What did he say?
"He equated the fate of the Armenians with the genocides orchestrated by the Nazis and the Soviets under Josef Stalin, while also condemning “other mass killings, like those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Bosnia.” “It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding of innocent blood,” he said. “It seems that the human family has refused to learn from its mistakes caused by the law of terror, so that today, too, there are those who attempt to eliminate others with the help of a few, and with the complicit silence of others who simply stand by.”
There is so much here I don't know where to begin, but let me try:
Regarding complicit silence, I suppose the hand over the altar boy's mouth muffled the screams. Enough said about that.
I object to be collectively being included for the atrocities and war crimes of a few. The African campaigns -- useful to flog home a point -- are largely ignored otherwise as the killing and culling of colored people continues (yeah, I used the word to make a point; those that care so much about the political-PC don't seem to give much of a damn that Africans are used as war fodder or guinea pigs for vaccines). Add to that the fact that we have a "peace Pope" who believes in the the use of force against the ghostly government intelligence agency creations and propaganda pre$$ phantoms of SILLI and Al-CIA-Duh.
That gets me to the to those other odious regimes, and I'm not going to argue the flip side of Nazism here today or the distorted version of history we have been taught and told; however, I will ask you if you have ever seen the names Kaganovich or Yagoda in your travels through the Amerikan ejewkhazion and ma$$ media pri$m. I would not be surprised if it were kept secret.
My last point, and it is not to minimize what happened to Armenians or anyone else; however, the Zionist media's focus on a long dead genocide committed against Christians by Muslims smacks of a modern-day propaganda campaign to reinforce those notions now. JWho benefits when Christian and Muslim are at each others throats? Never mind the level of staged and scripted hoaxes we are seeing now, which appear to go back to a certain trademarked event, too.
It is also looking like an attempt to keep applied pressure on Turkey in the convoluted relationship it has with the EUSraeli empire. Cooperating on lots of levels (Syria, Afghanistan), while exercising its fierce independence (Think policy on Russia, Iran, strains with Israel and Kurds). Oh, yeah, and don't forget the mass murder committed over the last 10-15 years by lying western leaders. Guess we will have to wait 100 years or more for an apology there if they don't still deny it like Turkey, right?
Anyhow, this gutsy Pope has heartened Armenians with this miracle:
"Pope Francis part of ‘evil front,’ Turkish official charges" by Ishaan Tharoor Washington Post April 17, 2015
I actually feel that way about Catholic leadership and have excommunicated myself. Child sex abuse for centuries is one of the three worst evils in this world, the others being poverty and war. Church has certainly done its part to assist the other two as well.
WASHINGTON — Turkey’s outrage over comments made by Pope Francis last weekend, deeming the massacre of Armenians a century ago a ‘‘genocide,’’ continues to smolder....
They burned the Christians in ovens like the Nazis did Jews?
Ankara reacted furiously, recalling its ambassador to the Vatican and issuing a barrage of strong condemnations. On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made some even tougher remarks: ‘‘Currently, an evil front is being formed against us,’’ he said. ‘‘Now the pope has joined this conspiracy.’’
Was he mistranslated or.... because, you know, that's coocoo talk.
Davutoglu was speaking at an event announcing the manifesto of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, ahead of general elections in June. The spat with the pope most likely offered good nationalistic fodder for local consumption.
What, they running the campaign like Netanyahu now?
The prime minister went on, hailing the Ottoman Empire’s long history of providing sanctuary to the Jews expelled by Spain in the 15th century.
Yeah, there is talk that Ataturk was actually a Jew.
‘‘I am addressing the pope,” he said. “Those who escaped from the Catholic inquisition in Spain found peace in our just order in Istanbul and Izmir. We are ready to discuss historical issues, but we will not let people insult our nation through history.’’
At least he hit 'em above the belt and spared mentioning the pooper-pumping priests.
Related
"A process that began in acrimony and suspicion ended on a largely positive note with no punitive measures and praise for the sisters for their selfless work with the poor."
And better still, they didn't diddle some kids!
