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Ackam convincingly presents the evolution of the Turkish mindset leading to Genocide
Taner Ackam – From Empire to Republic (exerpts)
Turkish National Identity and Christian Enmity
“…one after another the Balkan Christian minorities within the Ottoman Empire fought for their political independence and ultimately succeeded in splitting off from the Empire. But these independence movements were perceived by the ruling nation as treacherous acts directed against it.”
(my note: Albania likewise succeeded in 1910 in response to the CUPs directive to Turkify all conduct in the Empire. Albanians – though Muslims feared that this meant the loss of their cultural uniqueness and heritage and to them this was intolerable. The CUP response to this was to abandon the pretense altogether of any idea of Ottomanism and to pursue a course as quickly as possible to Turkify the nation and remove all ethnic elements it perceived were non-Turkish. The secret meetings of the CUP central committee from 1910 and then in 1911 reflect that at this time the debate was between strictly deporting the undesirables [Armenians, Greeks and xxxs were discussed] or just massacring them outright. The faction favoring the later dominated the party and government in the following years (and ultimately forced the more moderate CUP members to leave the party and form their own opposition party – Peace and Justice Party was the name I believe). Also at this time plans were drawn up to nationalize the economy – and by this they meant to force the Greeks, Armenians and xxxs to abandon their businesses and properties through boycotts, deportations and pogroms against them. It is interesting that German pressure actually encouraged this as Germans were interested in replacing the indigenous mercantiles with Germans and to this end Germans also encouraged race hatred of the Ottoman minorities – prefacing the later Kristalnach and other anti-xxxish boycotts and restrictions on xxxs of the 1930s. – BTW – the minutes of thee secret CUP meetings were independently found from separate sources in German and French intelligence archives!)
Back to Ackam –
“Although these feelings of hatred had been there before the Tanzimat period (1839-76), they reached a peak with the Reform Decree, which declared the principle of general equality of all Ottoman Subjects”
“The Muslims saw it as an insult…”
“Muslims, who up to that point had denigrated but tolerated Christians, now began to lose their position of dominance in Ottoman society.”
“…it now becomes easy to understand why the seeds of hatred toward the Christians grew. The attainment by hitherto second-class citizens of privileges through the protection of the foreign powers and the consequent improvement of their economic lot, as well as their exemption experiencing all of the burden and bitterness of the wars that were endured solely by the Muslim population…greatly helped to fan the flame of hatred against them. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, this hatred and enmity found open expression in many of the Ottoman dailies.” (Ackam then gives some specific examples…oh and BTW – the Christians were not entirely exempt as the Ottoman government continued to raise their taxes to intolerable levels to pay off the massive debt – so bad that by the mid 19th century the Ottoman finances were in foreign hands as they had defaulted their various international loans…)
“…the Young Turks movement (CUP) used this resentment to promote anti-Christian hostility…they made acceptance of Turkish superiority and domination the condition for other peoples within the Empire to live together. …a predictable result of this jealousy tinged hostility directed at the Christian minority was an intolerance of their demands for democracy.”
“In Bulgaria, Midhat Pasha became known as the ‘Bulgar executioner’ for his actions during the Bulgarian uprising of 1876.” (Ackam gives several examples of how minority calls for greater rights were met by Turkish hostility and ultimately massacre and how this policy of the Sultan’s was carried on by the Young Turks. He further documents how the Young Turks deliberately or otherwise mischaracterized the aims of ethnic political parties to emphasize not their intention of promoting reform but that they wished to “…divide and destroy the homeland”)…Ackam further characterizes these attitudes as “Islamic prejudice….Traces of such attitudes can be found even today.” And he details how “Effort is thereby made to denigrate the members of a religious or ethnic group, by equating them with an economic class. By equating ‘Christian’ and ‘bourgeois’, whereby Christians are identified as collaborators of imperialism, these authors attempt to imbue anti-Christain ideas with class content.”
