backed YPG/PKK, and advanced toward Hama, Homs, and Damascus.
This sudden series of moves was met with cautious silence from Russia, bogged down in Ukraine, and the United States, navigating a transitional period. Meanwhile, Western-backed monarchies like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan panicked. Israel, outwardly silent, pursued backdoor diplomacy out of fear that the Assad regime might collapse.
The operation by Syria’s legitimate opposition forces to liberate their country panicked Iran the most. Iran, which shares no borders with Syria and has no historical or social ties to the country, laid claims there through its sectarian Shiite Crescent policy. Iran’s reaction—framing this legitimate resistance as a U.S.-Israeli plot and blaming Türkiye—was both strange and baseless.
For days, Iranian media and pro-Iranian circles spewed vitriol against Türkiye and the opposition forces. Iran’s stance was formalized when Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, accused Türkiye of being a puppet of the U.S. and the Zionist regime. Velayati’s remarks echoed the familiar rhetoric of Iran’s baseless propaganda.
Using an exceptionally offensive and arrogant tone, Iran accused both Türkiye and the legitimate Syrian opposition forces—the rightful owners of Syria—of being U.S.-Israeli pawns. It is now time to take a closer, more candid look at Iran’s record.
What is Iran? What is this so-called “Axis of Resistance”? What is this theatrical hostility toward the U.S. and Israel? Who is the real collaborator? Who is the true occupier? Who is the actual pawn of the Crusaders?In those years, we sincerely believed that Iran was waging a fierce struggle against the “Great Satan” America, but behind the scenes, graves were being dug for us without our knowledge. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s statement, “We helped America in Afghanistan and Iraq, yet they still declared Iran part of the axis of evil,” and his 2009 remark, “America labeled Iran part of the axis of evil despite the fact that Iran was their closest collaborator in Afghanistan and Iraq,” did not wake us up. We failed to stop and ask ourselves, “What’s going on here?” In reality, all of these events were happening right before our eyes, but we were oblivious, lulled into a false sense of security.
In the Shadow of Sectarian Politics: Iran’s Middle East Policy
Since the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, Iran has appeared to be at odds with America. Yet, it entered every country destabilized by the U.S. like a bulldozer, committing massacres, killing Sunnis, and expelling them, fundamentally altering demographics. Let us examine concrete examples from our region’s history.
The first signs of U.S.-Iran relations became evident with the Iran-Contra Affair in 1986. The U.S., which officially described Iran as an enemy at that time, provoked Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to attack Iran while covertly selling weapons to Iran through Israel.
The real surprise came in 1991 when the U.S., which had declared Iran its enemy after the revolution, attacked Iraq instead of Iran. Even this did not stop us from believing in Iran’s so-called anti-American propaganda.
In the mid-1990s, Iran opposed the gains of the Afghan jihad and the rise of the Taliban. It supported the Northern Alliance, composed of ethnic Persian and Shiite elements, and provoked civil war in Afghanistan by backing Shiite Afghan groups.
In the 2000s, Iran provided military training and logistical support to anti-Taliban forces while sharing critical intelligence with the U.S. During a meeting, an Iranian official handed a map to U.S. diplomat Ryan Crocker, showing Taliban positions and said, “Here’s our advice: Strike here first, then here.” Surprised, Crocker asked, “May I take notes?” The negotiator replied, “You can keep the map.”
After the September 11 attacks, the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 presented a perfect opportunity for Iran. The fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime was a golden chance for Iran.
Iraqi Shiite leaders openly supported the American occupation while pretending to be neutral. Shiite clerics emphasized, “The people of Iraq should avoid choosing between Saddam Hussein’s forces and the U.S.-led occupation.”
Following the American occupation, Iranian-backed Shiite groups quickly gained power in Iraq’s political system. Of the 25 members of the Iraqi Governing Council established in 2003, 13 were Shiite. Abdulaziz al-Hakim, leader of the Badr Brigade, emerged as one of the most prominent figures of this period. Strengthened by Iranian military aid and supported by the U.S., he secured a significant position in Iraq’s new political structure. This cooperation deepened during Nouri al-Maliki’s tenure as prime minister from 2006 to 2014. Maliki, a Shiite leader who had lived in Iran for many years, became a symbol of Tehran’s influence in Iraq. During this period, the Iran-backed Badr Brigade came to dominate Iraq’s internal security forces. Iran carried out Sunni massacres in Iraq openly through its proxy forces.
The Syrian uprising, which began in 2011, became the clearest litmus test of Iran’s hypocrisy. The Syrian resistance, which started as a civilian uprising against a tyrannical dictator, much like the 1979 Iranian revolution, was met with Iran siding with Assad’s dictatorship. It supported the Alawite minority for sectarian reasons and viewed Syria as a colony opening to the Mediterranean. Iran masked this policy under the guise of the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” propagating that the Baath regime was a bulwark against U.S. and Israeli aggression.
However, the Baath regime, which had gifted the Golan Heights to Israel and came to power in Syria through a coup, did not fire a single bullet against Israel during its 40-year rule. Even the 1982 Hama massacre, where Alawite militias killed tens of thousands of Muslims, was supported by Iran. It was therefore unsurprising that Iran stood by the tyrannical regime during the 2011 Syrian revolution. General Qassem Soleimani’s involvement in bringing Russia and Hezbollah—the so-called Lebanese Shiite militia—into Syria was no shock either.
During the Syrian Civil War, Iran not only collaborated with Russia but also acted together with the U.S. through the proxy group ISIS/Daesh. This group was both a tool to fuel Islamophobia in Western public opinion and a weapon targeting Syrian resistance groups.