The issue of the Armenian genocide is one of profound sensitivity in Turkey — and awkwardness for Turkey’s NATO allies, including the United States. The traumas and upheavals triggered by these events directly shaped the far-flung Armenian diaspora, which plays a leading role in global advocacy around how to remember and commemorate the deaths.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament in Brussels called on Turkey to recognize what happened as a ‘‘genocide.’’ The motion was dismissed by Davutoglu’s boss, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the appeal ‘‘went in one ear and out from the other.’’
The massacres took place amid the wider conflict of World War I, which led to the unraveling and demise of the Ottoman Empire.
Successive Turkish governments have insisted the scale of the slaughter has been distorted and many Turks were killed amid the chaos. As many as 1.5 million Armenians, by some accounts, were systematically killed or disappeared.
--more--"
You know, no one behaved well in a war that was rife with unsavory connections between the military, munitions makers, and [with] huge wartime profits of numerous manufacturers and bankers."
Not much has changed, huh?
"UK family of six trying to join Islamic State arrested in Turkey" by Desmond Butler Associated Press April 21, 2015
I had to laugh when I say this ridiculously ludicrous propaganda.
Yup, terrorism is all in the family!
ISTANBUL — British authorities had said they were looking into whether they were sympathetic to members of the Islamic State or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Well, if they were trying to join ISIS....
The Turkish official said British authorities provided information to Turkish counterparts on Sunday and police were able to track the family from the Greek border, where they crossed by bus on Thursday.
British police have said that the family was seen boarding a ferry crossing the British channel on April 8 and were believed to have crossed Europe by train.
They would need tickets, right?
Turkish officials have recently praised cooperation with Britain on a stream of people traveling between the two countries en route to Syria — including teenagers as young as 15. They have been pressing other countries for more help.
This is public relations propaganda, and bad at that.
Turkey says in response to concern it has become a major transit country for foreign fighters....
Some of whom are aged 12 months, I am told.
"A Turkish television station said it has obtained video showing three missing British teenagers at an Istanbul bus terminal before they boarded a bus to a city near Turkey’s border with Syria. A Haber news, which has ties to the government, released the footage, which it says is of the girls. Authorities believe they fled England to join the Islamic State. In a separate development Sunday, the Islamic State frees 19 Christians in Syria, activists say."
If you think I'm believing officially-cited video....
"A foreign intelligence operative suspected of helping three British schoolgirls join the Islamic State group in Syria has been detained, Turkey’s foreign minister said Thursday. Mevlut Cavusoglu said the suspect helped the teenagers even though he or she worked for the intelligence agency of a country that is part of the US-led coalition fighting the group, also known as ISIS. Cavusoglu didn’t identify the country, but said it wasn’t the United States or a European Union member."
No wonder Turkey is in trouble now, and what nation could it be?
Turns out the SILLI schoolgirls were deported -- and they were not even terrorists!!
Of course, Turkey is a major transit point for foreign fighters and supplies into Syria. Won't read that here but it is an open secret.
******
In Ethiopia on Monday, many people are reeling from the news that several Ethiopians were killed in Libya by the Islamic State, which over the weekend released a video purporting to show the execution.
Purportedly?
The killings, which have shocked many in the predominantly Christian country, were condemned by Pope Francis and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The victims were planning to go to Europe by boat from Libya but were captured and killed by Islamic extremists, said grieving family members and government officials. Ethiopia’s government Monday declared three days of mourning.
Unfortunately, I view all these videos as staged and scripted fictions from ISIS (formerly Al-CIA-Duh) studios. Sorry.
Pope Francis sent a letter to the patriarch of the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church, Abuna Matthias, expressing ‘‘distress and sadness’’ at the ‘‘further shocking violence perpetrated against innocent Christians in Libya.
Yeah, the Pope has a vested interest in the narrative. Hopes to increase his flock.
The pope has been very vocal in condemning the persecution of Christians across the globe in recent months, and stressed in the letter to the Ethiopian orthodox patriarch that ‘‘it makes no difference whether the victims are Catholic, Copt, Orthodox, or Protestant.’’
Ban condemned the killings and ‘‘utterly deplores the targeting of people on the basis of their religious affiliation,’’ his spokesman said.
