The Story of Zeitoun

[Joseph]

http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2007/04/of-dhimmitude-and-defiance.html

http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2007/04/fate-of-zeitoun.html

Sure, its from an odd website but still pretty good essays nonetheless.

[Joseph]

HE ARMENIAN MASSACRES
During the last century, the ottoman Turks attempted in many times to abolish the autonomy of Zeitoun, which had been assured by a decree dating back to 1618. In July 1862, a small incident, between the village of Alabash and the Turkish village Ketman, which served the government, planned against Zeitoun. Aziz Pasha of Marash, with 40,000 men, marched on Alabash and reduced it to ruins. His forces then moved toward Zeitoun, burning and pillaging villages in route. On August 2, 1892, The large Turkish army laid siege to the town of Zeitoun. The self-defense of the town, obliged Turkish army to flee in disarray. A second assault from nearby monastery but failed once again, thereupon the Turkish army withdrew to Marash.

The Massacres of 1895-1896
The Massacres of 1894-1896 carried out by the Turks, during the reign of Red sultan Abdul Hamid, against the Armenians, in Cilicia, and Greater Armenian, caused the massacres of more than 300,000. Except Zeitoun, who had escaped these massacres, The heroic self-defense of Zeitoun, who fought the Turkish army for four months, showed the spirit of their race had not declined.

THE ADANA MASSACRES
On April 1909, Cilician Armenians experienced a renewed out break of massacres. The Ottoman authority, in all over Cilicia had carried the Adana massacres. In 1909, were 50,000 lives were lost. Only two towns Zeitoun and Tchork Marzevan (Dort Yol) had escaped these horrible massacres, by means of their heroic resistance. Elsewhere 5189 burnt houses, 12 churches and 17 schools were destroyed, hundreds of shops and commercial centers devastated.

The Armenian Genocide
.The massacre did not end here, hence between 1915 and 1918, the Young Turk government of Ottoman Turkey carried out a systematic, premeditated genocide against the Armenian people, who were unarmed, de-fenseless, and living under Turkish rule.

In a letter dated October 3, 1918 and addressed to Lord Bryce by Robert Cecil assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the UK, he wrote:

"The Ottoman Armenians were systematically murdered by the Turkish government in 1915. Two thirds of the populations were exterminated by the most cold-blooded and fiendish methods.

Over a million and a half Armenians were exterminated during this time through direct killing, starvation, and deportation and about another million were sent into exile, thus wiping out Anatolian Armenia. The Armenians had been the largest Christian nationality living in Turkey, and most of them were living on their ancient homeland of 3,000 years.

Before the Genocide 2,660,000 Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire, mostly in Armenian provinces and in Cilicia. More than 1,500,000 of them were massacred. 2050 churches and 203 monasteries were destroyed. Financial losses amounted to billions of dollars.

[bell-the-cat]

http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2007...-defiance.html

http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2007/04/fate-of-zeitoun.html

Sure, its from an odd website but still pretty good essays nonetheless.

Anti-gun-control freaks can't produce good essays.
It says much about their mentality that they think that everyone in America will start massacring each other if everyone were removed their right to have as many guns as they want.

BTW, a dark little secret is that the population of Zeytun only surrendered their weapons after getting a written request to do so from the Armenian bishop of Adana.

[Joseph]

Anti-gun-control freaks can't produce good essays.
It says much about their mentality that they think that everyone in America will start massacring each other if everyone were removed their right to have as many guns as they want.

BTW, a dark little secret is that the population of Zeytun only surrendered their weapons after getting a written request to do so from the Armenian bishop of Adana.

No doubt most of our clergy has always been very naive. The Turks indeed promised the Armenians could evacuate unharmed if they surrendered our weapons, our clergy hoping for the best stupidly back up the Turkish request and the the bloodletting ensues. Happened time and time again.

[bell-the-cat]

Anti-gun-control freaks can't produce good essays.
It says much about their mentality that they think that everyone in America will start massacring each other if everyone were removed their right to have as many guns as they want.

BTW, a dark little secret is that the population of Zeytun only surrendered their weapons after getting a written request to do so from the Armenian bishop of Adana.

Thinking about it now, as it was told to me, it might have actually been the Catholicos at Sis that sent the letter.