Ackam then supplies a number of quotes from prominent Turkish theorists, for instance –
Ziya Pasha: “…a day will come when the matter will be unbearable and unendurable, and it will reach levels at which Islamic honor and zeal can no longer stand it. Muslims will reach their limit and they will take matters into their own hands”
Ali Suavi – “Muslims…could never accept being ruled by [Christians].” Etc
Ackam then explains – “Throughout the entire nineteenth century one sees Muslim attacks and revolts directed against Christians, attributable to the anger caused by loss of power…Lebanon 1844, Mecca 1855, Jedda and Syria in 1858 are but a few of the revolts of this nature. One of the reasons for the Serbian uprising was also that the Muslims could not accept the loss of their position of dominance.”
“The advent of another loss of Muslim dominance…vis-à-vis the Armenian population – played a significant role in the series of massacres of the Armenians. Anti-Armenian sentiment is asserted…[as] the natural and understandable result of this Muslim irritation.”
“Thus every demand for democracy…became perceived as yest another step toward the partitioning of the Empire.”
“In relation to the Armenian Genocide, the raw materials for the belligerent tendencies found in the intellectual and emotional construct that is the Turkish national identity are in large measure to be found in this feeling of belittlement and humiliation” (of perceived loss of status vis-à-vis the Christians and Armenians in particular).
“Turkish national identity developed in tandem with a desire for revenge.”
“Belligerent, chauvinistic and militaristic ideas had embraced the entire society.”
“…this feeling of vengeance…was largely directed at the non-Muslim minorities…And during the First World War this revenge, which could not have been taken against the Bulgarians or the Greeks, was instead taken out against the ‘ungrateful’ Armenians, who by collaborating with the imperialists, struck us from behind.”
Ackam quotes Bekir Sami (in response to Kazim Karabekir after machine gunning hundreds of innocent Armenians he assembled before him) – “I am settling the account of four hundred years of Ottoman History.”
“We cannot truthfully claim that Turkey has fully emerged from this mindset.” (followed by numerous quotes regarding the ingratitude of the minorities etc)
Taner Ackam – From Empire to Republic (exerpts)
Turkish National Identity and Christian Enmity
“…one after another the Balkan Christian minorities within the Ottoman Empire fought for their political independence and ultimately succeeded in splitting off from the Empire. But these independence movements were perceived by the ruling nation as treacherous acts directed against it.”
(my note: Albania likewise succeeded in 1910 in response to the CUPs directive to Turkify all conduct in the Empire. Albanians – though Muslims feared that this meant the loss of their cultural uniqueness and heritage and to them this was intolerable. The CUP response to this was to abandon the pretense altogether of any idea of Ottomanism and to pursue a course as quickly as possible to Turkify the nation and remove all ethnic elements it perceived were non-Turkish. The secret meetings of the CUP central committee from 1910 and then in 1911 reflect that at this time the debate was between strictly deporting the undesirables [Armenians, Greeks and xxxs were discussed] or just massacring them outright. The faction favoring the later dominated the party and government in the following years (and ultimately forced the more moderate CUP members to leave the party and form their own opposition party – Peace and Justice Party was the name I believe). Also at this time plans were drawn up to nationalize the economy – and by this they meant to force the Greeks, Armenians and xxxs to abandon their businesses and properties through boycotts, deportations and pogroms against them. It is interesting that German pressure actually encouraged this as Germans were interested in replacing the indigenous mercantiles with Germans and to this end Germans also encouraged race hatred of the Ottoman minorities – prefacing the later Kristalnach and other anti-xxxish boycotts and restrictions on xxxs of the 1930s. – BTW – the minutes of thee secret CUP meetings were independently found from separate sources in German and French intelligence archives!)
Back to Ackam –
“Although these feelings of hatred had been there before the Tanzimat period (1839-76), they reached a peak with the Reform Decree, which declared the principle of general equality of all Ottoman Subjects”
“The Muslims saw it as an insult…”
“Muslims, who up to that point had denigrated but tolerated Christians, now began to lose their position of dominance in Ottoman society.”
