notes and comments

[Anoush]

Re: elegy

have you ever heard a nazi or a bolshevik say he is against culture?
members of the KKK also claim to be for culture.
The Taliban and imams too claim they want to preserve their culture.

Wanting to preserve our culture or identity doesn't mean that we are going to the extreme of things at all. We are in most respects peaceloving people, unless they come after us to destroy our houses, put on fire, steal our children, behead us or annihilate us, we have no reason to go after anyone or any nation.

You go and speak about yourself!

[KanadaHye]

Re: elegy

Wanting to preserve our culture or identity doesn't mean that we are going to the extreme of things at all. We are in most respects peaceloving people, unless they come after us to destroy our houses, put on fire, steal our children, behead us or annihilate us, we have no reason to go after anyone or any nation.

You go and speak about yourself!

I've given up on Ara... I'm convinced he works for the Zionist media.

[Anoush]

Re: elegy

This was a duplicate and I erased it.

[Anoush]

Re: elegy

I've given up on Ara... I'm convinced he works for the Zionist media.

I think you have something there.... It's crazed of him to speak about going to the deep end when we have been all along the victims here. Aboush paner gese gor yev chapazants anirav.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Friday, November 27, 2009
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THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD
************************************************** ****
The disciple of an infallible master will think of himself as infallible.
*
When asked what was the most beautiful thing in the world, Diogenes (4th century BC) replied: “Freedom of speech.” Ask one of our commissars what's the worse thing in the world, and he will give the same answer.
*
There are those who believe our religion has civilized us. There are also those who believe our religion has made of us passive cowards and ideal subjects of tyrants (both foreign and domestic). Who is right? It depends on your choice of evidence: historic reality or narcissism; facts or wishful thinking.
*
Standards have fallen so low that if a man with money can draw the outline of a fish, write a grammatically correct sentence, and quote a line from Shakespeare, he is immediately declared to be a scholar, a gentleman, and a Renaissance man.
*
Armenian Ottomanism? Observe a brother on the warpath trying to get even with a fellow Armenian who has dared to question his judgment.
*
Armenian stages: acceptance, suspicion, dissent, anger, disgust, resignation, despair, alienation, assimilation.
*
Kierkegaard's question: “How many so-called Christians are really Christian?
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Saturday, November 28, 2009
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WHAT A WORLD!
************************************************** ****
When the judge and jury are murderers and the defendant is also a murderer whose motive is as clear as daylight, why should we be surprised if he is found not guilty by reason of insufficient evidence? That's one way to explain why the Yanks refuse to recognize the Genocide.
*
It was a case of the blind leading the blind, but they blame the Turks, they blame the West, they blame the opposition, and some of them even blame the victims for their refusal to join their ranks, after which they parade as men of vision.
*
What would you have done in their place? I am asked again and again. Probably what they did and what they are doing. Understanding must begin somewhere and the best place is the self.
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“A writer without a homeland is like a king in exile,” writes Golo Mann. Speaking for myself I feel more like the inmate of a Gulag whose existence the regime denies and is believed by dupes.
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If you ask a serial adulterer why he is always the one to cast the first stone, my guess is, he will answer: “It's good PR!”
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An alienated Armenian is one who after rejecting his Ottomanism, Sovietism, Levantinism, and Americanism, is now in search of his humanity.
*
A headline in my morning paper reads, “Want monogamy? Marry a swan.” The first line of the article informs us: “Actually, it turns out swans cheat, too.” Who would have guessed we live in a world where even swans behave like swine?
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Entretien avec l’écrivain Ara Baliozian
par Liana Aghajanian
IanyanMag, 13.10.2009


« Les deux atouts majeurs d’un écrivain : une sensibilité d’écorché vif et le cuir d’un rhinocéros », écrit Ara Baliozian sur son blog, qui héberge ses réflexions quotidiennes sur des thèmes allant de la religion à l’argent, la politique, la littérature et naturellement des thématiques arméniennes. Les écrits de Baliozian, auteur et traducteur, lui valent nombre de flèches de la part du lectorat arménien, mais cela ne l’empêche pas de distiller ses critiques et observations.
Né en Grèce et éduqué à Venise, Baliozian vit actuellement à Kitchener, au Canada. Il a publié plusieurs ouvrages, dont Armenians : Their History and Culture et In the New World et en a traduit beaucoup d’autres. Il publie maintenant ses œuvres principalement sur des forums internet arméniens, mais il a accepté de répondre à quelques questions pertinentes.

