The past is a different country...
Another tale from 'Islamic Imperialism', referring to the Greek war of independence:
"In Istanbul itself, the sultan shocked all of Christendom, especially Orthodox Russia, by having the venerable patriarch, Gregorius V, publicly hanged at dawn on Easter Day [1822]. It mattered not that Gregorius had preached restraint to his congregation; as far as the sultan was concerned, the patriarch, as the head of the Orthodox millet, was the guarantor of the community's loyalty. Having failed to deliver this, he had to pay the ultimate price".
(I am NOT recomending this as a course of action the government of this country should take).
"In Istanbul itself, the sultan shocked all of Christendom, especially Orthodox Russia, by having the venerable patriarch, Gregorius V, publicly hanged at dawn on Easter Day [1822]. It mattered not that Gregorius had preached restraint to his congregation; as far as the sultan was concerned, the patriarch, as the head of the Orthodox millet, was the guarantor of the community's loyalty. Having failed to deliver this, he had to pay the ultimate price".
(I am NOT recomending this as a course of action the government of this country should take).
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The Ottomans tended towards grand policy statements of a particularly bloody hue.
Ah... hung for the Christian community breaking the dhimmi agreement between Muslims and non Muslims...
To set into a western context, it is similar to that of the government in V for Vendetta.
"he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent."
GC - They certainly did. I've taken the liberty of posting the same tale at the Episcopal blog.
Will - not very encouraging, is it? Shades of the death of Admiral Byng - hanged to 'encourage the others'.
Indeed. Especially considering the push from our leaders to get Turkey into the EU.
I'm still quite shocked at what seems to me to be a lack of knowledge of basic Middle Eastern history.
I read the other day that the mediaeval Icelandic equivalent of the Book of Common Prayer included a call for deliverance from the Turks.
On the other hand, who would have thought that the French and the Germans would manage to go without trading blows for 60 years - the longest period since at least the 16th Century? (WW2, WW1, Franco Prussian war, Napoleonic wars, Seven Years War, War of the Spanish Succession, Thirty Years War). I'll do some further digging ....
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