By Elizabeth Kendal, Special to the ASSIST News Service
AUSTRALIA (ANS – April 23, 2015)
-- On the night of 24 April 1915 the Young Turk government arrested
over 200 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople
(Istanbul) and dragged them off to prisons in central Anatolia (modern
day Turkey). This event, known today as Red Sunday, is generally
regarded as the beginning of the Armenian Genocide as it was the first
in a series of arrests and deportations that saw 2,345 leading Armenians
arrested, deported and (mostly) summarily executed. By 1923 some 1.5
million Armenians (out of a total population of two million) had been
savagely murdered or deported and starved to death by Turks who had been
incited to kill and who were guaranteed impunity. The Armenian Genocide
occurred in the context of a wide-scale ethnic-religious cleansing in
the Turkish heartland as the Ottoman Empire unravelled. Also eliminated
were at least 500,000 Greeks throughout Asia Minor and up to 750,000
Assyrian Christians throughout Mesopotamia. Whilst the Turks must bear
most of the guilt, Kurds and Arabs were also involved.
Though 24 April 1915 is regarded as the start of the genocide, the killing actually began much earlier.
Through
the 19th Century, as the Ottoman Empire became 'the sick man of Europe',
the captive Christian nations long-subjugated within it grasped the
opportunity to agitate for independence. Inevitably, Christian uprisings
were brutally suppressed and Christians executed, massacred and
deported into slavery. Generally Russia (long the protector of Eastern
Christians) would intervene in defence of persecuted Christians as was
its right according to the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, brokered by
Catherine the Great in 1774. In 1853, after issuing several warnings,
Russian troops crossed into the Danubian Provinces in defence of
severely persecuted Greek Christians (although Europe regarded this as a
mere pretext for imperialist expansion). 
Aware that defeat was imminent, the Turks appealed to Britain for help.
Aware that defeat was imminent, the Turks appealed to Britain for help.
The
Ottoman Empire's size, along with its location between imperial Europe
and imperial Russia, afforded it economic and geo-strategic value. Not
only did Britain have economic interests in keeping the Ottoman Empire
united and strong for the purpose of free trade (which Britain believed
was the key to world peace), it had geo-strategic interests in keeping
Russia hemmed in. So Britain and France entered the Crimean War on the
side of the Ottoman Turks. In exchange for British support the Sultan
agreed to enact reforms aimed at improving the situation of his
Christian subjects. The reforms, guaranteeing religious freedom and
equality before the law, were aimed at bringing an end to the
Christians' status as dhimmis (second class citizens, without rights). However, Muslims rejected the reforms as anti-Islamic. Viewing the removal of jizya (protection money) as a green light for jihad,
pogroms and massacres became the order of the day. In 1860 alone some
20,000 Christians were slaughtered in Syria and Lebanon. In 1876 up to
25,000 Eastern Christians were massacred in the 'Bulgarian horrors'. In
1895-96 as many as 200,000 Armenians were murdered in Turkish Armenia.
Keen to maintain its pro-Muslim policies, Britain adopted a 'conspiracy
of silence' regarding the killings, along with running a campaign of
propaganda vilifying Eastern Christianity. So the killings continued.
Then, as World War I raged and the Ottoman Empire unravelled, Turkish
authorities exploited the chaos to launch an orchestrated campaign of
ethnic-religious genocide, knowing full well that it was not in the
interests of any Western power to stop them.
After the
war the remnant Christians were denied their right of self-determination
by pro-Muslim European powers who were convinced that the best way to
modernise and soften Islam was to 'dilute' it with Christians. So it is a
story not only of genocide, but of abandonment and betrayal, and the
stoking of God's wrath.
Fast Forward to the 21st Century.
Today,
a century of balance of power in, and Western hegemony over, the Middle
East is officially over. The Muslim centre (Mesopotamia) has collapsed
and the fight is on to see which regional power will fill the void: the
Turks, the Arabs or the Persians; and which sect will dominate: the
Sunnis or the Shi'ites. As in 1915 the minorities -- particularly the
mostly Armenian and Assyrian Christians -- are facing genocide as Muslim
elements exploit the chaos to launch an orchestrated campaign to tend
to unfinished business: the eradication of Christianity.
The word
genocide is already being used to describe the ethnic-religious
cleansing of Iraq's remnant Assyrian Christians, which has seen their
numbers drop from around 1.4 million to just 200,000, most of whom are
displaced. In Syria, where the West is backing and arming genocidal
Islamic forces, the future of remnant Armenian and Assyrian Christians
hangs in the balance. In Turkey, where the dark clouds of neo-Ottomanism
and Islam have rolled in and the government is vilifying Armenians and 'missionaries'
as the ultimate threat to Turkish national security, Christians are
vulnerable. Just as in 1915 the West is enacting pro-Muslim policies to
advance its own 'interests': allied to the Turks and Arabs against Iran
and against Syria's President Assad; allied to Iran against Islamic
State; and backing Shi'ites in Iraq and Sunnis in Syria. All the while
the West is totally unwilling to aid the minorities and help them
establish safe havens for the prevention of genocide. Yet again,
Christians are being eliminated and all the West has to offer is a
shroud of deathly silence and a campaign of propaganda against anyone
who would assist them. In the absence of repentance, how else could God
respond but with judgment? As the West has delivered Christ's precious
children into the hands of his and their enemy, so he will deliver the
West into the hands of the same enemy! Indeed, Europe has already drunk
from ‘the Cup of the Lord's Wrath’, the effects of which will soon be
manifest.
These are
days for reflection, confession and repentance. These are days for
lamentation as a shameful history repeats itself and Christians suffer
unimaginable horrors. Most of all, these are days for serious
intercessory prayer that the God of the Cross will be at work in the
darkness and that he, in grace, will turn back the battle.
Let Us Pray:
* that God will pour
out a spirit of reflection and repentance over all those nations who
have been complicit in genocide against the Lord's people, either
through sins of commission [actual killing] or sins of omission [failing
to intervene].
* for all those
Christians across the Middle East today who are displaced and imminently
imperilled -- especially Armenian and Assyrian Christians in
conflict-wracked Syria and Iraq; may our loving heavenly Father, the
Almighty King of kings and Lord of lords, provide all their needs --
material (such as shelter, security, food, water and heating) and
spiritual guidance, comfort, peace, and grace.
* that the Church will
rise to be the Church she is supposed to be: One Body IN Christ and a
light to the world! May there be a willingness to show solidarity with
those who suffer; to give generously to those in need; and to end the
silence, especially our shameful silence before the Throne of Grace!
'Truly I tell you,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of
mine, you did for me. . . . whatever you did not do for one of the least
of these, you did not do for me.' (Matthew 25:40,45 NIV)
For more information and archives, visit: Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.comReligious Liberty Monitoring (RLM) http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com
Photo captions: 1) Armenians 1915 (Genocide Museum). 2) Assyrian Refugees (Iraq) 3) Assyrian refugees 2014 (Syria).
Note: Elizabeth Kendal is the author of Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Dec 2012). http://www.turnbackthebattle.com/thebook.html
** You may republish this and any of our stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
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