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BARNABAS AID REPORTS ON 'REMEMBERING THE FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE'
Order of St. Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical
April 2 2015
New York, NY
4/2/2015
In 1900 Christians constituted around 32% of Ottoman Turkey's
population. Just 27 years later the figure was down to about 1.8%.
In early 1915, a fatwa was issued against non-Muslims in the Ottoman
Empire. Muslims were called to fight the Christian minorities with
whom they had been living as neighbours, albeit not on equal or
necessarily peaceful terms. Many refused to take part, but those who
did inflicted colossal suffering and destruction on the Armenian,
Greek and Assyrian Christians.
It is thought that over 1.5 million Armenians, up to 750,000
Assyrians and up to 1.5 million Greeks - men, women and children -
were killed in the state-sanctioned genocide over a 30-year period;
yet their tragic loss is barely remembered today. The Armenians'
Golgotha and the Assyrians' Seyfo ("sword") is a forgotten genocide
against forgotten peoples.
Background As the Ottoman Empire began to crumble in the late 1800s,
the Sultan introduced new reforms to try to prevent the Empire's
non-Muslim minorities from seceding; the reforms supposedly provided
religious equality, thus appeasing religious minorities. However, the
Turks lost lands in the Balkans after Russia intervened to protect
Slavic Christians from Ottoman brutality in Europe in the 1877-78
Russo-Turkish war. This loss of territory led to a change in Ottoman
tactics: violent suppression of the non-Muslim subjects they feared
were wanting to secede.
Armenians, Assyrians and Greek Christians had been treated as
second-class citizens for centuries, in accordance with Islamic sharia
law, but they had also suffered, unprotected, from Turkish and Kurdish
raids. As they began to campaign for their rights, Sultan Abdul Hamid
II dealt with them "not by reform but by blood."ยน
In 1894-1896 organised massacres against Christians took place, during
which as many as 300,000 Armenians died. Many Christians believed
their best chance of escaping Ottoman dominion was by appealing to
"Christian" powers in the West and Russia. Bar sending warnings -
which went unheeded - and some aid provided by Western Christian
missionaries, no help came.
By 1913, the Young Turks had come to power and begun adopting a
new policy whereby the Ottoman Empire no longer accepted multiple
ethnicities and religions; the militaristic leadership opted to force
"Turkish", subsequently Muslim, homogeneity on all its subjects.
Continue reading this article in its entirety
on the website of The Barnabas Aid >> at
https://barnabasaid.org/news/magazine-mar-april-2015-remembering-the-forgotten-genocide
http://www.archons.org/news/detail.asp?id=820
Order of St. Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical
April 2 2015
New York, NY
4/2/2015
In 1900 Christians constituted around 32% of Ottoman Turkey's
population. Just 27 years later the figure was down to about 1.8%.
In early 1915, a fatwa was issued against non-Muslims in the Ottoman
Empire. Muslims were called to fight the Christian minorities with
whom they had been living as neighbours, albeit not on equal or
necessarily peaceful terms. Many refused to take part, but those who
did inflicted colossal suffering and destruction on the Armenian,
Greek and Assyrian Christians.
It is thought that over 1.5 million Armenians, up to 750,000
Assyrians and up to 1.5 million Greeks - men, women and children -
were killed in the state-sanctioned genocide over a 30-year period;
yet their tragic loss is barely remembered today. The Armenians'
Golgotha and the Assyrians' Seyfo ("sword") is a forgotten genocide
against forgotten peoples.
Background As the Ottoman Empire began to crumble in the late 1800s,
the Sultan introduced new reforms to try to prevent the Empire's
non-Muslim minorities from seceding; the reforms supposedly provided
religious equality, thus appeasing religious minorities. However, the
Turks lost lands in the Balkans after Russia intervened to protect
Slavic Christians from Ottoman brutality in Europe in the 1877-78
Russo-Turkish war. This loss of territory led to a change in Ottoman
tactics: violent suppression of the non-Muslim subjects they feared
were wanting to secede.
Armenians, Assyrians and Greek Christians had been treated as
second-class citizens for centuries, in accordance with Islamic sharia
law, but they had also suffered, unprotected, from Turkish and Kurdish
raids. As they began to campaign for their rights, Sultan Abdul Hamid
II dealt with them "not by reform but by blood."ยน
In 1894-1896 organised massacres against Christians took place, during
which as many as 300,000 Armenians died. Many Christians believed
their best chance of escaping Ottoman dominion was by appealing to
"Christian" powers in the West and Russia. Bar sending warnings -
which went unheeded - and some aid provided by Western Christian
missionaries, no help came.
By 1913, the Young Turks had come to power and begun adopting a
new policy whereby the Ottoman Empire no longer accepted multiple
ethnicities and religions; the militaristic leadership opted to force
"Turkish", subsequently Muslim, homogeneity on all its subjects.
Continue reading this article in its entirety
on the website of The Barnabas Aid >> at
https://barnabasaid.org/news/magazine-mar-april-2015-remembering-the-forgotten-genocide
http://www.archons.org/news/detail.asp?id=820