Lindsey Graham was criticized last week for blocking a Congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, and deservedly so. Despite the well-financed efforts of successive Turkish governments to convince the world that there never was an Armenian genocide, but only some clashes between the Ottomans and Armenians who “treacherously” took the side of Russia during the First World War, we all know, or think we know, the duration and scope of the Armenian massacres. In this generally accepted version, there were two distinct episodes of mass killings: first, from 1894 to 1896, the “Hamidian massacres” of Armenians instigated by the last sultan, Abdul Hamid II, and then, from 1915 to 1917, a second, much larger wave of massacres of Armenian men, women, and children by Turks. A recent book by Israeli historians Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi, The Thirty-Year Genocide, makes the striking claim that the genocide by the Turks was continuously committed over a thirty-year period, from 1894 to 1924, against not only the Armenians, but also including the other Ottoman Christian communities of Greeks and Assyrians.
In an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz about the book, Morris said that between 1.5 million and 2.5 million Christians were killed during this period, basing this figure on the work of Turkish, Armenian and Greek statisticians.
“Our conclusion that between 1.5 and 2.5 million Christians were murdered, from 1894 to 1924, is a cautious estimate,” Morris said.
“(The) killing of two million Christians was effected through the calculated exhortation of the Turks to create a pure Muslim nation,” the book’s blurb on the website of its publisher, Harvard University Press, reads.
Morris says the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was responsible for “the liquidation of the last Armenians who remained in Turkey,” as well as of hundreds of thousands of Greek and Assyrian Christians.
“Although Ataturk is considered to have been anti-Islamic, he mobilized Islam to execute that scheme, and he is the one who did away with the remnants of the Christian communities in Turkey. Nonetheless, the charge of ethnic cleansing never stuck to him,” Morris said….
This study will come as a salutary shock to many in the West, who until now have been unaware of the full dimensions of the genocide perpetrated by the Muslim Turks. It makes four main points. First, this genocide was not the result of two sudden upsurges — episodes — of communal violence, the first in 1894-96 and the second in 1915-1917, but took place, rather, over 30 years, part of a campaign to rid the Ottoman Empire, and then its successor the Turkish Republic, of its Christians. Second, the victims of the genocide were not only Armenians, but Greeks and Assyrians as well, whose mere existence as Christians offended so many Muslim Turks. By constantly referring to the Armenian genocide, we in the West inadvertently scant the other Christian victims. Third, the Israeli researchers offer as a “cautious estimate” a figure of between 1.5 and 2.5 million victims; until now the highest estimate for the number of victims has been 1.5 million. Morris and Ze’evi believe not only that there were “at least” rather than “at most” 1.5 million Christians murdered, but they are careful to add that even a figure of 2.5 million victims is likely to be an underestimate.
Fourth, the role played by Ataturk in this long-running genocide against Christians will surely come as a shock to many in the West. For as a secularist, famous for expressing his contempt of Islam, the enlightened despot who pushed many reforms that limited the power of Islam in the Turkish Republic, one might have expected him to oppose these Islam-prompted massacres of Christians. But he did not. He appealed to the very Islam he so despised to encourage Turks after World War I to continue the genocide that began in 1894, by killing not only the Armenians who still remained in what was now the Turkish Republic, but hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Assyrians as well. He used the desire of Turks for a “pure Muslim nation” to encourage continued killings (and expulsions) of Christians, even as he worked, in other respects, to dilute the power of Islam in Turkey. Our understanding of Ataturk will now have to be revised.
But what need not be revised is our judgement of Turkey itself. The Turkish government under Erdogan, like all Turkish governments since the Turkish Republic began, continues to flatly deny any systematic killing — “genocide” — of Armenians, and has not even bothered to mention the other victims — Greeks, Assyrians — of Turkish Muslim mass murderers. It will be fascinating to see how the Turkish government, and the well-financed Turkish lobby, handles this study, and the evidence it carefully adduces. So far the book has been greeted in Turkey with silence, and this will likely continue. If it is mentioned at all, it will be dismissed, rather than seriously discussed, as the work of “two Zionists” eager to blacken the name of Turkey and of Islam. And many Turks, with Erdogan leading them, will be all too ready to believe such a preposterous accusation.
