The Turkish Genocides, the Endless Story

From Facebook group "Turkish troops out of Cyprus" we received word that MSNBC is holding a live poll, if the US should formally recognize the World War I-era killing of Armenians as genocide?

The group: "As of a few minutes ago the numbers showed Yes 20%, No 80%! The Turks have mobilized a global campaign to shift results towards "No" but we can't let them.

The Armenian Genocide is a historical fact, along with many other crimes against humanity (...) and it should be recognized.

Please vote ' YES ' at the below link and send it to everyone you know. >>>

- Caption: from the Genocide Education Project -

As long as Turkey is able to get away with their denial, all concerned - Turks, Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians - will never be able to close the book on this painful episode in the history of the Ottoman Empire.

Even last week The Brussels Journal published an article by Tiberge, "For the EU, Sarkozy and the UN, Turkey Is Already in Europe", quoting Turkish Defense Minister, Vecdi Gönül during a ceremony at the Turkish Embassy in Brussels honoring the 70th anniversary of the death of Ataturk (d. Nov. 10, 1938), in atrocious denial, praising the policy of what he termed the “deportation” of the Armenians, because it allowed the construction of the Turkish nation.

-Caption: Red Cross photo on Hellenic Genocide-

“Would it be possible today to maintain the same national State if the existence of Greeks in the Aegean region and of Armenians in several regions of Turkey had continued as before?” Vecdi Gönül asked. “Remember, before the republic, Ankara was composed of four sectors: Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, and Greek... When I was governor at Izmir I realized that the Izmir Chamber of Commerce had been founded only by non-Muslims. There was not a Turk among them.”

The article goes on to quote a comment by French blogger Yves Daoudal:

"Before the republic", Izmir was called Smyrna and it was a Greek city, and stayed that way until 1922, when it was conquered by Ataturk. But he had to deny that Izmir was a Greek city before the Greeks were chased out of it, as he had to deny that the most fortunate deportation of the Armenians was a genocide (...) "

This has now gone on long enough. Turkey wants to join the European Union. If they want to be a mature state, they should grow up and own up. An organized denial to vote No to a poll is hardly the answer towards resolving this serious question.

- Caption: Headline of a 1922 Times article -

Related:

- Politeia: "The Medina Precedent for Holocaust and Genocide"
- Jewcy: "Understanding the Islam in Islamic Antisemitism", by Andrew G. Bostom (in 3 parts)
- The Lighthouse: "Pope Benedict XVI in Turkey: day 1"
- The Lighthouse: "Transnational Progressivism: an Inexplicable Presumption"



- Filed on Articles in "History Compiled" -

The Medina Precedent for Holocaust and Genocide

An article by Alyssa Lappen in World Net Daily reviewing Andrew Bostom's book "The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History" shot back into memory the matter of our as yet unsubstantiated theory on the origins of antisemitism.

The figure linking Islam, Nazism and mass murder is Haj Amin al Husseini, who was an uncle of Yassir Arafat and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem until 1974.

Pearls of Wisdom has done a great job in compiling a biography which we have reproduced here in a separate post for fear is losing it.

Like so many the blogger subscribes to the line that Nazism introduced antisemitism and anti-Western Jihadism into Islam. Rather, given the sequence of events it must have been the other way around. Bostom's book also aims at repudiating that claim. The historical perspective needs adjustment beyond the last century.

- Caption: The infamous cover of the "Wiener Illustrierte" Magazine, of Al Husseini inspecting a division of Bosnian Storm Troopers , known as the Handzar -

It would seem that the Jews of Medina's rejection of Islam and their subsequent slaughter at the hand of Mohamed was used as a fateful precedent. The actions by Mohamed may well have been invoked by Al Husseini to justify the Ottoman genocidal persecution of Greeks and Armenians in the aftermath of World War I.

Also it may have inspired the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. The common denominator on the scene is Al Husseini, and the Muslim view how proper dhimmis are expected to behave: either die, convert, or pay under the condition of strict loyalty to the master religion.

An important part of Adolf Hitler's justification of the persecution of Jews was his accusation of treasonous behavior during World War I, the so-called Dolchstoss Legend which has as much reality status as the Russian Czarist "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," both having the status of Sorelian myths (see posting "At it again: Political Myths - God nor Reason", of which Leonard Peikoff writes in "The Ominous Parallels": "A 'myth,' in the Sorelian-Fascist-Nazi sense, is not a deliberate falsehood; it is an ideology concocted for the purposes of action (...) it is addressed not to man's capacity for reason, but to a mob's lust for faith, not to the fact-seeking intellect, but to the feeling-ridden, action-craving 'will.' [p. 58]).

The Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians were likewise accused of acts unbecoming their dhimmi status in the Ottoman Empire, during World War I when the Turks fought on the side of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria.

Here's Lappen on Bostom:

World Net Daily: "Exposed: Innate Islamic loathing for Jews," by Alyssa Lappen

(...) several Middle East and Islamic scholars have repeatedly asserted that 20th and 21st century Islamic anti-Semitism sprang solely from Nazi and European Christian influence. Even now, Islamophiles like Bernard Lewis preach (as it were) that virulent Jew-hatred is not inherent to Islam – but rather, anti-Semitism migrated to the Middle East with European colonialism. The Quran uses "hard words ... about the Jews," even Lewis admits. Yet under Islamic rule, he claims they were "only rarely subject to persecution" and "their situation was never as bad as in Christendom at its worst. ..." (...)

Dr. Andrew G. Bostom's extensive, scientific and largely unprecedented new book, "The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History," definitively disproves such claims. (...) they can no longer shamelessly blame Christianity as the sole source of anti-Semitism – or more importantly, that Islam does not and never had its own innate brand of loathing for the Jewish people. Islam detests non-Muslims generally – whom sharia laws institutionally oppress and tax as underclass "dhimmis" – but inveighs especially intense odium against Jews. (...) >>>


- Filed on Articles in "The Unholy Alliance" -

Review: "Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam"

The political video documentary"Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam", written and directed by Joel Gilbert is - on the whole - a beautifully produced opus that delves into the origins of the confrontation between Islam and the Jews at the time of the Prophet Mohammed and is insightful in that respect, to say the least.

It is introduced as "a historic journey from the birth of Islam, through its 1,200 year reign over the civilized world, to the last 300 years is Islamic decline, overtaken and dominated by the West - then humiliated by a Jewish state. Islam's historic trials with Jews, and its relationship with conquered non believers, help illustrate the Islamic world view - all through the eyes of Muslims."

And this is exactly where the problem with this effort lies, resulting in part omission, part subjectivism, part revisionism. While it is appreciated that Judeo-Christian history is not part of this 'narrative', it is a serious objection to completely ignore the scene in which Islam from its inception, found itself. History begins with Mohammed, the measure of everything, so is the message.

The suggestion is made, that Christendom emerged from 'the obscurantism of the Dark Ages with the discovery of the Americas', ignoring centuries of social, cultural, religious, scientific and philosophical development under the influence of the Roman Church, and everything else for that matter, that has taken place before AD 610. The suggestion is ludicrous.

The author also missed the opportunity to stress the emergence and conquests of the Turkish tribes in the twelth and thirteeth centory, which could have clarified the Christian origins of the Levant and Asia Minor. Likewise, that the Crusades were as much a reconquest as the Spanish Reconquista.

The rich roots of pre Christian Greco-Roman culture, of which Islam was the custodian during the often praised 'Golden Age of Islam', is ignored altogether, as is Middle Eastern paganism. Islam, apparently, is an island. In that respect Gilbert indeed paints an accurate ' version of reality' .

On the other hand, an important insight is provided by describing more recent history. During the course of the last century Amin Al Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem between 1921 and 1948 and uncle to Yassir Arafat, is correctly identified as the link between the precedent of the massacre of the Jewish tribes at M'dina at the hand of Mohammed for failing to accept Dhimmitude, and the justification of the Turkish genocides of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians in the aftermath of World War I, as well as the Nazi Holocaust (recommended video) during World War II.

The last two occasions of genocide and alleged genocide were encouraged and sanctified by Amin al Husseini on the grounds of the M'dina precedent: Dhimmis behaving in a manner unbecoming of their status. The M'dina Jews refused conversion as well as taxation, resulting in their 'justified' annihilation.

As Mohammed is the measure of everything in Islam, the less than loyal attitude of the Dhimmi groups that were subjugated and unwillingly integrated into the Turkish (Ottoman) Empire, likewise resulted in their mass murder.

Strikingly Adolf Hitler came up with the so-called Dolchstoss legend against the Jews, 'treason' resulting in the loss of World War I on the part of the German-Turko side - a similar justification for Holocaust. (More on the Unholy Alliance between (National) Socialism and Islam on files, Part I and Part II.)

Interesting is the suggestion that Anwar Sadat's 1977 Camp David Accords with Israel actually constituted not an offer of peace, but an attempt at destroying Israel by diplomatic efforts. The question is such case is, why was he assassinated by Al Zawahiri c.s. Apparently the effort was wasted on the Muslim Brotherhood.