- Liana Aghajanian : Ma première question sera simple, mais il sera peut-être difficile d’y répondre : pourquoi écrivez-vous ?
- Ara Baliozian : J’écris parce qu’écrire est devenu une habitude et, comme l’on sait, il est plus facile de conserver des habitudes que de s’en défaire.

- Liana Aghajanian : Quel est le meilleur conseil que vous donneriez à un jeune écrivain arménien comme moi ?
- Ara Baliozian : Etre honnête avec vous-même et vos lecteurs. Ne rien accepter sur quelque autorité que ce soit. Dans notre monde actuel, plus les gens s’élèvent, plus ils mentent.

- Liana Aghajanian : Beaucoup d’écrivains de votre génération, qu’ils soient arméniens ou non, ne se sont pas adaptés à internet avec votre facilité. Comment et quand avez-vous commencé à utiliser internet pour faire partager vos écrits ? Quel a été l’élément déclencheur ?
- Ara Baliozian : Je dois ma pratique d’internet à mon cher ami Noubar Poladian, qui est venu me voir à plusieurs reprises depuis Toronto (96 km) pour m’apprendre à utiliser un ordinateur alors que je lui disais ma résistance à abandonner ma vieille machine à écrire.

- Liana Aghajanian : Quels sont vos rituels d’écriture, si tel est le cas ? Ecrivez-vous à tel moment de la journée ou dans un lieu particulier ?
- Ara Baliozian : J’écris très tôt le matin, quand tout le monde dort et qu’il fait noir au dehors. Je n’écris qu’une simple page. Il m’arrive de prendre des notes durant la journée, dont j’écarte la plupart le matin venu.

- Liana Aghajanian : Que pensez-vous des protocoles entre l’Arménie et la Turquie et comment voyez-vous ceux qui dans la diaspora font campagne contre ces protocoles ? Si vous êtes opposé à ces protocoles, quelle est l’alternative ? Et selon vous, quel est le meilleur moyen pour la diaspora d’exprimer ses inquiétudes ?
- Ara Baliozian : Je suis totalement pour une amitié avec nos ennemis, du moment que nous pouvons obtenir davantage de concessions de leur part comme amis, plutôt que comme ennemis. J’ajoute que je ne prends pas au sérieux ces protocoles. Mais c’est un début, ce qui est mieux que rien. La mère patrie et la diaspora ont des priorités différentes. Il serait égoïste de notre part de considérer nos priorités comme supérieures ou plus urgentes que celle de la mère patrie. Laissons les choses suivre leur cours. Laissons la mère patrie gérer ses affaires. De toute manière, les Turcs savent que l’Arménie ne représente pas la diaspora. Quant à nos inquiétudes, je pense que les Turcs en sont aussi conscients. Et si leur intention est de nous diviser, à nous de ne pas tomber dans le piège.

- Liana Aghajanian : A quelles sortes de concessions pensez-vous ?
- Ara Baliozian : On pourrait commencer par demander aux Turcs de nous permettre de prendre soin de nos anciens monuments à Ani, Van et ailleurs. Quant aux concessions territoriales, il me semble que si nous nous dirigeons vers une sorte d’Union ou une liberté de circulation dans le cadre d’Etats-Unis du Moyen-Orient ou du Caucase, les frontières de l’Arménie historique et de l’Azerbaïdjan deviendront obsolètes.

