Turkish flag

Submitted by Jan (Luxembourg), Jul 30, 2007 at 19:31

The Belgian King Leopold II's rubber gang killed 10 Million Africans between 1885 and 1908 in his personal colony Congo Free State. Being a Belgian does not make me resposible for that man' s crimes, but I am not proud of our royal family still owning a fortune accumulated by killing and robbing in Africa.

I am not proud of most Belgians' lacking the motivation to urge our present king to give the suffering Congolese people their money back, and, at least, apologise. I am ashamed to learn that some of our politicians have given priority to drawing Turkey's attention to its Armenian genocide, while Leopold II still has a statue and street names here. Most people do condemn Leopold's crimes, but seem to think it all happened very long ago and it's too late anyway.

I cannot blame Turks for adopting a similar indifference about the Armenians, and I cannot even blame them for expressing fervent negationism and indignation as long as Belgian Vergangenheitsbewältigung is at the bottom of our own priority list. However, the popularity of negationism among Turks is worrying and more relevant for Turkish accession to the EU than one might think. For the victims of the genocide were Christians, and the killers Muslims. Could it have been the other way round if the former had been the majority and the latter the minority? We will never know.

To me, in a country that had been theirs and the Greeks' before the Turkish invasion, and after seven centuries of dhimmi-status and devchirme, the Armenians' revolt against oppression does look somewhat more understandable than the Turks' cruelties, but whatever judgement we may be tempted to make, it might be wiser to let bygones be bygones now that we can come together. Therefore, like most Europeans conscious of fourteen centuries of attacks against Christendom by the followers of Mohammed, I would like to know if the apparent bygones are real bygones.

Christians have killed Millions, and their violence was often encouraged by the churches, in a complete denial of Jesus' teachings/example of unconditional non-violence (unlike Mohammed's and the Coran's relative importance in Islamic practice, Jesus' example, not Biblical law, is what Christians follow). Muslims, however, can justify their killing of 120 Million Africans, 80 Million Hindus and 60 Million Christians by Coranic commandments to wage Jihad.

Neither Christians nor Atheists in Europe have to obey any commandment to kill each other. I have been told that more than a third of young Turks no longer believe in the Coran. Fine, let's come together! But what about the other two thirds who believe that the orders to kill Christians and Atheists are the word of God? What about those who think Europeans deserve no better but to burn in the flames of everlasting hellfire?

My Turkish friends, we have no Holy Book that tells us to kill you, to cheat you and to discriminate against you. I think most Europeans would like to know whether you still believe in the one you have. Should you consider bringing its countless blessings to the infidel: please stay where you are! Why should Europe's land be inherited by the followers of Mohammed? In dozens of defensive wars against Muslim agression, millions of Iberians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Russians, Serbs and Hungarians shed their blood for it. If they had not, the West would, by now, have invented about as many watches, computers, motor cars, cameras, washing machines, airplanes and mobile phones as the glorious muslim civilisation has. Our continent would, in the past centuries, have contributed to science, philosophy and art no more than the Ottoman Empire.

You have abolished that Empire; now throw away your book! And we will all know if you have! After throwing it away, you may or may not, recognise the plight of Christians in the Empire and the Republic, including the Armenian genocide. But you will certainly not want to keep your flag. I have read somewhat different stories about its origins, but they all refer to that terrible 29th of May 1453, when Mehmet II conquered the capital of Christendom. If a Christian nation, after invading Mekka, after transforming its mosques into churches, after killing, enslaving or chasing the population from the peninsula, and after creating a flag to commemorate this glorious moment, asked, even after centuries, to become a member of the Arab League and raise this blood-coloured flag, symbolising Mekka's destruction and invasion, side by side with the flags of the Arab countries, would the Arabs be as nice as Europe is now? Would the Turks be if such a request was submitted to them? I am sure Turks do not want to add insult to century-old injury. You will be nice enough to change your flag, won't you?

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".