The document' s central assertion is that - contrary to what is suggested by the title - the Islamic world doesn't seek as much the destruction of the state of Israel, as the wish to reduce it to Dhimmi status - tributaries under Islamic rule - the natural and solely acceptable status of infidels under Islamic rule. This suggestion is a fresh attempt at literally playing dice with Evil at the price of a second Holocaust. The very notion is despicable and worthy of denunciation as a irresponsible, Postmodern piece of amorality!

Nonsensical is the idea that the Bush administration played into Al Qaeda's hands after 9/11 by attacking Islamic lands. The suggestion is, that this would so much outrage Muslims that they'd dispose of their despotic rulers on a mass scale. In effect, the only changes of regime that have occurred have taken place in the countries thus liberated by the Coalition.

Gilbert further suggests that the establishment of democracy will merely result in radical Islamist regimes being voted in all over the Middle East. Indeed, the Hamas regime in Palestine has nothing to do with Fatah corruption and mismanagement, and everything with spiting the West.

Artistically "Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam" is a fine piece of work. Historically it is insuffient, it is politically wanting, and moraly irrelevant.

- Filed on Articles in "The Unholy Alliance", Part II -

A Bag of Postmodern Curses (III): Potentates, Narcissists and Hume's Law

Continued from Part II

Terpstra is still extending cartes blanches as he decided to ignore any wrongdoings on the part of the religion of peace, let alone that he will realise he isn't empowering the moderates, but on the contrary is leaving them in the lurch and at the mercy of radicals and fanatics!

As we have already established in the preceding instalments, Geert Wilders - the M.P. intending to produce a film about the Koran, who stands accused by a Leftist Christian of being Evil for collating Islam with fascism - has Libertarian credentials, not Counter-Enlightenment ones.

In the picture from the "Wiener Illustrierte" we see Amin Al Husseini, uncle of Yassir Arafat and Mufti of Jerusalem until 1974, inspecting a line of Bosnian Muslim goose steppers! There's been hardly a conflict during the last century in which the Mufti didn't have a hand, including the Turkish atrocities on Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians in the aftermath of World War I when Turkey fought on the German side.

I am tempted to throw counsel to the wind and try my hand at the time-honoured style-figure of sarcasm with "other than that, there is no relation whatsoever between fascism and Islam", but that would leave wide open space for misconstrues (see our two part file on the subject "The Unholy Alliance: (National) Socialism and Islam", Part 1 and Part 2, filled to the brim with collations of Islam with Counter-Enlightenment ideologies).

The second fallacy in Terpstra's subconscious inferring is rooted either in ignorance or in delusion. Probably it is a combination of both. His prejudice ...

1. that it the Libertarian Wilders who must be the fascist, and
2. that Islam has no relation with fascism whatsoever, but is a peace-loving religion

... works against the notion of further educating himself. At this point the delusion plays it's best trick yet, turning the tables on what in Terpstra's mind are well-meaning, peace-loving fellow believers - Christians almost, but with rather different habits, whom we'd all come to appreciate if only we'd not be so fascist about it.

But Terpstra doesn't live on Venus and watches the news too. But he willfully chooses to suppress the knowledge that Islamists in the real world are actually full of hostility, and bent on cultivating hatred for political gain. The psychological coping device of projection kicks in at this point and instead turns the object of the hostility into the one who is hateful, divisive, full of vitriol and bile, bigoted, intolerant and hate mongering. ('Blame the victim' is a similar psychological mechanism.)

So - in the mind of Terpstra - Wilders is Evil, Wilders and His Ilk must be Stopped! Even if they are the ones that require 24/7 state sponsored protection, which is all their own fault anyway! They know Muslims are an excitable lot, so shut up! The Dutch government - egged on by erroneous Christian Democratic notions of what constitutes 'civility' is using the same false arguments to shut up the native population and put the lid on 'free speech' - an derivative of Terpstra's rationale.

All that is happening, as if there never were two traumatic political assassinations on behalf of the Muslim cause in the course of a few years. Pim Fortuyn was killed by a Leftist Narcissist nursing a perverted self-identification with what he experiences as 'the oppressed', while national enfant terrible Theo van Gogh was butchered by a Islamic Hirabahist.

Contrary to the nebulous delusions in the mind of the Leftist Christians it is of course Wilders who is couragously staring reality in the face, who's indeed taking his responsibility as an M.P. towards society to expose evil where it lives, even if that means spending nights and weekends in protective custody or on heavily guarded Air Force Bases, away from his family.