In 2014, as Syrian opposition forces controlled a large portion of the country and cornered Assad’s regime, ISIS suddenly appeared. It rapidly gained territory in Iraq and Syria. In January 2014, ISIS captured Fallujah in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. By June, the world was shocked when ISIS seized Mosul, raiding the Turkish consulate and taking diplomats hostage. The Iraqi army retreated without firing a single bullet, leaving behind all its weapons, ammunition, and even hundreds of millions of dollars in bank reserves for ISIS.
Propaganda spread suggesting that ISIS was created and supported by Türkiye. Claims were made that Türkiye orchestrated ISIS massacres against Yazidis and its subsequent advance into Kobani. However, ISIS issued fatwas declaring the Republic of Türkiye an infidel state and naming it as a target. From 2014 onwards, ISIS carried out multiple bomb attacks in Türkiye, but it never acted against Iranian forces, the U.S., or the Assad regime.
Subsequently, the U.S. and Iran entered the scene together. The U.S. bombed ISIS from the air, while Iranian-backed Shiite militias occupied the vacated areas on the ground. This blatant collaboration saw the U.S. effectively aiding Iran’s proxies, including Hezbollah from Lebanon, and Shiite militias from Iraq, all of whom settled in Assad-controlled territories.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards orchestrated the formation of groups such as the Hashd al-Shaabi, Fatemiyoun Brigade, Zaynabiyoun Brigade, Hezbollah’s Nujaba Movement, and the Quds Brigade—more than 50 Shiite militias in total. Iran used these groups to ensure the survival of Assad’s regime while resettling Shiite populations from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq into areas vacated by displaced Sunni communities. It implemented a full-scale occupation policy in Sunni cities in Syria, forcibly taking over homes and businesses, much like Israeli settlers.
Aleppo became the city that witnessed the most intense destruction during the Syrian Civil War. While Russian and Assad air forces bombarded the city from above, Shiite militias led by Qassem Soleimani captured it on the ground. In Aleppo alone, 350,000 civilians were massacred.
Iran’s Crimes in Syria
In 2016, when Iran-backed forces took control of Aleppo, Soleimani presented this “victory” as evidence of Iran’s regional power. While Iranian and Assad militias tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Russia bombed cities from the air. Even when regime forces used chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta to kill tens of thousands of civilians, including children, Western powers remained silent, turning a blind eye to Iranian and Russian massacres. Israel, meanwhile, appeared content and occasionally staged operations against Syria and Iran, pretending to be at war, thus contributing to the myth of the “Axis of Resistance.” The true perpetrators of this atrocity—the Baath regime, the Alawite dictatorship, and Bashar al-Assad—were forgotten, and instead, the issue of Syrian refugees became the primary focus. Crusader powers ignored the forces killing Muslims, essentially telling them to carry on. Iran, much like the Hashshashins of a thousand years ago, once again supported Crusader powers while pretending to fight Israel.
In 2016, Iranian newspapers celebrated with headlines like “Aleppo is Liberated.” Years later, the same newspapers, when reporting on two children who returned to Aleppo after being expelled, made headlines claiming, “Terrorists supported by Zionists occupied Aleppo,” despite those children being remembered for saying, “We will grow up and reclaim our city.” How much uglier could Iran get?
Iran has filled the vacuum in every country destabilized by the U.S., spreading the heavy cost of its sectarian politics across the Islamic world. Meanwhile, the U.S. has continued its presence in the region indirectly, perpetuating its love-hate relationship with Iran.
What has happened in Syria alone is a disgrace to humanity:
- Over 1 million people killed
- 3.5 million people injured
- 12 million people displaced from their homes
- Thousands died from hunger and poverty
- Tens of thousands lost their lives while migrating to Europe
- Thousands of women were exploited by human trafficking networks
- Tens of thousands of children were abducted by organ traffickers and never found again
- Survivors endured relentless racism and hatred
Just as in Iraq and Syria, Iran destabilized Yemen, supporting the Shiite-leaning Houthi forces to spark a civil war. In this civil war between Iranian-backed Houthis and rival factions supported by the Saudi regime, which also acts on behalf of Western powers in the region, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis were killed, and millions were condemned to starvation and exile.
Throughout this entire process, neither Iran, nor Saudi Arabia, nor the Western-imposed dictators in Jordan and Egypt achieved anything beneficial for their nations. None found peace. Instead, they provoked sectarian and ethnic strife, leading to the massacre of millions of Muslims.
Will this policy of brutality be left unpunished?
Türkiye: The Region’s Sole Harbor of Peace
Türkiye has always worked for brotherly nations to achieve civil and democratic governance and has strived for the solidarity of neighboring and fraternal peoples in peace, security, and prosperity. However, it has always stood alone against the destructive devastation caused by the sinister policies of dictatorial regimes and massacre gangs supported by the U.S., Israel, Russia, England, Europe, and sectarian Shiite, Alawite, Wahhabi, or ethnonationalist socialist groups. Yet, as in history, today and tomorrow, that profound Turkish spirit—bringing justice and peace with its presence and chaos and war with its absence—has begun to make its calm, rational, and order-establishing influence felt in this region.
Wherever the red flag of Türkiye waves, the land becomes a safe haven, finding peace and security.
The Iranian regime, which governs its own people as captives—deprived of freedoms, impoverished, and in need—has once again been recorded in history as a collaborator with hypocrites and Crusaders, akin to the Hashshashins of old.