- Liana Aghajanian : Vous faites l’objet de rudes critiques de la part de nombreux Arméniens qui n’approuvent pas vos écrits et vos opinions, allant même jusqu’à vous insulter à de nombreuses occasions. Comment vous en accommodez-vous et qu’est-ce qui dans vos écrits dérange les Arméniens ?
- Ara Baliozian : En règle générale, je suis insulté par des lecteurs endoctrinés, exposés à d’innombrables prêches et discours, sans avoir lu le moindre écrivain. Ce qui les dérange c’est le fait que je me refuse à recycler une propagande chauviniste. Des choses comme la bataille d’Avaraïr (dont même certains de nos historiens nient l’existence), être la première nation qui se soit convertie au christianisme (la véritable question est : avons-nous jamais été de bons chrétiens ?), la première nation à avoir été la cible d’un génocide (au nom de quoi s’en vanter ?). Nous serions intelligents ? En politique nous n’arrivons même pas à nous qualifier sur le tard.

- Liana Aghajanian : Vous avez récemment écrit sur votre blog : « J’estime que le génocide résulte de deux erreurs monumentales commises par des nationalistes fanatiques et forcenés des deux côtés. Il va sans dire que le massacre de civils innocents est un crime bien plus grave que la stupidité et l’ignorance. Il se peut que l’ignorance soit la plus innocente de toutes les transgressions, mais dans la vie c’est celle qui est la plus sévèrement punie. S’il est des lois inflexibles dans la vie, celle-ci en fait à coup sûr partie. En parlant de lois inflexibles, en voici une autre : si vous refusez de tirer quelque enseignement de vos erreurs, vous vous condamnez à les répéter. Qu’avons-nous appris de notre génocide ? Que dire, sinon que nous sommes à la merci de conditions historiques inévitables ou de forces qui nous dépassent ? Même erreur, même propagande, même Super Mensonge fabriqué et recyclé par des hommes qui sont trop paresseux ou stupides pour penser par eux-mêmes. » - Pourriez-vous être plus explicite ? Quels ont été les erreurs majeures de la culture arménienne en tant que telle ? Pouvons-nous faire des progrès, selon vous ?
- Ara Baliozian : Notre grande erreur – ou plutôt celle de nos révolutionnaires – a été de croire dans les promesses verbales des grandes puissances. A cette idée que leur soutien nous rendait invulnérable. Dans la diplomatie internationale, les promesses verbales, même les traités, n’ont aucune valeur si l’on n’a pas les moyens de les mettre en œuvre.
Notre seconde erreur est d’imputer nos malheurs actuels (l’expatriation et l’assimilation dans la diaspora – qualifiée aussi de génocide blanc) à des conditions sociales, politiques et culturelles qui nous dépassent… autrement dit, d’adopter une position passive, au lieu d’assumer un rôle actif en nous organisant, nous montrant solidaires, en mettant fin à des conflits et divisions mutuelles.

- Liana Aghajanian : Avez-vous des regrets, professionnels ou personnels ?
- Ara Baliozian : L’un de mes plus grands regrets est d’avoir attendu la trentaine avant de me consacrer à temps plein à l’écriture. J’aurais dû le faire plus tôt.

- Liana Aghajanian : Quels sont vos héros dans la vie ?
- Ara Baliozian : Platon, Gandhi, Thoreau… pour n’en citer que trois parmi tant d’autres.

- Liana Aghajanian : Si vous deviez choisir, quels seraient, selon vous, les meilleurs modèles ou dirigeants dans la communauté arménienne dont les Arméniens pourraient beaucoup apprendre ? Et s’il n’y en a pas, selon vous, pourriez-vous expliquer pourquoi ?
- Ara Baliozian : Nous pouvons apprendre un tas de choses de nos écrivains – Grégoire de Narek, Raffi, Baronian, Odian, Zohrab, Zarian, Massikian… Hélas, je ne vois personne de nos jours qui leur arrive à la hauteur !

