THE MIRACLE A True Story administrators of the corps of Janissaries, describing the manner in which `good-looking young men, sound of limb and suitable for fighting in wars' were to be recruited from amongst the `infidels'. He made it clear that that if parents objected to handing over their children to the Janissaries, they were to be hanged forthwith and their bodies strung up at the entrance to their houses.    "The barbarity of the Turks is not simply the result of their lack of culture. It is also due to their boorish nature. It did not manifest itself only to those peoples who were forced to submit to the Turkish yoke but was also evident in their relations with each other. No sooner had Sultan Murat ascended the throne than he hanged his five brothers, and in order to ascend the throne himself, Sultan Mehmet III first made sure that his 19 brothers were strangled. Sultan Murat IV had a habit of killing off his subjects just for his own amusement - it's thought that as many as 20,000 people were slaughtered during the 16 years he ruled the Ottoman Empire.    "When Hellenism was at its height, before the 11th century, the Christian population in Asia Minor numbered more than 30 million people. For 600 years continuously the Turks have practised the only skill nature has endowed them with: destruction and pillage.    "When Greece managed to establish the Free Greek State after the Revolution of 1821 and rid itself of the Turkish yoke in just one small part of its territory, the greed of the Turks was once again aroused and they realised they could not hang on indefinitely to the territories they controlled without exterminating the population in its entirety or converting it to Islam.    "So once again the persecutions, the slaughter and enforced Islamisation were stepped up, along with the practice of trading in the most beautiful Greek girls they could get their hands on. Unfortunately, my child, this is a story that has been repeated time and time again, even in this century.    "In 1895, Sultan Hamit began massacring the Armenians in Constantinople. From what my parents told me, I understand a lot of dreadful things happened at that time. The Turks killed the Armenians wherever they came across them, right there in the street, on the pretext that there was a rumour the Armenians were conspiring to kill the Sultan.    "The Turko-German Alliance was established during this period following a visit from the Kaiser; this was later to lead to the Turks aligning themselves with the Germans in the First World War.    "In the meantime, the nucleus of a group known as the Young Turks set up a movement calling itself 'Union and Progress', which promised `freedom, equality and justice'. In order to avoid losing everything to the rising power of these Young Turks, the corrupt regime of Sultan Hamit agreed to make a number of concessions and on 24th July, 1908 an edict authorising a review of the constitution was signed. Elections were held to form an Ottoman Parliament and in spite of state terrorism the Greek presence in the new parliament was impressive: 26 of the 288 seats in parliament were occupied by Greeks.    "However, Sultan Abdul Hamit was not at all favourably disposed towards limitation of his power, which he considered to have been granted him by 'divine grace'. He staged an unsuccessful counter-revolution on 13th April, 1909 and was deposed. The Young Turks beheaded him and installed the puppet Sultan Mehmet V as leader of the Ottoman State.    "To begin with, the ideas of freedom, equality and justice which the Young Turks had proclaimed gave hope to 77 and 78 Leonidas Koumakis THE MIRACLE A True Story If you prefer a hard copy of the book, please send an email to HEC-Books@hec.greece.org Previous Page | Initial Page | Site Map | Next Page (79th of 204) © For Internet 2001 HEC and Leonidas Koumakis. Updated on 19 June 2001.