Apr. 15, 2019
Let’s see. A million and a half Armenians killed. Not genocide, insists Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. A million Greeks killed. Not genocide, insists Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. The jihad conquests of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Europe, and more. Not colonialism, insists Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. And indeed, the Ottoman Empire didn’t create colonies out of the conquered territories; the Ottomans just created colonial subjects within the empire: the dhimmis, the Jews and Christians who were subjugated under Islamic law, and who had to pay a special tax and suffer institutionalized discrimination and harassment. The Ottoman’s Empire’s bloody record is abundantly documented from primary sources in The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS, but Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is counting on his hearers not knowing this history, and he is largely correct.