- Liana Aghajanian : Pourquoi, selon vous, est-il si difficile pour les Arméniens d’avoir un débat franc et raisonné sans confrontation, préjugé ou a priori ?
- Ara Baliozian : Ceux qui ont subi un lavage de cerveau ont tendance à être dogmatiques, autrement dit, intolérants. Or les intolérants ne peuvent s’engager dans un dialogue, ils préfèrent donner des sermons et pérorer.

- Liana Aghajanian : Quand vous n’écrivez pas, que faites-vous de vos loisirs ?
- Ara Baliozian : Rien ne me fait davantage plaisir que jouer du Bach à l’orgue.

- Liana Aghajanian : Ayant décidé de vouloir être un écrivain, vous auriez pu facilement ne pas écrire à propos des Arméniens. Pourquoi avez-vous décidé de le faire ?
- Ara Baliozian : J’ai commencé par écrire et publier des romans, qui m’on valu plusieurs prix littéraires et bourses du gouvernement canadien – jusqu’à ce que je réalise que le but du roman est de divertir la bourgeoisie. Comprendre et expliquer la réalité : voilà ce que je veux faire maintenant… et j’y éprouve davantage de plaisir qu’à écrire des histoires d’amour ou, pour citer Sartre, sur « les affres mutuelles de l’amour ».

- Liana Aghajanian : Quels sont vos livres favoris ?
- Ara Baliozian : En arménien : Le Voyageur et sa route, de Zarian. En russe : Pères et fils, de Tourgueniev. En anglais : Reconsidérations, de Toynbee. En français : Les Mots, de Sartre. En grec : Zorba le Grec, de Kazantzakis.

- Liana Aghajanian : Quels sont vos plats arméniens favoris ?
- Ara Baliozian : Je suis végétarien.

Liana Aghajanian est rédactrice en chef d’IanyanMag, tout en étant éditeur à temps plein et écrivain à ses heures à Los Angeles. « Je prends mon tchaï sans sucre, mais mon dolma avec beaucoup de yaourt ! »

Blog d’Ara Baliozian : http://baliozian.blogspot.com/

Source : http://www.ianyanmag.com/?p=1230
Traduction : © Georges Festa pour Denis Donikian, 10.2009

[ArmSurvival]

Re: elegy

I have to break this up into two posts because of forum restrictions. First let me give some general information to support my claim that J ewish bankers and financiers held considerable influence in the affairs of the Ottoman state (all emphases are mine).

Camondo banking family:

Count Abraham Camondo:
Italian and Turkish financier and philanthropist; born at Constantinople 1785; died at Paris, his place of residence, March 30, 1873. In 1832 he inherited from his brother Isaac (who died without children) a fortune, and managed it so wisely that at his death he was estimated to be worth 125,000,000 francs. While Venice was under Austrian rule, he received as an Austrian subject the title of Chevalier of the Order of Francis Joseph. When Venice again became an Italian possession, Camondo, as a Venetian citizen, presented large gifts to several Italian philanthropic institutions, in recognition of which King Victor Emmanuel conferred upon him the title of count, with the privilege of transmitting it in perpetuity to the eldest son of the family.
Count Camondo's career in Turkey was an extraordinary one. He exercised so great an influence over the sultans 'Abd al-Majid and 'Abd al-'Aziz, and over the Ottoman grand viziers and ministers, that his name became proverbial. He was banker to the Ottoman government before the founding of the Ottoman Bank. It was he who obtained from the Porte a firman by virtue of which the privilege of possessing real estate in Turkey, which until then had been restricted to subjects of the Ottoman empire, was extended to those of foreign nations.
Profiting by this decree, Camondo erected such a large number of houses at Pera (Constantinople) that even to-day (1902) the family is one of the richest landholders in the Ottoman capital.