“…it now becomes easy to understand why the seeds of hatred toward the Christians grew. The attainment by hitherto second-class citizens of privileges through the protection of the foreign powers and the consequent improvement of their economic lot, as well as their exemption experiencing all of the burden and bitterness of the wars that were endured solely by the Muslim population…greatly helped to fan the flame of hatred against them. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, this hatred and enmity found open expression in many of the Ottoman dailies.” (Ackam then gives some specific examples…oh and BTW – the Christians were not entirely exempt as the Ottoman government continued to raise their taxes to intolerable levels to pay off the massive debt – so bad that by the mid 19th century the Ottoman finances were in foreign hands as they had defaulted their various international loans…)
“…the Young Turks movement (CUP) used this resentment to promote anti-Christian hostility…they made acceptance of Turkish superiority and domination the condition for other peoples within the Empire to live together. …a predictable result of this jealousy tinged hostility directed at the Christian minority was an intolerance of their demands for democracy.”
“In Bulgaria, Midhat Pasha became known as the ‘Bulgar executioner’ for his actions during the Bulgarian uprising of 1876.” (Ackam gives several examples of how minority calls for greater rights were met by Turkish hostility and ultimately massacre and how this policy of the Sultan’s was carried on by the Young Turks. He further documents how the Young Turks deliberately or otherwise mischaracterized the aims of ethnic political parties to emphasize not their intention of promoting reform but that they wished to “…divide and destroy the homeland”)…Ackam further characterizes these attitudes as “Islamic prejudice….Traces of such attitudes can be found even today.” And he details how “Effort is thereby made to denigrate the members of a religious or ethnic group, by equating them with an economic class. By equating ‘Christian’ and ‘bourgeois’, whereby Christians are identified as collaborators of imperialism, these authors attempt to imbue anti-Christain ideas with class content.”
Ackam then supplies a number of quotes from prominent Turkish theorists, for instance –
Ziya Pasha: “…a day will come when the matter will be unbearable and unendurable, and it will reach levels at which Islamic honor and zeal can no longer stand it. Muslims will reach their limit and they will take matters into their own hands”
Ali Suavi – “Muslims…could never accept being ruled by [Christians].” Etc
Ackam then explains – “Throughout the entire nineteenth century one sees Muslim attacks and revolts directed against Christians, attributable to the anger caused by loss of power…Lebanon 1844, Mecca 1855, Jedda and Syria in 1858 are but a few of the revolts of this nature. One of the reasons for the Serbian uprising was also that the Muslims could not accept the loss of their position of dominance.”
“The advent of another loss of Muslim dominance…vis-à-vis the Armenian population – played a significant role in the series of massacres of the Armenians. Anti-Armenian sentiment is asserted…[as] the natural and understandable result of this Muslim irritation.”
“Thus every demand for democracy…became perceived as yest another step toward the partitioning of the Empire.”
“In relation to the Armenian Genocide, the raw materials for the belligerent tendencies found in the intellectual and emotional construct that is the Turkish national identity are in large measure to be found in this feeling of belittlement and humiliation” (of perceived loss of status vis-à-vis the Christians and Armenians in particular).
“Turkish national identity developed in tandem with a desire for revenge.”
“Belligerent, chauvinistic and militaristic ideas had embraced the entire society.”
“…this feeling of vengeance…was largely directed at the non-Muslim minorities…And during the First World War this revenge, which could not have been taken against the Bulgarians or the Greeks, was instead taken out against the ‘ungrateful’ Armenians, who by collaborating with the imperialists, struck us from behind.”
Ackam quotes Bekir Sami (in response to Kazim Karabekir after machine gunning hundreds of innocent Armenians he assembled before him) – “I am settling the account of four hundred years of Ottoman History.”
“We cannot truthfully claim that Turkey has fully emerged from this mindset.” (followed by numerous quotes regarding the ingratitude of the minorities etc)
I heard that since Weems is dead, Borat has agreed to write the sequel.
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