But remember: any concern about “Islamization” is a sign of “racism,” “bigotry,” and “Islamophobia.”
“Turkey: How the Greek presence in Cappadocia came to an end,” by Uzay Bulut, Greek City Times, January 6, 2020:
…Caesarea is significant in Christian history, as well: It became a nucleus of Christianity in the 4th century when Saint Basil the Great reputedly established an ecclesiastical center there. According to Southern Europe: International Dictionary of Historic Places:
“The Cappadocians were converted to Christianity by St. Paul, and from Cappadocia the faith was disseminated throughout eastern Anatolia. King Tiridates III of Armenia, the first to establish Christianity as the official religion, was converted in 314 by St. Gregory the Illuminator, who came from Caesarea.
“Caesarea was centered on an ancient acropolis on the slopes until the fourth century A.D. A new city was built on the plains around a church and monastery built by St. Basil the Great, the bishop of Caesarea. Basil born in Caesarea in 329, was called ‘master of the holy.’ He was one of three Cappadocians (the others were St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. Gregory of Nyssa) whose writings were said to be second only to the scriptures in formulating the theology of the early Christian Church.”
After the inception of Islam in the 7th century, the region became a target of Muslim armies pouring out of Arabia. It was first the jihadist commanders of the Umayyad Caliphate that launched military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire. The Arab commander Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik of the Umayyad Caliphate, for instance, invaded Cappadocia and took Caesarea from the Greek Byzantines temporarily in AD 726. According to the Southern Europe: International Dictionary of Historic Places,
“When Arabs began their attacks, the ancient empires of Byzantium and Persia, spent by wars and internecine struggles, could not mount strong resistance…. Their [Arab] raids occurred almost annually and took their toll on Asia Minor. They reached Caesarea as early as 647… Caesarea was captured in 726 but in 740 emperor Leo III drove the Arabs out…
“The peace was only temporary, however, and in 797 Arabs again invaded Cappadocia. On more than one occasion, Byzantium had to pay tribute to the Arabs. The Byzantine Empire had the power to win a war with the Arabs, but they were hampered by internal intrigues and dissension and preoccupied with religious debates. Emperor Nicephorus I, who reigned from 802 to 811, refused to pay tribute but was defeated and forced to pay by a huge Arab army in 806. Internal troubles in Arabia in 809 stopped the raids until 890. The Byzantine triumph over the Arabs came under Nicephorus II Phocas.”
Yet, Islamic jihad against Christian Byzantines continued. Turks were the next group of invaders. The Seljuk Turks, originally from Central Asia, invaded and sacked Caesarea in 1067. The city then came under the control of other Muslim groups such as Danishmendids, the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate and finally by the Ottoman Turks in 1515. The Byzantine Empire survived until the Ottoman invasion and sack of Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453. Under the Ottoman rule, Christians and Jews became “dhimmis”, distinctly subjugated, second-class non-citizens who had to pay heavy taxes (jizya) to be able to live as non-Muslims.
When the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923, the city, called Kaisariyah by the Arabs and later Kayseri by Turks, was passed down to Turkey.
Despite the severe oppression during the Ottoman era, there had been a continuous Greek presence in Cappadocia since antiquity – until the 1913-1923 Christian genocide that targeted Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians and the subsequent Greek–Turkish forcible population exchange of 1923. Professor Hannibal Travis writes that during the genocide:
“Greek men became victims of murder, torture, and starvation; Greek women suffered all this and also became slaves in Muslim households; Greek children wandered the streets as orphans ‘half-naked and begging for bread’; and millions of dollars’ worth of Greek property passed into Muslim hands:
“American diplomatic and journalistic sources confirmed Ambassador [James] Bryce’s charge of an Ottoman policy to exterminate Christians other than the Armenians. According to the American ambassador to Constantinople from 1913 to 1916, Henry I. Morgenthau, widely regarded as a principal source of information on the Armenian Genocide: ‘The story which I have told about the Armenians I could also tell with certain modifications about the Greeks and the Syrians,’ as Assyrians were often known to the West, especially those adhering to the Syrian Orthodox Church:
“Absent a governmental intention to exterminate the Christians of the empire, it would be nearly impossible to explain how the massacres, rapes, deportations, and dispossessions of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christians living in the Ottoman Empire at the time of World War I could have taken place on such a vast scale. How could such a remarkable degree of coordination and common purpose in slaughtering civilians, ravaging women, orphaning children, and stealing money and property have emerged without organization and direction from above? Indeed, it takes a little searching to uncover abundant evidence of planning for genocide.”
