Tweet
Everyone has their `death march'
The color and pride of the Ottoman Empire were trampled, desecrated
and scolded by nothing-can-do tribes and murderous mobs.
First the desert was dead and lifeless; only the wind blew over sand
dunes, and from time to time caravans passed by. Then it was filled
with sounds. At first the sounds were strange, shuffling, as if
someone were dragging their feet on the sand, sinking ankle-deep. Then
the sounds became tangible, the desert revived, vibrating under the
weight of hundreds of thousands of bare, wounded legs. And then there
came to be heard moans, cries, and endless shots.
April 24, 2012
PanARMENIAN.Net - One and a half million citizens of the Ottoman
Empire, only because they were born Armenians, began their Way of the
Cross to nowhere, to eternity. The earth was buzzing from the
shuffling of a million feet. The color and pride of the Ottoman Empire
were trampled, desecrated and scolded by nothing-can-do tribes and
murderous mobs. However, one thing they could do - to kill, bringing
sophistication to almost perfection. The Germans with their gas
chambers were merely imitators. It's true that during the World War II
destruction of the fellow men was put on, one can say, industrial
basis. According to certain sources, a healthy middle-aged Jew, i.e.
what was left of him - teeth, hair and skin - was worth fifteen
hundred marks. But the essence of murder did not change. You can
always talk about non-equivalence of the victims of the Armenian
Genocide and the Holocaust, comparing six million to one and a half.
You can, but everyone has their own `death march' and you never know
what is worse - to wander through the desert, knowing that you are
going to become a prey to thugs, or to go into gas chambers...
According to extant memoirs of U.S., British and French consuls to the
Ottoman Empire, the worst that could be seen each time the caravan of
fleeced and beaten Armenians walked away was the pack of dogs, full up
with human flesh and turned into predators, like their owners.
April 24, 1915 is considered to be the beginning of the Armenian
Genocide, but in fact the Genocide had started long ago, still during
the bloody reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who was held back from
total extermination of the Armenian nation by the Treaty of Berlin.
What the Sultan did not manage to do was done by the Young Turks. All
of this is now a page in history that cannot be changed either by the
current Turkish government or by any other force in the world. In
fact, extermination of the Christian peoples of the Ottoman Empire
began with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and has never ended
since then. It continues to this day: Hrant Dink, Sevag Å?ahin Balıkçı¦
This list can continue for as long as Turkey fails to find the courage
and say: yes, it was genocide. Until then Turkey will be killing
Christians.
Unfortunately, Armenians are naive and gullible, in spite of
everything. Today, we almost gladly talk of the commemoration actions
on Taksim Square in Istanbul and near the train station Haidar Pasha,
where the Armenian intellectuals of the Empire - over 250 people -
were driven out. But they traveled only a little. At the next halt the
writers, doctors, journalists were removed from the train cars and
killed in a most barbaric way ` their heads were smashed.
And today, 97 years later, Armenians should never forget what was done
to them, because history has a habit of repeating itself¦
Sand has covered the tracks, and only occasionally do the almost
decayed bones of innocent victims rise to the surface. And the desert
of Deir ez-Zor continues living its own life...
Karine Ter-Sahakyan
The color and pride of the Ottoman Empire were trampled, desecrated
and scolded by nothing-can-do tribes and murderous mobs.
First the desert was dead and lifeless; only the wind blew over sand
dunes, and from time to time caravans passed by. Then it was filled
with sounds. At first the sounds were strange, shuffling, as if
someone were dragging their feet on the sand, sinking ankle-deep. Then
the sounds became tangible, the desert revived, vibrating under the
weight of hundreds of thousands of bare, wounded legs. And then there
came to be heard moans, cries, and endless shots.
April 24, 2012
PanARMENIAN.Net - One and a half million citizens of the Ottoman
Empire, only because they were born Armenians, began their Way of the
Cross to nowhere, to eternity. The earth was buzzing from the
shuffling of a million feet. The color and pride of the Ottoman Empire
were trampled, desecrated and scolded by nothing-can-do tribes and
murderous mobs. However, one thing they could do - to kill, bringing
sophistication to almost perfection. The Germans with their gas
chambers were merely imitators. It's true that during the World War II
destruction of the fellow men was put on, one can say, industrial
basis. According to certain sources, a healthy middle-aged Jew, i.e.
what was left of him - teeth, hair and skin - was worth fifteen
hundred marks. But the essence of murder did not change. You can
always talk about non-equivalence of the victims of the Armenian
Genocide and the Holocaust, comparing six million to one and a half.
You can, but everyone has their own `death march' and you never know
what is worse - to wander through the desert, knowing that you are
going to become a prey to thugs, or to go into gas chambers...
According to extant memoirs of U.S., British and French consuls to the
Ottoman Empire, the worst that could be seen each time the caravan of
fleeced and beaten Armenians walked away was the pack of dogs, full up
with human flesh and turned into predators, like their owners.
April 24, 1915 is considered to be the beginning of the Armenian
Genocide, but in fact the Genocide had started long ago, still during
the bloody reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who was held back from
total extermination of the Armenian nation by the Treaty of Berlin.
What the Sultan did not manage to do was done by the Young Turks. All
of this is now a page in history that cannot be changed either by the
current Turkish government or by any other force in the world. In
fact, extermination of the Christian peoples of the Ottoman Empire
began with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and has never ended
since then. It continues to this day: Hrant Dink, Sevag Å?ahin Balıkçı¦
This list can continue for as long as Turkey fails to find the courage
and say: yes, it was genocide. Until then Turkey will be killing
Christians.
Unfortunately, Armenians are naive and gullible, in spite of
everything. Today, we almost gladly talk of the commemoration actions
on Taksim Square in Istanbul and near the train station Haidar Pasha,
where the Armenian intellectuals of the Empire - over 250 people -
were driven out. But they traveled only a little. At the next halt the
writers, doctors, journalists were removed from the train cars and
killed in a most barbaric way ` their heads were smashed.
And today, 97 years later, Armenians should never forget what was done
to them, because history has a habit of repeating itself¦
Sand has covered the tracks, and only occasionally do the almost
decayed bones of innocent victims rise to the surface. And the desert
of Deir ez-Zor continues living its own life...
Karine Ter-Sahakyan