Allatini banking family:

From the middle of the nineteenth century the material and intellectual condition of the community began gradually to improve. This was due to the efforts of several prominent Salonica families, such as the Fernandez, the Allatini, and others. In 1873 the Alliance Israélite Universelle opened in the city a school for children; and in 1875 two additional schools, patterned after Western institutions, were founded by the Allatini. There are at present (1905) about 75,000 xxxs in Salonica in a total population of 120,000. The majority of them are poor, and are engaged in all kinds of handicrafts and in petty trade. Still there are among them wealthy exporters of corn (the main article of commerce), besides bankers, physicians, and lawyers of high standing.

Modiano banking family:

Turkish rabbinical author; lived at Salonica at the end of the eighteenth century. He belonged to a family originally from Modena, Italy, the descendants of which are prominent in financial and industrial enterprise in Salonica.

Notice this information is from the J ewish Encyclopedia, and is an incomplete list of J ewish financiers in the Ottoman Empire. So it is clear that J ews, in particular J ewish bankers, held considerable clout and influence over the Ottoman administration. Your characterization of this point of mine was “the notion that one or two Hrias have almost superhuman powers to shape events and overwhelm everyone else, is the glue that holds your version of events together.” First off, these are not “one or two Hrias”, but several dynasties of influential international bankers. And yes, they had considerable power to influence events within the empire, similar to the way the Federal Reserve has influence to shape policy in the United States.

Until then a couple of points: it is patently absurd to call the ruthless and cunning Talaat Pasha the puppet of anyone. He was anything but a puppet.

I said if he was not a Donmeh himself, then he was a puppet of the Donmehs. But he was almost certainly a Donmeh.

Also, if Talaat was such a great independent leader, he should have known what some people were telling him in the years prior to WWI: That a Pan-Turkic, Pan-Islamic movement dressed as a “progressive” movement will only work to disintegrate the empire (which it did). So either Talaat was too dumb to realize this most obvious criticism of the Young Turk movement, or more likely, he knew perfectly well that their movement would result in the disintegration of the empire. If you reject the hypothesis that he (and others) had a secret agenda of disintegrating the empire, then what explanation is there for his actions? That he was too dumb to realize what other people had already told him?

And your claim that he was a Dönmeh is not proven.

The claims that he was a Turk are not proven. So are the claims that he was a Gypsy or Bosniak. You should think about this: Why would your average Muslim in an Islamic theocracy like the Ottoman Empire be teaching at an Israelite school? So later this same Israelite teacher ends up being a member of a predominantly J ewish clandestine revolutionary group, and later becomes Minister of the Interior, and you believe none of this is connected? You are discounting a lot of key facts as mere coincidence.

In fact, if we listen to Raphael de Nogales, a foreign commander in the Ottoman army, Talaat was most definitely a Donmeh. In his book Four Years Beneath the Crescent (1926), Nogales remarks:

Among the civil members of that committee, only one was conspicuous by force of personality. That was the renegade Hebrew (Donmeh) of Salonika, Talaat, the principle organizer of the massacres and deportations, who, fishing in muddy waters, succeeded in raising himself from the humble rank of postal clerk to that of Grand Vizier of the Empire.

So we have first-hand information from an Ottoman army officer who directly claims that Talaat was in fact a Donmeh. Its not “proof” per se, but it’s a contemporary account which backs up my point.

Second point: Emmanuel Carasso opposed Zionist settlement in Palestine.

So did the majority of Zionists prior to WWI. Up to that point, it was a toss-up between Argentina, Uganda, Madagascar and Palestine. Just because Carasso didn’t favor J ewish settlement in Palestine (which we really have no way of knowing if he did or didn’t, I don’t care what Wikipedia says on the matter) it still does not change the fact that he was in all probability a Zionist.

And you didn’t deny that Carasso was a J ewish financier who had significant influence in the Young Turk party, which was my original point.

Yes, Vambery knew Herzl and tried to get him an introduction to the Sultan but failed, one source suggesting that he just wanted Herzl's money. Vambery was obviously an adventurer and opportunist.