As the Greek population got annihilated in Anatolia from 1913 to 1923, so did their cultural and religious heritage. Innumerable Greek churches, monasteries, school buildings and other properties either “disappeared” or were converted to other uses. Many were destroyed outright. The remaining ones became the “new property” of Muslims of the country.
The Hrant Dink Foundation has long been investigating these issues and published a book entitled “Kayseri with Its Armenian and Greek Cultural Heritage” in 2016. The book also presents a list of the Armenian and Greek churches, monasteries, chapels, and schools, among others, in Kayseri that have been destroyed, are used for other purposes or left to deteriorate by neglect….
Expulsions, massacres, and genocide with the goal of achieving “Turkey for the Turks” have resulted in the complete homogenization and Islamization of Anatolia. Due to the lack of freedom of speech and academic research and the constant propaganda in the educational system and the media, the true history of the Islamization of the Turkish population and the destruction of the advanced, indigenous civilizations there remain a mystery for many Turks….
Veracious_one says
The same things are being seen happening today….history is repeating itself…there should be no surprises…
Pal says
Quran 9:123:
“O believer! Fight the disbelievers who are close to you. Let them find harshness in you”!
I.e.: In the beginning, you may “allow” your neighbors to be non-muslims, but you, all the time, must keep in mind you must fight them, all, and at the end, after your incessant righteous fightings, you must leave no neighbor non-muslim!
I.e.: step by step, neighbor/hood by neighbor/hood; Arabia, then Syria, then Egypt, then Persia, then North Africa, then Spain, then Asia Minor, then Constantinople, then the Balkans, then Vienna, then…
And THEN?! :
Quran 3:137, 9:33, 48:28, 3:213:
“See what happened with the civilisations than didn’t want to accept Islam”
“Allah sent Muhammad with Islam to make it superior over all non-muslim nations (Muhammad and Islam will/must achieve world dominance)”
“And Allah sent Muhammad (and he lead the fight, with Islam, in order to restore all people/nations as muslim community, since all of them have been initially created by Allah as muslims – the way islam doctrine on “islamic creation” of the world and on “muslim creation” of people says)
LB says
I’ve been saying this for a while, the muslim Turks are the most genocidal people on this Earth. There isn’t a single Turkish citizen living today that does not have a mixture of Greek, Slavic blood in their veins due to the mass rapes and harem orgies that went on inside the Ottoman empire for a millennia. That’s why they are different in appearance (more white) than the rest of their middle eastern coreligionists. That fact alone should speak for itself.
Today’s Turkey is the most evil entity in the world, and its very existence is a slap to the face to all Greeks, Balkan Slavs, Armenians and Assyrians living today. The only reason Turkey even exists is due to its meticulous effort to outright erase (by both sword and pen) any traces of previous culture and peoples that lived in Asia Minor. In other words, Turkey is built upon countless genocides and the worst crimes against humanity imaginable. Had the Turks been lenient upon its enslaved subjects and, by chance, had not slaughtered them as thoroughly as they did, Turkey would not survive the fallout of the Ottoman empire and would suffer the same fate as the Ummayyad Moors in Spain after the Reconquista.
Batter says
Hagia Sophia Never Forget
SAFI says
Not necessarily the the most genocidal but I would say definitely the most unrepented. Even the Japan for example (for all their stubborn refusal to recognize the unspeakable attrocities before and during WW2) don’t even come close. At least they don’t openly celebrate those unlike the Turks who are incredibly proud about theirs. (Then again all muslims in my experience share this attribute to various deegrees. Maybe it’s because Islam has condintioned them to be that arrogant… “best of people”, etc)
I’d say the most hypocritical as well.
LB says
As bad as “The Rape of Chengdu” was (and it was really, really bad), which was just one of many atrocities upon the Chinese and Koreans, all of that still doesn’t even come close to what the Turks did during their centuries-long tyranny. Ottoman Turks make WWII Imperial Japanese look like innocent toddlers. Not to mention that Japan has long since realized the error of its ways and completely turned around to become an US ally despite getting nuked twice. Same thing with Germany (minus the nukes).
But Turkey? Hell no! Even if they did sincerely repented and turned around from their current sabre rattling and dreams of a Neo Ottoman Caliphate, that would not be enough to erase centuries, I repeat — CENTURIES!!! (in comparison WWII lasted only for several years) — of enslaving, raping, slaughtering, and all other atrocities conceived by the human mind. If karma is real, then Turkey will be completely obliterated leaving behind not a single trace of its existence.