Some people gathered Monday in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to mourn two former residents whose faces were recognized in the Islamic State video. The 29-minute video, released Sunday via social media accounts and websites used by extremists, shows many Ethiopian Christians held captive in Libya being killed by militants by shooting or decapitation.
All the more reason to doubt its validity.
--more--"
"Thousands of Ethiopians march against Islamic extremism" Associated Press April 23, 2015
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — More than 100,000 Ethiopians on Wednesday protested the killing of Ethiopian Christians in Libya and their own government’s failure to raise living standards of the poor, with poverty fueling the flow of migrants through dangerous areas.
It was more likely the last item and had nothing to do with religion. How deceptive of my agenda-pushing jew$paper.
The march at Addis Ababa’s Meskel Square turned violent when stone-throwing protesters clashed with police, who arrested at least 100 people.
The protesters said, ‘‘We want revenge for our sons’ blood,’’ referring to Ethiopians seen being beheaded or shot in a video released on Sunday by the extremist group Islamic State. The Ethiopian victims are widely believed to have been captured in Libya while trying to reach Europe.
Not a very Christian sentiment.
Ahaza Kassaye, the mother of one of the victims, said during the protest Wednesday that she was overwhelmed by the massive turnout.
‘‘I’m happy now,” she said. “I’m very happy. I was just mourning the death of my son with family members and my neighbors. I never expected this to happen.’’
That is such an odd thing to say, and leads one to believe it's a crisis actor quote.
Even as the Islamic State killings have roiled many here, some young people in Addis Ababa said they would still attempt the perilous journey to Europe.
--more--"
This roiled some, too:
"Turkish police arrested, accused of wiretapping president" New York Times February 26, 2015
ISTANBUL — Police officers arrested dozens of fellow officers Wednesday who are accused of wiretapping President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top government officials.
The chief prosecutor’s office in Ankara issued 54 arrest warrants, the Anadolu News Agency reported, and at least 40 people were arrested in a wave of early morning raids that were carried out simultaneously in 19 cities.
The arrests are the latest salvo in a feud between Erdogan and his former ally, Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who lives in exile in Pennsylvania and has been accused of participating in a plot to overthrow the government.
Oh, it's SILLI to believe his sermons would bring turmoil to Turkey.
Gulen, 73, has millions of followers, and his supporters in Turkey hold positions of power in the police and judiciary.
In other words, he's a U.S. asset and coup conduit.
The arrests carried out Wednesday follow a string of orchestrated raids on institutions linked to Gulen’s supporters, and they represent the latest attempt in Erdogan’s campaign to root out Gulen’s influence ahead of general elections scheduled for June.
--more--"
Of course, spying on the citizenry is okay as is the blocking and hostage-taking of media.
Speaking of more modern-day genocides:
"Imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday renewed a call for his fighters to end their armed struggle against Turkey, part of efforts toward a peaceful resolution of a decades-long insurgency. He said the Kurdistan Workers’ Party should convene a congress to decide to abandon arms and seek a democratic solution. But Ocalan also said the Turkish government should take democratic steps outlined in a vague 10-point declaration that both sides have agreed on (AP)."
Yup, inching toward peace, I am told.
Turkey not taken to task for the migrant crisis either:
"European leaders pledge to stem migrant crisis; Experts call fixes deficient; details of sinking emerge" by Dan Bilefsky New York Times April 24, 2015
BRUSSELS — Struggling to cope with a migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, European leaders promised Thursday to double their spending on border protection as they discuss plans to “identify, capture, and destroy” smugglers’ boats before they can set sail, among other measures.
But experts and advocacy groups said the plans were far too small in scale and they would not do nearly enough to stem the flow of illegal migrants or prevent disasters like the capsizing of a ship carrying African migrants off the coast of Libya last weekend, which killed as many as 900 people. Funerals for 24 of the victims were held Thursday in Malta.
Leaders of EU nations gathered in Brussels on Thursday for an emergency meeting on the issue, with the hard-pressed southern members — Italy, Greece, and Spain — demanding more money and more action from their richer partners to the north, including Germany.
The latest draft agreement under discussion also calls for the union to create a resettlement program for migrants, with 5,000 places available. But with migrants arriving at a rate of hundreds and sometimes thousands a week, a program of that size probably would soon be swamped.