Actually, I’ve been told by a long-time PhD in Armenian History that Vambery was in fact a British agent. The British (with help from J ews like Vambery) undermined the Ottomans by first introducing Pan-Turkism and later helping the minorities of the empire to retaliate by starting their own nationalist movements (like they did with the Arab nationalist movement via Lawrence of Arabia). This effectively destroyed the notion of an Ottoman identity, and thus led to the destruction of the empire itself. No surprise that the British gave the Zionists the Balfour Declaration over Palestine once the Ottoman Empire disappeared. Again, you can believe this is just a coincidence.

Fourth point, you grossly undervalue and are almost dismissive of the profound contributions of people like Werfel, Lemkin and many others too numerous to list here who put blood and sweat into their work for the truth.

I have done no such thing. You’re injecting Lemkin and Werfel into the discussion simply because they are J ews. I am focusing on one subject (J ewish involvement in the Armenian Genocide), and you are using that to criticize my view about a different subject which I have not even discussed (J ews that helped us after the genocide).

Raphael Lemkin is the ultimate trump card when debating the Armenian Genocide on a scholarly level, or any level really. I said in my previous post that I do not treat J ews as one solid mass—therefore I recognize those individuals who have gone out of their way to help us, but I’m also not reluctant to speak up about those who have gone out of their way to cause us deliberate harm.

According to what you have written here so far, you seem to think that just because some J ews have helped us out that we are no longer allowed to talk about those J ews that have harmed us. I choose not to restrict myself in this way. And while I agree that we should not go public with this information since it will greatly complicate our cause, I still think Armenians as individuals deserve to know as much as they can about the people who killed their families.

[ArmSurvival]

Re: elegy

Now I will provide some sources which reveal the J ewish nature of the Young Turks:


The Vienna correspondent for The London Times, in an article titled “J ews and the situation in Albania”, July 11, 1911, pg. 5:

It is a well-known fact that the Salonika Committee was formed under Masonic auspices with the help of J ews and Donmehs, or crypto-J ews of Turkey, whose headquarters are at Salonika, and whose organization took, even under Abdul Hamid, a Masonic form. J ews like Emmanuel Carasso, Salem, Sassun, Fardji, Meslah, and Donmeh or crypto-J ews like Djavid Bey and the Baldji family, took an influential part both in the organization of the Committee and in the deliberations in its central body at Salonika. These facts which are known to every government in Europe, are also known throughout Turkey and the Balkans, where an increasing tendency is noticeable to saddle the J ews and Donmehs with responsibility for the sanguinary blunders which the Committee has made.

There are many more contemporary reports from London Times correspondents during the days of the Young Turk revolution which claim that they were mostly J ews. And according to this and other articles, the fact the Young Turks were mostly J ewish was common knowledge at the time.


Israel Zangwill, The Problem of the J ewish Race, p.9-11, 21 (first published as an article, “The J ewish Race” in The Independent, Volume 71, Number 3271, p. 288-295):

The medieval teacher Maimonides laid it down that to preserve life even Judaism might be abandoned in all but its holiest minimum. Thus—under the standing menace of massacre and spoliation—arose Crypto-J ews or Marranos, who, frequently at the risk of stake or sword, carried out their Judaism in secret. Catholics in Spain, Protestants in England, they were in Egypt or Turkey Mohammedans. Indeed, the Donmeh still flourish in Salonika and provide the Young Turks with statesmen, the Balearic Islands still shelter the Chuetas, and only half a century ago persecution produced the Yedil-al-Islam in Central Asia…

… There are no Ottomans so Young-Turkish as the Turkish J ews.

There you have it, straight from the pen of one of the most prominent Zionists.