[Gavur]

Amazing!

[Joseph]

The fully Ottomanized clergy just doing what good dhimmis do. There were many occasions where the clergy passed on the Turkish request for Armenians to disarm and then the Armenians would be massacred. The clergy were willing to put their trust in the government and naively hoped for the best and the results were deadly. Hindsight is of course 20/20 but this happened far too many times for Turkish trickey to be an excuse. The clergy from village priests all the way up to the Catholicos failed their own people.

[Joseph]

The fully Ottomanized clergy just doing what good dhimmis do. There were many occasions where the clergy passed on the Turkish request for Armenians to disarm and then the Armenians would be massacred. The clergy were willing to put their trust in the government and naively hoped for the best and the results were deadly. Hindsight is of course 20/20 but this happened far too many times for Turkish trickey to be an excuse. The clergy from village priests all the way up to the Catholicos failed their own people.

Mesrob Mutafian is an example of a modern-day dhimmi. I hope he is defocked someday. He willingly lets himself be used by the Turkish authorities. I realize he is in a difficult position but instead of at least remaining mute regarding the genocide issue, the Turks use him for public relations. He is a scumbag of the highest order and would NEVER be allowed to be a priest anywhere but in Turkey.

Here is an example:

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=122306

[Gavur]

He is in denial!

[Joseph]

Interesting

An open letter to His Eminence Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan
>From Rachel Goshgarian, a Diasporan Armenian

Your Eminence:

I read with great interest your interview of Monday, September 17, 2007 in
Today’s Zaman. I would like to thank you for being so candid in your
responses.

I am an Armenian, a Diasporan Armenian. I am one of those you place in that
monolithic block you call “Diaspora.” Having lived in Turkey, I know that
there are many misconceptions about this “Diaspora.” My introduction to the
Diasporan construct came when I was taking a Turkish language class at Bogazici
University several years ago. During one of our conversation lessons, my
classmates were asked questions like, “What is your favorite color?” or “Where
do you like to vacation in the summer?” I was asked, “Why is the Armenia
Diaspora so powerful?” I gulped. I really didn’t know how to respond. I
don’t remember even how I answered – or if I did -- I was so shocked by the
question. But the question stuck in my mind, like a piece of gum that sticks
to your shoe. I had never before considered the “Diaspora” powerful, let alon
during that first summer I lived in Turkey, when Armenians seemed so small and
where the word “Armenian” seemed to annoy people, somehow. But the power of
the word “Diaspora” chilled the classroom. And I recognized then that it
carried a heavier meaning there, in that overheated room on the shores of the
Bosphorous, than it ever had in my own mind

Several years later my Turkish had improved and I was back and living in
Istanbul. I remember speaking with my grocer in Beyoglu. He was confused by
my Turkish accent. Finally I admitted to him that I was Armenian from America.
He was shocked. “You are from the Diaspora?” he asked me. “Yes,” I replied.
“I thought you all hated us,” he answered. I smiled and told him he listened
to the news too much. That he should try and listen to some Armenian music or
read an Armenian author. That he should try to learn more before making
assumptions.

A few months after that, as Spring was turning to Summer, the owner of the
internet café I frequented called out to me, “We are with you, Rakel Hanim. On
the 24th of April we support the entire Armenian Diaspora.” I was shocked, even
though I knew he was a leftist. As he brought me my tea, he xxxxed his head and
asked, “Abla, what is Diaspora?”

In my life as an Armenian-American who has spent significant amounts of time in
Turkey, I can say that from my own experiences I have become quite aware of
this monolithic notion that exists in Turkey regarding what seems to be
considered a super-powerful, anti-Turkish, hate-filled Diaspora with no regard
for the average Turkish citizen. And I have learned that in many respects it
is this construction of “Diaspora” in Turkey that stands as a roadblock in
terms of the relations between Armenians and Turks, between Armenia and Turkey.

I have seen this and I accept it as a product of a complicated situation. Not
everyone has time to read academic articles, watch movies, or enjoy novels
dealing with this “Diaspora.” Not everyone has the means to try and understand
what propels Armenians around the world to engage in such an enthusiastic
encouragement of genocide recognition. Not everyone has the possibility to
communicate with the “Other.”