UN agencies and the International Organization for Migration together have called on the Europeans to show leadership in responding to “a tragedy of epic proportions.”
That's keeping with the theme. Yes, it is, and until this agenda-pushing moment for more authoritarian and centralized tyranny it has been mostly ignored by the pre$$.
***************
At the same time, many of the European leaders must contend with growing anti-immigration political pressure at home, much of it from far-right parties such as the National Front in France, Jobbik in Hungary, and the UK Independence Party in Britain.
Ancillary benefit is chance to demonize them.
“The EU hasn’t had a coherent immigration policy since forever, and the situation is getting worse since the Arab Spring,” said Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow at the Center for European Reform in London. “Now, there has been a wake-up call. But I am skeptical that things will change much. Europeans are less concerned about people who are not European.”
Speak for yourself! Don't stereotype and collectively generalize a people!
It is not clear how effectively the measures under discussion in Brussels would deter the thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East from trying to reach European soil however they could. They would do little to address the lawlessness in much of Libya, the primary departure point for smugglers’ boats. And some critics said the proposals would not give authorities along Europe’s southern tier the means or the authority they need to intercept and turn back migrant vessels early in their voyages.
That means a military occupation then. That is what they are getting you ready for.
The union is now spending about $3.2 million a month on its border protection and sea rescue operation, known as Triton. But the scale of the problem is such that even doubling that figure, as the leaders pledged to do, might be inadequate, experts said. And some argued that expanding the program would encourage people to attempt even more perilous journeys to Europe.
That as the same governments push austerity on the people so criminal banks can get paid.
Prosecutors in Sicily revealed details about the boat that capsized last weekend and were still piecing together the sequence of events that led to the sinking of the boat after it collided with a Portuguese merchant ship diverted to assist it.
That's the print version I received. The rest is web add-ons.
Witnesses also said a Syrian survivor was identified by others as an accomplice of the smugglers who stayed in touch with bosses in Libya using a satellite phone.
Then Five Eyes sucked it up.
The 28-member bloc has had a hard time forging a common policy. Southern nations like Italy, Greece, and Malta, where streams of African migrants arrive by boat, have called for aggressive collective action. Britain, in the midst of an election campaign featuring heated debate on immigration issues, has been reluctant to devote more resources. On Thursday, Britain said it was offering a Royal Navy warship, three helicopters, and two border control vessels to help with search and rescue missions, but would not take in more refugees.
Germany, which received than 200,000 asylum seekers last year — almost one-third of the union’s total — wants the burden of housing and aiding the refugees to be shared more evenly. Some Central and Eastern European nations, which saw little immigration in Communist times, have been slow to adapt to the demands of European integration.
People trying to get out, not in.
Mortera-Martinez, of the Center for European Reform, said that ad hoc measures were unlikely to solve the migration problem, and that a robust overhaul was needed, including changing the rule that migrants must apply for asylum in the countries where they first arrive in Europe. She said that put an unfair burden on the front-line southern nations.
She dismissed the argument that expanded rescue operations would encourage illegal immigration, saying that people in desperate circumstances would seek refuge in Europe in any case.
Experts said the European Union’s creaking institutions are ill suited to rapid response, and it can take years to change immigration policies. “EU member states do not want to give up control over decision-making on immigration,” said Thomas Huddleston, program director at the Migration Policy Group in Brussels. “And now, suddenly, the EU has to act at light speed.”
That is when you want to hit the brakes.
--more--"
Is it possible Turkey is not taken to task for migrants while sitting on the Mediterranean because it has a hand in creating them? Kinda sad when you think about it, although 'only' "1,727 migrants have died so far this year."
Not to minimize the numbers, but that toll seems far from epic from what I've been seeing in my jew$paper:
Auschwitz guard, now 93, describes camp in chilling detail
Regarding the farcical prosecution of Oskar Groening, the "Accountant of Auschwitz"
Imagine all the U.S. bureaucrats to be found guilty in future years -- right down to the chef at the White House.
