Da'esh is the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

To expand on Toadstool's point, there's an explanation (which I am led to believe is credible by a colleague who has a basic knowledge of Arabic) here.

(NB, for the fainter hearts amongst us, or those with small children reading over their shoulder, there is a cartoon at the bottom of the page involving a Da'esh fighter holding a severed head in his hand. The most disturbing thing about it is that the fighter looks like Robbie Coltraine playing Hagrid in the Potter franchise, but there y'go)

I saw IS/ISIL/ISID referred to as Dağış on a Turkish website the other day; it would be pronounced the same way, I understand, and avoid the risk of two vowels being placed together, deemed 'unpronounceable' in Turkey, presumably on the basis that two vowels together would be clear evidence of a Western plot...

In Turkish the 'G' is pronounced 'hard' when it begins a word but merely extends the letter 'A' when it follows; the 'I' without a dot over it is a short 'I''; if it has a dot it is a long 'I'. It is, more or less, an adaption of (but less complicated than, Arabic.)

Valmorna - I have yet to see the purpose of the silent g in Turkish (ğ); the hat on a (â) has been done away with (by Government edict). The few words, as you precisely point out, that have vowels together are foreign, despicable words like saat (Time - Persian) and maas (salary - Persian), and the frequently-heard Maalesef (unfortunately - Arabic).

When Atatürk (PBUH) brought in Latin script in c 1928, he could have got rid of the weird vowels and consonants that existed in spoken Turkish, whilst he was at it: İ ç ğ ı ö ü ş

Sadly, he didn't, thus the oft-heard Erdogan on Western media.

Remind me to get out more!

So is Erdogan - 'Erdo Gan' or 'Erdo Aan'?

and is the title of this thread 'Ee rack 3' or 'Eye rack 3'? :confused:

Iraq continues to be enjoying bombs in markets, now going on 14 years.

https://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/1...baquba-market/

Whether or not this has anything to do with Al-Sadr's recent success at the polls is unclear. Being attributed to ISIS.

Meanwhile, whilst everyone is distracted, things kick off in Iraq - doubtless Iran instigated…

A total curfew has been announced in Baghdad at 3:30PM. This comes after Sadr has announced his ‘resignation’ from politics & his followers have stormed the Iraqi presidential palace

Since toppling Sadaam, the US and Israel have had their knickers in a twist over Iran.

Own Goal:p

This tiff has been building up for a couple of months, as the more Iranian-friendly Shiite faction has been maneuvering to elbow out the less Iranian-friendly Shiite faction (Sadr's) and Sadr's success in last October's election has come to naught. The recent coverage I've seen on this has been heavy in pointing to the influence of Iran - Sadr is (if nothing else) a kind Iraqi nationalist albeit his major power base is anchored in the Shia community.
That own goal - if you take down Saddam you do Iran a big, big favor - was predicted in 2002 by a former US CENTCOM commander. He was ignored. What was kind of interesting - after 9-11 but before Katami left and Mahmoud the Mouth became president in Iran - is that we had some (let's say interesting) working relationships with Iranians in Afghanistan. Sadly, that didn't help grow into something more sustainable and the Axis of Evil line was not helpful.

Iraq: a civil war in the making? Probably. Or maybe I should say "another civil war in the making." :mad:

Storming the Green Zone vs the Capitol
 

The similarities are interesting:

• A disfunctional legislative body
• A body of disaffected people that have been left behind
• A charismatic leader

One difference is the massive corruption that siphons off Iraq oil revenues: highly prevalent in petrol states:mad: