By Mehmet Ali Munir

“And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese American writer

Some Homecoming
President Trump nominated Thomas Barrack to serve as the US Ambassador to the Republic of Türkiye in March 2025. His nomination became official after his confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 1, 2025, in Washington, DC.
“Coming from a family with roots in the Ottoman Empire, Thomas Barrack is quite familiar with our region. He possesses a deeper understanding of Türkiye and the Middle East due to his cultural background than most previous US ambassadors to Türkiye,” says Işıl Acehan,1 a researcher on the history of immigration to the US.
After he arrived in Ankara, his first statement marked a significant political shift. “President Trump has outlined his vision of a prosperous Middle East and a stable Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors. As President Trump’s representative in Türkiye, I am proud to assume the role of the US Special Envoy for Syria and support Secretary Rubio in the realization of the president’s vision.”

Thomas Barrack
As the grandson of Catholic Lebanese immigrants, Thomas Barrack holds a BA from the University of Southern California and a JD from the University of San Diego School of Law.
Working with a major international law firm and living in Europe and the Middle East, he established a global network of relationships during his early career as a finance attorney, particularly with prominent institutional investors and governments in the Middle East.
As founder and former Chairman and CEO of Colony Capital, Inc., a global private equity investment firm, he managed approximately $80 billion in assets with operations in nineteen countries.
In 1982, he served as President Ronald Reagan’s Deputy Undersecretary of the US Department of the Interior, and in 2016, he was selected by President Donald J. Trump to chair the 58th US Presidential Inaugural Committee.
He speaks conversational Arabic, Spanish, and French in addition to English.

The Barracks from Zahlé, Lebanon
Toward the turn of the 19th century, Joseph Barrack, a Lebanese Christian, arrived in the US from Zahlé, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
The Barracks settled in what came to be known as Little Syria in Manhattan, becoming part of an ethnically diverse neighborhood where immigrants sought to preserve their traditions while adapting to a new home.
According to Acehan’s research, this area served as a cultural bridge between the Ottoman Empire and the United States.

From Ottoman Syria to the US
Large-scale Lebanese immigration began in the late 19th century, with many settling in Brooklyn, New York,, and Boston, Massachusetts. They were marked as Syrians back then when Syria referred to the entire Levant. These immigrants formed communities in America that reflected the diverse character of the Ottoman Empire.
“This wave of immigration gained momentum following the Ottoman Empire’s participation in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. News of its success, along with work opportunities in the US, reached family and friends in Ramallah, Damascus, and Zahlé, prompting many to emigrate,” says Işıl Acehan.1
Various ethnic and religious groups, including Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, and Sephardic Jews, were drawn to the same communities, finding similarities and comfort in the US regarding ethnic and religious diversity that they had also found in the Ottoman Empire.

King-Crane Commission of 1919
This was also the time for the US to show renewed interest in the disintegrating Ottoman Empire.
The King-Crane Commission of 1919 2 was sent to the Middle East by Woodrow Wilson to ascertain the viability of self-determination. The geographical scope of the Commission’s inquiry encompassed the entirety of the Ottoman Empire, focusing on the non-Turkish regions of Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, and Armenia, to be separated from Türkiye. Given the urgency of the work in the context of the ongoing Paris Peace Conference, where the Ottoman State was not invited, the Commissioners decided to limit their travel to Syria and Palestine.
The commission’s controversial recommendations included the rejection of the idea of a Jewish state. Emboldened by the Sykes-Picot agreement, Britain’s Lloyd George and France’s Georges Clemenceau disregarded the Palestinian mandate in favor of their national interests.

On Syria and the Middle East
As United States Ambassador to Türkiye, Thomas Barrack, is also serving as a special Envoy to Syria, giving President Trump an intimate contact after lifting decades of US economic sanctions to give people “a chance at greatness” and to allow Türkiye and Gulf states to take the lead on shaping Syria’s future after meeting with former Hayat Tahrir al-Sham commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s de facto leader.
Thomas Barrack stated that the Sykes-Picot agreement indicated that the borders in the Middle East were drawn for imperialist gains and that this situation had led to military conflicts for generations. He announced that the West’s intervention in the region had now come to an end and that regional solutions and partnerships would be prioritized from now on. Stating that they were acting together with Türkiye, the Gulf countries, and Europe, Barrack emphasized that this cooperation was based on standing shoulder to shoulder for the welfare of the peoples of the region.
As part of his visit to Syria, Thomas Barrack signed a $7 billion deal between Syria and a Qatari-US-Turkish consortium for the development of a 5,000-megawatt energy project aimed at reviving Syria’s war-battered electricity grid.3
Washington has not formally reopened its embassy in Damascus, closed after Assad’s repression that began in 2011, which degenerated into civil war. Special Envoy Thomas Barrack recently raised the American flag over the US ambassador’s residence in Damascus. It is a significant step and a signal of warming relations.

Interesting Times
Türkiye, with historic ties and interests, is becoming a regional power player with military bases in Qatar since 2015, in Syria and Iraq since 2016, in Somalia and Sudan since 2017, in Libya since 2019, in Azerbaijan since 2020, and in Chad since 2023.
A redefined new partnership with the US could be in the works during Thomas Barrack’s Ambassadorship before the US attention moves to other parts of the world, for better or worse, with President Trump at the helm.
It is time to remember the source of the unproven, misquoted Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” ■

NOTES:

  1. Işıl Acehan is an assistant professor of International Relations at Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, who has extensively researched Ottoman immigrants in America.
  2. King Crane
  3. Qatar’s UCC Concession Investments leads the consortium and includes Türkiye’s Kalyon GES Enerji Yatırımları and Cengiz Enerji, along with Power International USA.