Stanton Lore says
What exactly did the resolution say that Senator Graham opposed? I am familiar with the real history of genocide in that region. But your article doesn’t reveal why the resolution was properly blocked by the Senator.
Angemon says
I believe this is the resolution in question:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/296/text/eh
mortimer says
The Turkish Ottoman Empire (the official Islamic caliphate) murdered about three million of its Christian subjects between 1890 and 1925.
Who said Islam is ‘tolerant’? Who said is Islam is the ‘religion of peace’. Islam is in fact the religion of GENOCIDE.
John says
Correct! And Mohammed is the example to follow. When he did not have enough power in Medina he only banished two of Jewish tribes in Medina. When he then had the power, he massacred the men of the third Jewish tribe and the enslaved the women and children.
vtology says
I’m sure this is the sort of history the Left/prog Snowflakes want to remove from our history books and courses. It’s just too horrible. And yet somehow I feel it should be included in our historical studies. Just seems important somehow…. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned.
roberta says
I’m sick of seeing Lindsey Graham’s face. I turn off the tv pretty much at the mention of his name.
Mario Alexis Portella says
He’s just as bad as the liberals who support Islamophobia legislation!!! Of course, so does Trump’s “great friend” Erdogan!
Infidel says
Trump flips very easily when people let him down or turn on him – see Sessions, Bannon, Bolton, Tillerson, et al. He’s even tough on friends, like berating Modi over the 50% tariffs that India has on Harleys. He’s already shown that he knows how to handle Erdogan
Mario Alexis Portella says
I beg to differ on Erdogan. Seems to be just the opposite. https://thegreatarchitect.blog/2019/10/24/erdogans-crimes-against-humanity-continue-to-go-unpunished/
MTMLA says
LG and Mc Cain were arming the terrorists against Assad and they were killing innocent Christians…
OREN WYSOCKI says
I suppose Ataturk believed in the power of homogeneity over diversity. While simultaneously standing up for secular values. That contradicts todays simplistic explanations of muslims and champions of A secular nation. I think when history doesn’t make sense its usually because the left is lying. The communists of china have locked up most of the adult population of an entire muslim tribe. I doubt the soviets sent christians and muslims to the death camps in equal numbers. I also don’t play this game of not counting people who froze to death in the arctic circle or people who starved to death in prison. One day it will be clear that racism was of the left and still is today, as far as mindless hatred goes.
Getting back to islam, I have heard estimates that as many as 400 million people were killed by islam. That the caliphs of india demanded 100,000 dead hindus every year, and they ruled for many hundreds of years. That the casualties coming out of Africa were mind blowing. So I don’t share this view that because Jews and Christians were people of the book they were spared such evil oppression. If you kill vast numbers of people, in an attempt to establish your religions dominance over all others, then you probably are not going to stop because of some slight benefit of respect that doesn’t even specify that Jews and Christians shouldn’t be slaughtered, and by the way Jews were slaughtered by mohamad himself along with by other muslims A total of 25 times. I have never read A listing of how many mass murders there were against Christians since islam was founded. Not to mention the many other religions in the middle east. I can tell you this, when islam was founded almost nobody was willing to convert to islam willingly. Fast forward 1400 years and nearly 100% of north africans and middle easterners are all muslim, close to 1.5 billion people, mostly either forcibly converted, or converts due to discrimination and oppression. Now all 1.5 billion muslims want to convert the rest of us, and the strongest force on earth standing against them is communism, I am sad to say. The influence of democracy on islam has been insignificant, as well as Christianity and Judaism. They are wiping out hundreds of millions of Christians in Africa as we speak, mostly by threats of violence that are censored in the American media. Soon they will flex their muscles in Europe, and it looks like Europe will fold with tremendous ease. There seems to be no reason to believe the conquest of America will not happen easy either. Muslims do not care about logic or morality, even their beliefs in G-d is protected by their violent nature, their willingness to believe lies, and their support of censorship for whatever causes them to lose, and their enemies to win. That includes free people.