SAFI says
Actually Japan’s attitude to their imperial/WWII past is quite different from Germany’s
http://thecasualobserver.co.za/ww2-war-crimes-german-remorse-japanese-denialism/
Japan engages in a lot of denialism regarding this past. But at least they don’t openly brag for their crimes unlike the Turks who for the most part celebrate theirs in triumpalist fashion and are always eager to stress their connection to their bloody ottoman past. That’s why I called them “the most unrepentant”.
black adder says
A lot of Greek and Anatolian people were forcefully converted to Islam as well. If a a “turk” is of predominantly Greek or Balkan heritage this means he is the descendant of people who converted to islam willingly or by force.
Tony Naim says
The saddest chapter in Western history: the loss of
Byzantium to Islam.The prelude of centuries of war by Islam in the heart of Europe. Turks under Erdogan continue on the same savage path.
Their persistent theft of Hagia Sophia should serve as a reminder not to let down the guard.
Jew and Greek must join effort to restore their respective sacred sites.
GreekEmpress says
Agree totally Tony and LB!
Martin posted an excellent movie on JW yesterday—“Adieu Istanbul” about the problems the Greeks faced when the pogroms occurred in 1955 and 1964 and Greeks were expelled from Turkey. My family was fortunate—got out before all that, made it to Germany and then US.
Movie is definitely worth a look.
Yohanan says
A number of ancient Roman places were named Caesarea. The wiki points to about 12 or so…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarea_(disambiguation)
This is about “Caesarea in Cappadocia” which wiki redirects to entry Kayseri (according to current Turkish name). The wiki entry glosses over much history and doesn’t note the genocidal sides of the Islamic conquest. (Wiki POV Point of View is mass bias editorial view…)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayseri#Roman_and_Byzantine_Rule
Battle says
Cyprus Never Forget
Battle says
St Savoir Chora Never Forget
Battle says
Hagia Sophia Never Forget
GreekEmpress says
+1
Free Constantinople!
Rbla says
What is needed as a prerequisite of real reform of Muslim societies is a raising of consciousness among the masses in the territories conquered by Arabs and their Turkish or Mogul successors which would lead them to embrace with pride the buried and suppressed achievements of their pre-Islamic ancestors. It may be necessary for Muslims to recognize and mourn for the oppression, enslavement, rape and indignities that one fraction of their ancestors imposed on the greater part, often the overwhelmingly greater part, of their ancestral lineage. Only by acknowledging this and by accepting the Hellenic heritage common to western civilization can the secular Turkish elite truly reach their long desired goal of becoming modern Europeans. They would also do well to acknowledge their past history of jihad, persecution and genocide, and integrate these into their modern national consciousness. The courageous Uzay clearly realizes this.
gravenimage says
Rbla, Muslims are taught that all pre-Islamic and non-Islamic culture is so much “worthless Jahilyya”. They are taught that Muslim conquerors wiping this out is a good thing. This is why it is so often just Infidels who are interested in history in places like Anatolia and Egypt.
Infidel says
How is MbS’s project exploring the jahiliya past of Arabia coming along? Have his archaeologists unearthed more artifacts about what his country was like before Mr allah’s rasool came along?
gravenimage says
He’s at least paying a bit of lip service to it, Infidel:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/saudi-arabia-hidden-archaeology-alhijir-petra-charles-doughty-a8373686.html
gravenimage says
“Expulsions, massacres, and genocide have resulted in the complete homogenization and Islamization of Anatolia”
………………………
Few Christians and Jews survive in Turkey today. Most were wiped out a hundred years ago.
Pal says
May 29, 2016, Conquest of Constantinople day
Professor Erdal Bardakcioglu, Adnan Menderes University, Aydin, his tweet:
“On this day today (May 29), we in fact celebrate an anniversary of conquest of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, one majestic civilization, by a barbaric and fanatical tribe” (the turks)
Professor immediately fired.
By his rector, who has added:
“A professor, loving Byzantium (such one simply cannot exist, and he must know) that the sons (world’s muslims) of the Hira (Jabal an-Nour, Arabian Muhammad revelation mountain) for sure will defeat the sons of Olympus (the Byzantines, also Christians), for sure, once again”.
Turkish realities, and truths…
https://www.yenicaggazetesi.com.tr/profesorden-tepki-ceken-bizans-paylasimi-138638h.htm
OLD GUY says
Islam, Religion of peace my ass. Islam will be and is at war with all other peoples of the world that do not submit to them. If they are not killing the unbelievers of Islam they are only using them to their advantage until they are of no further use. This fight will not end until Islam either dominates the world or Islam is wiped from the face of it. How sad they believe there is only Islam, and that leaves us but with one choice either submit or destroy Islam.