But you do.

Your Eminence, I gather from your interview that you do not consider the
Armenians living in Turkey as part of the “Diaspora.” And yet, you come to the
United States this week to involve yourself in the affairs of this “Diaspora” of
which you are, ostensibly, not a part. The Armenian Patriarchate of
Constantinople was founded during the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror as a center
of religious/secular power for the Armenians living in what was then a foundling
Ottoman Empire. The Patriarchate exists until today. The constituency that you
serve is the Armenian community of Turkey and Cyprus. As you stated in your
interview, there are three other Patriarchates – those of Holy Etchmiadzin,
Jerusalem and Antilias (Lebanon). As you mentioned in your interview, each of
these Patriarchates is meant to look over its respective constituencies, while
the Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians remains he who holds the See of
Holy Etchmiadzin. You mentioned in your interview that the four Patriarchs
don’t get involved in each other’s affairs.

And, yet, the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America lies under the
Patriarchal jurisdiction of the Catholicos of All Armenians -- not under yours
-- unless, of course, you would like to claim the constituency of the Diocese
of the Armenian Church of America as your own since the majority of its members
are children and grandchildren of Armenians who survived whatever Your Eminence
prefers to call the deportations and massacres of Armenians from Amasya,
Diyarbakir, Harput, Malatya, Sivas, Van, etc.. If you don’t claim authorit
over these descendents of Armenians from Anatolia, and if the four patriarchs
“don’t meddle in each other’s affairs much,” then I can only speculate about
what it is you are doing in Washington this week. Why travel across the
Atlantic to give a speech and eat some food? It would seem that with this
visit, this sharing in the celebration of the iftar, this speaking at
Georgetown University, your aim is quite simply to insert yourself into the
very center of the “political issue” you pretend to disdain so.

So be it. Let another voice be heard in this already complicated discussion.
But let that voice be a strong voice. Let it not be a voice mitigated by fear.
Let that voice be a realistic voice. Let it not be a voice informed by a
growing intolerance, of the type recently witnessed in the offensive song
composed by Ozan Arif and sung by Ismail Turut. Let that voice understand the
weight of its resonance. Let that voice take into consideration not only the
70,000 Armenians living in Istanbul and in Anatolia (whom we all know live
under a great deal of pressure, particularly in the paralyzing aftermath of the
assassination of journalist Hrant Dink). Let that voice also take into account
the voices of the over 7 million Armenians living outside of Turkey. If you
come here as an international Armenian voice, let your voice be supranational
and wise. If you come here as one of the four patriarchs of the Armenian
people, if you come here not only as Patriarch of the Armenians of Istanbul but
as a representative of all Armenians, and, yes, of the Diaspora, then let your
statements reflect your mandate as a leader of the Armenian people. Let it not
be mitigated by fear. Let it not be informed by intolerance.

I write this letter and I call on you. I call on you to speak to the Armenians
of the Diaspora. I call on you to visit the communities of Armenians living in
New York, in D.C., in Los Angeles and in Detroit. I call on you to inform the
communities of the United States when you plan a visit here, so that we may
invite you into our churches and homes, rather than learn of your imminent
arrival to discuss a “political issue” in DC without any plans to meet with any
of the over one million Armenians here.

I call on you to recognize that you are, in fact, a part of the Armenian
“Diaspora.” And to recognize that you are a part of the “Diaspora” for th
same reason the “Diaspora” exists everywhere in the world.

So long as intellectually powerful individuals like yourself, with a real
knowledge of the Armenians living both inside and outside of Turkey, continue
to refer to – and treat -- the “Diaspora” as one, great, negative entity, there
will be no future for the relations between two peoples who deserve a more
honest and dignified future than the past that they have lived for the last 100
years. So long as Your Eminence, leader of the Armenians of Turkey, continues
to act without engaging in discussion of your thoughts and positions with
Armenian leaders and people outside of Turkey, there will be no end to this.
There will be no real discussion. There will be no solution to this political
situation.

I call on you, Mesrob Patriarch, to remember your position as one of four whose
jurisdiction lies under the one amongst equals. I call on you to become a
translator, to become a light, to become a way.

Rachel Goshgarian
PhD Candidate in History and Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA
Director, Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, New York, NY