How many americans have to be murdered before they start supporting mass murder of their murdererers? Without access to the media or internet the number can be very large. Think of the 800 years of oppression that spain lived under, and how small A corner they were backed into before they started making A comeback. Perhaps knowledge of the truth about racism, islam and communism will make people suffer for A shorter period of time if they remember what is said, but as of right now jihad watch will be censored long before the turnaround occurs. America can’t even close the borders, much less start mass murdering those who wish to do the same to them.
It does not seem like the general public is qualified to make these decisions, total extermination would be A possibility if we were to follow their lead. But they are still anti racists. Their hearts have not turned against the blacks and the muslims who feed on their children and people so ravenously. Blinded by the supposed injustice of inequality, it is so unlike their personalities and preferences to discriminate against others.
All I can think to say is lets take the next step of proving the latinos, muslims and africans support of closed borders, their history of human rights violations, call for our leaders statues not to be torn down, expose their shameful histories with slavery, womens rights, equal rights, freedom of speech, representation, and so on. We need to change the heart of the public drastically, but we can’t get demoralized by how far of A distance we have to travel, we should just take every step available to us, and not worry about terrorism, since clearly if things are allowed to progress as they theoretically should, the number of rapes, beatings and rapes would be mind-blowing. Better to save souls with the truths that we have available to us, even if the streets become impossibly dangerous. In G-d I trust.
Is there any chance free speech survives the onslaught on America by blacks, muslims and leftists when open discussion about race is begun? Not democratic America. Nor democratic Israel I am rather sure. Whites or Jews cant win an open election either. I suppose they are already planning A Coup. It is still worth saying what we know, it will help with whatever resistance and rebellion the people will be A part of.
Millions of Israelis believe that A power exists behind the scenes of Israel’s official democracy, and causes the undemocratic outcomes of numerous court rulings, police actions, and media coverage choices.
Why should I or my generation be expose to unlimited abomination? Greater than what was spoken of that occurred to our patriarchs of the past? Joseph never watched his father humiliated or had him admonish him about pleasing his masters.
How does it make sense to punish the Jews leaving Egypt for their fears and irrationality, when for 3 or 4 hundreds years they were slaves who watched their daughters, sons, fathers and mothers raped and killed whenever many Egyptians were angry at Jews and decided to punish them.
I suppose that we are all engaged in our own time. In G-d I trust. As far as I can tell, there can be no better G-d. This is how my Neshama thinks.
I think the shadow government reps deserve to suffer for bringing into the contest the abominations that they did. I pray that repent from their evil way.
I do not think I have been to hopeful of what the people are capable of, and their eventual acceptance of the world to come without violence. Frankly I think they should suffer greater violence themselves, or at least be exposed to much more of it in the media. It is unnatural to the human being to ask him an insignificant question in A flippant manner the consequence of which are their very lives. An environment of seriousness is the most basic action of coherent leadership. Forget the prophesy of people getting married to the end, those people had tunnel vision to the point of madness. We should be tremendously concerned about our future and the issues facing our freedoms and democracy. It was very difficult to escape from the lies of the entire establishment. I imagine it is drastically worse for women. The victory you might imagine by knowing there are threats to democracy and freedom are not so likely when you compare them to the actual tests of non white inequality, and Jewish wealth. Then things start making sense. A fight can exist. So, what if the fight is over once it is begun, the people don’t know it, the whole thing is over from the beginning. In G-d I trust.
John says
Muslim historian Firishta [full name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah, born in 1560 and died in 1620], the author of the Tarikh-i Firishta and the Gulshan-i Ibrahim, was the first to give an idea to the medieval bloodbath that was India during Muslim rule, when he declared that over 400 million Hindus got slaughtered during Muslim invasion and occupation of India. Survivors got enslaved and castrated. India’s population is said to have been around 600 million at the time of Muslim invasion. By the mid 1500’s the Hindu population was 200 million.
