The Hamidian Massacres

I have a profound affection for the Armenian people. It comes down to a long time ago when I first knew about the Armenian Genocide of the early XX century. Over the years this feeling has not done but to increase. Since the day I admitted that regardless of not being a believer and still considering that there are some dubious elements in Christianity, I belong to a civilization deeply shaped by Christianity, a civilization I'm proud of, the story of resistence and survival of this people feels deeply inspiring to me. A Christian nation (the first one) partially surrounded by the eternal enemy of the Western world, Turkey (Azerbijan is populated by the same Turkish people and hence it's just the same enemy).

When many Armenians had to flee their land to avoid being completely annihilated by the Turks in 1917, many of them arrived to Marseille and settled in France. Since them, they have been an important contributor to France. They embraced the French culture and assimilated into the French nation, a nation defined by culture, values and the acceptance of being the continuation of the history that defined all that, not by genes or phenotypes. It's the same that most Polish, Portuguese, Italians, Spaniards, East Asians... and some Africans have done. At the same time, they have kept the links with the land of their ancestors and the pride of descending from a people of survivors.

In spite of the important contributions of the Armenian diaspora in countries like the USA and France, being a small country means being left apart in the Geopolitical game. That's why when Turkey-Azerbaijan invaded Armenian territory in october 2020, slaughtering the population helped by their ISIS mercenaries, nobody seemed to care. Moreover, we all know that when Muslims kill Christians (or atheists, or yazidis, or whatever), reacting to that is a clear sign (and sin) of Islamophobia... Also, when Turkish ultra-nationalists living in France attack French people of Armenian descent, that's not a big deal either... after all that's part of their culture and we have to respect it, right?

With the above and with the fact that many countries (among them Spain and UK!!!!) have not recognized yet the Armenian Genocide, it's not strange that previous massacres perpetrated by the Turks against the Armenians are hardly known. Indeed, I have to admit that I did not know about it until recently, when I watched this excellent video in Le Figaro (it tries to explain why the Turkish-Azeri invasion of Armenia did not prompt the same reactions as the Russian invasion of Ukraine).

So already at the end of the XIX century, the Turks, guided by ultra-nationalism and Islamism (as usual) decided to massacre quite a few thousands (between 100.000 and 300.000) Armenians during the Hamidian Massacres. As they would do 20 years later, they turned their hatred into pure anti-Christian violence, killing an additional 25.000 Assyrians (seems this time the Greeks were excluded, the Turkish would wait 2 decades to show their feelings of "respect, love and peace" to them, during the Greek Genocide). I have not much to say about this unknown massacres, just read the wikipedia article and remember it each time the neo-sultan Erdogan threatens us with his desire to join the European Union (to further destroy us from inside).