In an obituary for Emmanuel Carasso, The London Times wrote, inter alia, on June 8th 1934, on page 19, under the heading “A Parasite of the Young Turks”:

In 1908 Carasso Effendi was a member of the Sephardi J ewish community of Salonika, and was known to the public as a lawyer who had successfully defended many queer cases and clients. His influence, however, was due less to his legal abilities than to his connection through Freemasonry with the Turkish revolutionaries. A member of the Macedonia Risorta Lodge, he conceived the idea of inviting the members of the secret Committee of Union and Progress to hold their meetings in the lodge, which was in a building owned by an Italian subject, and therefore immune under the capitulations from police search without a warrant. Many of the Young Turks became Orient Freemasons, Talaat and Enver Beys among them, and when their revolution was successful Carasso went to Constantinople, posed as one of the makers of the revolution, and indulged in so much propaganda and self-advertisement as to provoke one irate Gentile inquirer into complaining that when he came to Constantinople to see Young Turks he objected to be always fobbed off with an Old J ew.

Zionist Joachim Prinz wrote in his book The Secret J ews (1973, p. 122):

The revolt of the Young Turks in 1908 against the authoritarian regime of Sultan Abdul Hamid began among the intellectuals of Salonika. It was from there that that the demand for a constitutional regime originated. Among the leaders of the revolution which resulted in a more modern government in Turkey were Djavid Bey and Mustafa Kemal. Both were ardent doenmehs. Djavid Bey became minister of finance; Mustafa Kemal became the leader of the new regime and he adopted the name of Ataturk. His opponents tried to use his doenmeh background to unseat him, but without success. Too many of the Turks in the newly formed revolutionary cabinet prayed to Allah, but had as their real prophet Shabtai Zevi, the Messiah of Smyrna.

Robert William Seton-Watson was a British political activist and historian (head of the Royal Historical Society from 1946-49). He wrote in his book The Rise of Nationality in the Balkans (1966/67, p. 134-36):

The revolution which they promoted was above all the work of a single town. It was in Salonica, under the shelter of Masonic lodges, that the Committee of Union and Progress, the secret organism which overthrew the Hamidian regime, grew up and flourished. The real brains of the movement were J ewish or Judeo-Moslem. Their financial aid came from the wealthy Dunmehs and J ews of Salonica, and from the capitalists—international or semi-international—of Vienna; Budapest, Berlin and perhaps also of Paris and London. The main fact about the Committee of Union and Progress is its essentially un-Turkish and un-Moslem character. From the very first hardly one among its true leaders has been a pure-blooded Turk. Enver is the son of a renegade Pole. Djavid belongs to the strange J ewish sect of the Dunmehs. Carasso is a Sephardim J ew from Salonica. Talaat is an Islamised Bulgarian gypsy.

Henry Wickham Steed was a British journalist who had personal contacts with some of the top leaders of the Young Turk party, including the 3 pashas. In his book Through Thirty Years: 1892-1922: A Personal Narrative (1924), pages 374-79, he wrote about his experiences with the Young Turks prior to WWI:

In this task he failed. King Ferdinand, the chief culprit, outlived him and was destined to lead his country into yet greater disaster. Meanwhile the Turks, among whom the influence of the—largely J ewish—Committee of Union and Progress was still powerful, were accentuating the ‘national’ policy which had provoked the first Balkan War and were dreaming at once Pan-Islamic and ‘New Turanian’ dreams. Many of the Young Turkish leaders I knew already. Talaat, Minister of the Interior and afterwards Grand Vizir, I had met in Paris in 1909. Others had visited me in Vienna. Upon Talaat I called soon after reaching Constantinople. He received me with almost affectionate cordiality and began at once magniloquent dissertation upon high politics…