If Terpstra is as well disposed towards his fellow believers as he claims to be, he might well take following quotes from Sanity's post "Behead the Enemies of Steyn!" to heart:

That there are decent, moral and civilized Muslims goes without question but they have been silenced by fear. Siggy, in a post titled, "Why I Hate Islam" talked about a friend: My friend believes in God, without equivocation, and my friend is outraged at the yoke that must be borne by true Muslim believers because of the disintegration of Islam. The shame of many - but not all, who go to mosques to pray, cannot be measured. My friend describes an unwritten code and language decent Muslims share, so that they might find each other. They are too frightened to speak freely and they are too frightened to stand up to the bullies that have taken over the mosques and Islamic schools.

(...) Wretchard has this to say in a post about the "kinder, gentler sharia" that is evolving in Nigeria, which he calls "The Ecology of Tolerance": "The transformation of hard-line Islamic regimes into softer ones in places as diverse as Anbar province (Iraq) and Nigeria suggests that if the world wants to see a more "moderate" Islam, it is far more effective to support those who take a principled stand against it's excesses than to pander to it's most extremist elements. Ironically, the West's disgusting groveling during the Danish cartoon riots and on many subsequent occasions may have done nothing to attract the "moderates" in Islam. Those moderates would have been far better empowered if Western leaders had told the radical theocrats to shove their demands, lashes, cutting knives and fatwas where the sun don't shine."

As I wrote in a previous post, the strategy of these 21st century barbarians is to use the tolerance and goodwill of the West for the very purpose of destroying civilization and implementing intolerance and ill will (i.e., sharia) in its place. So, I say without any humor intended, behead the enemies of Steyn. Wipe them off the map of civilization; and stop agonizing over hurting their feelings or doing something they won't like us for.

They already don't like us. And they like us less each time we show them our weaknesses. Death or submission is what they have in store for us; they been saying it clearly and unambiguously for several decades now. They don't need to think we're wonderful. When they respect us and understand that we mean what we say when we say, "Enough!", they may actually learn that tolerance is in their best interest. It is not in our best interest to hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil.

Get your head around that if you can, Mr Terpstra and your Leftist Christian ilk! The truth shall set you free! Praise the guts of people like Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders who defend causes larger than their own personal, Narcissistic self. It takes moral courage - the old-fashioned ability to overcome fear - and the pursuit of reason to do just that. Mr Terpstra, by all means ... truly empower moderate Muslims, don't excuse and protect blood thirsty radicals, who are their enemies too, by speaking, hearing and seeing no evil on their part! Come on, be a man ...

Blackfive: How Dim is Nancy Pelosi?

Blackfive answer the rhetorical question in the affirmative and say, stunningly so.

In our opinion things couldn't be worse. Mrs Pelosi is Speaker of the House and as such not a total dimwit, but a politician. She knows - or ought to know - exactly what she is doing. Blackfive know that too.

"The fact that the leader of the Dems in the House has this little regard for our forces and their safety as well as our victory is sad but clearly a chosen path. They have been trying to get this war lost for a couple of years now, so the sabotaging of relations with the country most capable of making things miserable for us is par for the course."

It is another example of politicians subordinating global and geopolitical interests to shortsighted party-political interests: the irresponsible destructiveness that is running in too many of the current crop of politicians' veins since it was stirred to consciousness in 1968*.

Any time in the last ninety years or so would have been a good time to address the Human Rights of the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians at the hands of the Ottomans. The current one is decidedly not, but is coincides with the plot thickening at the Turkish-Iraqi border in Northern Iraq.

Either Mrs Pelosi is stunningly dim, or stunningly evil.

Update 1: Here's a letter from President Bill Clinton during his Presidency to Dennis Hastert, regarding the controversy during his presidency. That apparently, was also a less fortunate moment.
- Hat Tip: Siggy via Dr Sanity: "Needless to say, the Republican-led Congress--in the interests of national security--listened to the wise counsel of then-President Clinton."

Update 2: *As by sheer coincidence Roger L. Simon in "1968 Revisited" today elaborates on the generation of Boomers and Pre Boomers. He doesn't take the irreversible KGB subversion and de-moral-ization program into consideration, and the devastating influence that was the Frankfurt School for Higher Communism. It was this fifth column that entirely orchestrated Western youth culture, including the subversion of the churches and the destruction of the family unit as a result of pushing the Marxist dialectic.

As by another coincidence Fjordman describes in "The Fatherless Civilization", a review of Diana West's book, "The Death of the Grown-Up": the redistribution of power from the white male (the oppressing White Patriarchate) to perceived minorities or 'victims', including women, the oppressed.

All three are missing this point. This is not without significance as we are experiencing a revival presently, as witnessed by the subject matter of this post: the willful undermining and sabotage of Western interests. To say that they cannot help it, they were programmed this way, sounds to me too much like an excuse, one that I am unwilling to offer.