re: Turkish Atrocities Against non-Muslim Anatolians

Submitted by LexEcon (United States), Dec 16, 2005 at 11:41

I must respectfully disagree with many of the points raised on the genocide perpetrated against non-Muslims living in Asia Minor in the latter part of the 19th century stretching into the first third of the 20th century.

First of all, the Armenians were by no means the only victims of this protracted process. There were still two large Greek Orthodox minorities, the Ionians in the west of the country, and the Pontics in the central region. Furthermore, there were also Assyrian Christians still living in Asia Minor at this time who were targeted as well.

These people were long forced into humiliating rituals, such as the set-up of the paying if the jizya, as well as the taking of sons to be used as Turkish Janissary troops. Their religious activities were greatly restricted, and they were treated as second class citizens.

Any study of the infamous burning of Smyrna in 1922 will bear witness to the horrors which these minorities faced. Despite all of this, I will accede that many Turkish citizens played no part in the genocide, and in fact teaching of the facts has been denied so much to Turks that the younger generations remain too ignorant to be culpable at all.

I will also admit a grudging respect for Kemal Ataturk himself, who really did force the building of a modern nation out of the "sick man of the Bosporus". I cannot, however, tolerate any sugarcoating of the treatment of non-Muslim minorities prior to the genocide nor the misconception that the Armenians were the only victims of the various waves of genocide.

Respectfully,

LexEcon
http://journals.aol.com/lexeconkiddo/StrangeGirlWithoutaStrangeLand/

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