… Less agreeable but equally interesting was Emmanuel Carasso effendi, the Salonica J ew who had helped to dethrone Sultan Abdul Hamid. He looked like an efficient and ruthless brigand, a bold buccaneer, frank and fearless. Though he and his fellows of the Salonica Committee for Union and Progress had been responsible for the atrocious policy of ‘Turkification’ which had lead to the formation of the Balkan league and to the Balkan Wars, their power was apparently still as great as their information was prompt and accurate. Carasso knew even then, September, 1913, of the Austrian attempt to make war upon Serbia a month before, and, as he explained to one of my friends, he was convinced that though the big war had not quite ‘come off’ that time, it would come before long and that Turkey would have her chance. One Sunday, in September, I was at Prinkipo in the company of Carasso’s cousin, Maitre Salem, a Salonica J ew who had become, under Young Turk auspices, the leading lawyer of Constantinople. When not gambling at the casino, Carasso joined our party and talked freely. Answering the question what he and his like were going to do with Turkey he said:

“Have you ever seen a baker knead dough? When you think of us and Turkey you must think of a baker and his dough. We are the bakers and Turkey is the dough. The baker pulls it and pushes it, bangs it and slaps it, pounds it with his fists until he gets the right consistency for baking. That is what we are doing. We have had one revolution, then a counter-revolution, then another revolution and we shall probably have several more until we have got the dough just right. Then we shall bake it and feed upon it.”

Carasso’s nephew, who was manager of a bank, looked at his uncle in terrified amazement. “What is to become of business with all these revolutions?” he asked.
Carasso patted him affectionately on the head and replied, “Don’t worry, my boy. Things will come out all right.”
Maitre Salem, overhearing this conversation, turned to Carasso and said sharply, “What are you saying, Emmanuel?”
“Shut up Salem,” retorted Carasso. “What would you have been without the revolution? A pettifogging little Salonica lawyer.” And Salem held his peace.
This was the amiable prospect held out for Turkey by her J ewish guardians.

So according to a person who knew the Young Turk leadership on a personal basis, the Young Turks were really J ews, and wanted Turkey’s destruction through endless revolution and through the next Balkan war that Carasso was gleefully awaiting.


Remember how in my previous post I said that Talaat intentionally pursued policies that would disintegrate the Ottoman Empire? Henry Wickham Steed covers this subject in his book (pages 374-79):

Then I said to Talaat, “It is very gratifying to hear your profession of faith in Islam. My ignorance of the Koran is profound; but what little I know of it makes me think that, like other Holy Books, it is susceptible to interpretation. You fellows have tried to marry the Goddess of Reason with Mahomet. That union is bound to be barren. The Ottoman Empire is a theocracy. If you try to run it on the principles of the French Revolution, with a dash of Freemasonry thrown in, you will wreck it and yourselves in the process. Why cannot you teach your ulemas (clergy) to interpret the Koran, and persuade the Sheikh-ul Islam to interpret the Sheri Law in a liberal sense, so as to get the sanction of religion for your reforms? Hitherto, you have pretended to be democratic and progressive and have really been nationalist and fanatical. That road may lead to destruction.”
Talaat grinned and professed entire agreement with my views.

According to the eyewitness accounts, Talaat knew all too well that his policies would lead to the destruction of the empire.

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, November 29, 2009
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ON SELF-ASSESSMENT
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Popes, imams, dupes, and fanatics – that is to say, the majority of mankind – are never wrong. They may say “man is a fallible creature,” but they believe it doesn't apply to them. To everyone else, yes. To them, hell no!
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If Mt. Ararat were allowed to assess its own height, it would say it is higher than Everest.
Mt. Ararat?
Make it, a hill of beans.
Even better, make it a pile of sh-t!
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The greater the number of doubts, the greater the number of aggressively asserted certainties.
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Power and propaganda are Siamese twins. Separate them and they both die.
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One reason why imperial powers like Russia and the United States oppose democratic reforms in other countries, including our own, is that they hate to be at the whim of the people. Another reason: corrupt regimes are more easily bribed, blackmailed, and manipulated.
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Why did Nobel Prize winners like Knut Hamsun and Sartre support Stalin and Hitler? My only answer: where emotions enter, common sense exits. Both Hamsun and Sartre saw only the positive in an alien system and the negative in their own.
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