Estimates of the Islamic murder spree exceed the 650 million Non-Muslim mark and that during a time when the world population was very much smaller than it is today.
LB says
Today’s Turkey is the spiritual successor of Ottoman Empire, arguably the most evil and bloodthirsty entity to ever exist. The pogroms on Christian people within its former borders have been going on way before 1894. The only reason Turks haven’t completely massacred all Christian Balkan peoples (Greeks and Slavs) is so they would use them as free laborers (men), child soldiers – janissaries (boys) and sex slaves (girls and women). That was happening continuously across ~500 years and it is impossible to even estimate the number of victims during that time period.
Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians on Asia Minor were also subjected to similar treatment, for an even longer period. The real reason why Turks suddenly decided to outright wipe out all non-muslims in Anatolia is because of Balkan Uprisings which caused them to lose their grip on that region, notably the First (1804-1813) and Second (1815-1878) Serbian Uprising. So Ottoman’s thought process was something like: “we were ‘lenient’ and let them live, but it has come back to bite us. In order not to repeat the same mistake, we will cleanse our heartlands of all non-Turks (aka non-muslims).”
And so began the ethnic cleansing as a desperate countermeasure to stifle any possible future form of resistance against the Turkish rule. And it worked, as evident by the very existence of today’s Turkey.
MTMLA says
I understand every child born in Turkey is automatically registered as a muslim.
gravenimage says
No–there are still a handful of Christians remaining in Turkey–but this is less than 1%. And they are persecuted and pressured to convert or leave. Turkey is apt to become 100% Muslim within the next few years.
Robert Powers says
I recommend the movie “The Promise” for a concise, graphic description of the Armenian Genocide. Get the DVD version to see details, trailers, etc and more background information….from survivor’s relatives in the United States. I personally know some Armenian descendants of the people killed in the Genocide.
Anyone who denies it or refuses to recognize it, is likely to be a Holocaust denier as well…historically, there is a connection that threads through Germany, also leading to the Jewish, etc Holocaust.
Mahesh Kumar s says
Replace the Armenian with Hindus, Replace Turkey with Pakistan, the story would be dejavu. Pakistan has eliminated millions of Hindus, in what now is Bangladesh in 1971. Million hindus were raped. Even in normal times, thousands of temples were destroyed, there are few thousand zombie Hindus left in Pakistan, while India has 250 million Muslims. They still cry discrimination while commiting grave crimes against hindus. Wakeup now, or die for Islam. Left Hindus in India ignore this aspect, just like Christian’s in USA, Europe.
gravenimage says
Yes–Muslims do this to Infidels all over the world.
Pal says
!!
1894-1925:
=
200K Armenians and other Christians murdered during 1894-1996 Hamidian massacres (after A. Hamid, the then sultan’s name), mainly in N-E Asia Minor
+
500K Assyrians murdered during 1894-1925 Assyrian genocide (“only 200K” in Urmia town, Tr-Ar-Ir border), mainly in S-E Asia Minor
+
1,5M Armenians murdered during 1914-1925 Armenian genocide, in whole Asia Minor
+
700K Greeks murdered or resettled to inner Asia minor and Turkified, 1914-1923, Greek Pont genocide
+
50K Greeks killed or banished from Smirna/Izmir, 1922
+
200K Bulgarians forcefully removed, some of them killed, and resettled from E Trace to Bulgaria, 1913
+
1,5M Greeks removed and resettled to Greece, 1923-1925 (acc to 1923 T-G resettlement agreement and plans)
+
(15K Jews attacked and forced to flee E Trace, 1934, called “Trakia events”, in Turkish)
…..
=
> 4,5 M Christian People (Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Jews, Bulgarians, Chaldeans, Yazidis etc non-muslims) CLEANED from Asia Minor to BECOME “muslim” land
or
25% of its population
!!