In his recent speeches at Justice and Development Party (AKP) meetings, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be more chauvinistic than ever with frequent impassioned references to war sagas. With the battles at Afrin, the dose of his nationalistic and martyrdom utterances has increased, so much so that on Feb. 24 at a party meeting in Kahramanmaras he called on Turkish men who have already served in the army to be ready to go to Syria.

Addressing his supporters who were chanting, “Our leader, take us to Afrin,” Erdogan said, “Don’t worry. Once we decide to go we will not leave you behind, but take you with us. Now we are dispatching our trained cadres. Those who received mobilization orders should get ready. But at this moment we don’t need them. The minute we decide we will hit the road.”

Turkish males are subject to conscription when they reach the age of 20, and they are required to mobilize until the age of 41.

Following Erdogan’s remarks that those who have received mobilization orders should be ready, millions visited the official website of the Ministry of Defense to find out if their name is on the list. Due to the heavy traffic the site went down quickly.