Commentary: Turkey Rehabilitating ‘Great Assassins’ Of its History

Mr. Arinc has continued his sanitizing mission, this time addressing the youth: “Abdul Hamid has always been portrayed under a negative light as a despot, spy master, bloodthirsty Red Sultan, whereas we have to honor him as the High Monarch and we have to praise him.”

The vice premier has continued in this vein by making some inadvertent admissions about the gory deeds of the High Monarch, by stating further, “The Ottoman Empire has been an unusually vast empire, dominating over 100 million people, therefore we must be proud of that empire, although that empire is always characterized in negative terms. Thirty Sultans have ruled that empire yet people have labeled them as traitors, as alcoholics, devious and criminal individuals. No other nation has that kind of negative attitude about its kings,” while heaping praise on the producers of the documentary.

When Abdul Hamid ascended to the Ottoman throne in 1876, his empire was already crumbling and was labeled as the “Sick Man of Europe” and his reign was marked by the decline and disintegration of the empire, until he was overthrown by another cabal of celebrated criminals, the Ittihadists, in 1908. Through the massacres, pogroms and wars that he had instigated, he has rightfully won a series of appropriate labels such as the Red Sultan, Red Animal, the Monster of Yildiz (the name of his palace) and Abdul the Damned. The British prime minister of the era, Lord Gladstone, named him “The Great Assassin,” and in 1894, upon learning about the massacres in Armenia, at the instigation of the Supreme Porte, he warned the Sultan that “he was rushing to his own destruction,” although before his “destruction,” he managed to destroy the lives of 300,000 Armenians, during 1894-96. He also grudgingly witnessed the liberation of a number of Balkan nations from the Ottoman yoke. Also he sent a message to Lord Salisbury that ‘you can sever my head from my body but not Armenia from my empire.’”

In a news story featured in the September 11, 1896 issue of the New York Times, Gladstone is reported saying: “My opinions of the Great Assassin and the disgrace the European powers have allowed him to bring upon are all well known to my countrymen.”

The proponent of new Ottomanism is Turkey’s current foreign minister, Ahmed Davutoglu, who has been praising the good old days of the Sultans when subject nations got along “harmoniously.”

One of the sad legacies of the rule of iron, blood and tears of the Sultans is the forced Islamization of some Balkan nations, which has created a political foothold today for Turkey and acts as a fifth column in Europe. A blatant case-in-point is the powerful Turkish minority in Bulgaria, which is obstructing the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, despite the fact that Bulgarians have suffered like Armenians under the Ottoman rule.

Turkey has especially been gaining mileage in the Arab streets because Erdogan has paid lip service to the Palestinians in Gaza, while continuing Turkey’s strategic cooperation with Israel. The Arab world is so desperate for support that it is ready to idolize Erdogan, who has become a hero.

A demonstration of obscene political naiveté took place when Erdogan visited Lebanon recently. The government had placed Erdogan’s picture and welcoming message right in Martyr’s Square, where, in 1915 the Turks hung Lebanese intellectuals and political leaders. Lebanon’s honor was saved when Armenians took down the visitor’s picture.

Armenians have the right to be alarmed and wary of this new Ottomanism, which is making in-roads in the Arab world, where a majority of Middle East Armenians live. Fortunately, Armenia and Greece have an official stand on this new political onslaught. Indeed, when President Serge Sargisian spoke at the Cyprus parliament last month, he warned of the dangers of the new Ottomanism. He said, “we know what Ottomanism means, because we have been at the receiving end of that rule in history.”