Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Violation (04/04/24)
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TITLE: Dark Days | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
04/08/24 -
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Between 1915-1917, specifically beginning on April 8, 1915, in the middle of World War 1, some of the darkest days of violation focused on Christians arose at the hands of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire against the Armenians in that land. In 1944, the word genocide would be coined to describe what happened. The United Nations describes genocide as “the mass extermination of a group of people based on that community’s race, religion, ethnicity, or nationality with the intent to destroy.”
The charge against the Armenians was led by the three Pasha brothers. Talaat, Enver, and Cemal ruled the Ottoman Empire during the war. Fear, panic, revenge, envy, and other motives fueled their push to eliminate the Christian communities. Previous slaughters of the Armenians had already happened in the 1890’s and again in 1909.
Apart from these violations, the Armenians had lived peaceful lives under the Ottoman Empire for centuries without serious incident. What happened to this multi-cultural, multi-faith, multi-national coalition? Under the Sultan, a variety of peoples had coexisted, including Muslims, Christians, Jews, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, Kurds, Arabs, and others.
Christians and Jews were People of the Book and were known as millets. They were under severe restrictions and paid extra tax. The Armenians were Christians and had lived in the eastern provinces of the Anatolian peninsula of Turkey for over a thousand years. Founded a generation after the death and resurrection of Jesus, they claim to be the first nation in the world to convert to Christianity. But Jesus promised that in the world we would have tribulation.
The Armenians translated the Bible into their own written language and shared a rich tradition of faith. At the start of World War 1 the Ottomans viewed the Armenian communities along the border with Russia as potential enemies who might align with Russia against them. Muslims were brought in to dilute the population and some of these newcomers envied the Armenian population as more educated and wealthy. Sometimes violation begins through no fault of our own.
A new political party didn’t view the millets as a legitimate part of the new Turkey. The assassination of the archduke of Austria-Hungary increased the tension in the area and different nations declared war on each other. The Turks aligned with Germany and Austria-Hungary. They would fight against Russia and its allies. The fears arose that the Armenians would join the opposition and that the Christians were in the way of a greater Muslim empire. Suspicion and angst still pit neighbors against neighbors as we saw in Rwanda, Germany, Cambodia, Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Uganda, and other states.
Although Armenians fought alongside Turks against Russia at the start of the war, a major loss against the Russians, resulted in the Turks blaming the Armenians among them. The Ottoman Empire relocated Armenian communities, disarmed them, and then slaughtered them. Vengeance was a strong motive by some of the butchers.
Isaiah 5:20 says clearly, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.”
Alexander Solzhentisyn, in the Gulag Archipelago, states courageously, that “the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either… but right through every human heart… and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.”
Turkish and Kurdish soldiers sent families on death marches while their property was confiscated and sold. Other soldiers tortured and slaughtered entire villages. Churches were stripped and burned. Some Armenians did rebel and this increased the violence. All Armenian men over 12 were ordered killed in the most brutal of ways. Women were raped and taken by Turks. Children became orphans. Nothing seemed to stop the violation. Over one million were murdered, burned, and dumped into mass graves.
We’ve just celebrated Easter and the focus of that event is the violation of the most innocent man who ever lived. Fear, panic, revenge, and envy, were also motives behind his crucifixion. Every persecutor feels justified in his own mind for his violation against the Lord’s anointed.
To this day, Turkey claims that the mass killing of Armenians didn’t happen or was justified.
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