Poland accepts FBI director’s regrets with reserve
Jewish film festival has strong lineup, points of view
‘24 Days’ recalls anti-Semitism in 2006 Paris
The Skinny on France
Looks like the propaganda is getting fat again:
"Student arrested on suspicion of planning attack in France" by Aurelien Breeden New York Times April 23, 2015
PARIS — A 24-year-old Algerian computer science student suspected of planning an imminent terror attack was taken into custody in Paris during the weekend, French authorities said Wednesday.
Related(?): Algeria's Ailments
Just a coincidence, I'm sure.
Police found AK-47 assault rifles, several handguns, and ammunition in his home and his car, along with notes on potential targets, $2,140 in cash, bulletproof vests, and police armbands, according to the Paris prosecutor, François Molins.
Planted?
The authorities said the student was suspected of involvement in the killing of a woman and was thought to be planning to attack at least one church. He had expressed a desire to go to Syria and had been flagged by police services as a security risk, the authorities said, but checks made in the past two years had turned up nothing to warrant an investigation.
Here we go again! Another controlled agent or pathetic patsy!
“Detailed documents were also found, establishing without any doubt that the individual was planning an imminent attack, most likely against one or two churches,” the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said at a news conference. “That attack was avoided on Sunday morning.”
The student, whom the authorities did not identify, is also suspected of involvement in the killing of a 32-year-old woman from northern France, identified as Aurélie Chtelain, who was found dead Sunday morning in her parked car in Villejuif, a Paris suburb.
Molins, the prosecutor, said police had found documents written in Arabic that mentioned Al Qaeda and the Islamic State at the suspect’s home in the 13th Arrondissement, the Paris district nearest to Villejuif. He said they had also found cellphones, a camera, a video recorder, a computer, a USB key, and a hard drive among his possessions.
Pffffft!
Analysis of those devices found “that this individual was in contact with another person who could have been in Syria, and with whom he communicated on methods to carry out an attack,” Molins said, adding that the other person had asked the student specifically to target a church.
Could have been???
Molins said that DNA matching the suspect’s had been found in blood traces in Chtelain’s car, and that Chtelain’s blood had been found on his coat. Ballistic tests showed that the bullet that killed Chtelain was fired by a handgun found in the suspect’s car, the prosecutor said.
He said the police were still trying to determine why Chtelain was killed; he did not indicate whether the authorities were aware of any links between her and the student.
Molins described the student as a single, childless Algerian citizen who came to France with his mother in 2001 to join his father, who was then living in St.-Dizier, a town about 130 miles east of Paris. He went back to Algeria in 2003, finished high school there and then returned to France to study computer science. He had no past convictions.
A lone wolf out of nowhere, right.
Molins said the student had called emergency services at 8:50 a.m. Sunday and told medical workers that he had been wounded by an armed thief in front of his home. Police officers who responded saw that he had wounds in his left leg and kneecap. He refused to cooperate with them, and his attitude prompted officers to search his car, Molins said.
This is phoqueing ridiculous!!
The prosecutor said the suspect had then made “far-fetched” claims that he was accidentally wounded by a gunshot to the leg while trying to get rid of all of his weapons by throwing them into the Seine. The suspect, now in police custody in a Paris hospital, has stopped saying anything to police, Molins said.
He said a person linked to the suspect had been arrested Wednesday morning in St.-Dizier and was being questioned.
He's NOT a LONE NUT?
France has been on high alert since early January, when three Islamic extremists killed 17 people in and around Paris.
The Hebdo hoax.
More than 1,550 French citizens or residents are involved in terrorist networks in Syria or Iraq, according to the French government.
President François Hollande told reporters that France still needed to improve its intelligence-gathering. Parliament is currently debating a bill to give the security services more surveillance and monitoring powers.
Oh, and this "coincidentally" happens, huh? Starting to smell like total sh**.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls visited two churches in Villejuif with Cazeneuve on Wednesday as a show of solidarity.
Staged and scripted psyops.
“In January, it was freedom of expression, police forces, and French Jews who were targeted,” Valls said. “Targeting a church is targeting a symbol of France.”
I'm sick of the symbolic shit, how about you?
--more--"
"Accomplices sought in Paris terror plot; Police probe link to cohort in Syria, say church a target" by Aurelien Breeden New York Times April 24, 2015
PARIS — Investigators are searching for potential accomplices of an Algerian man who is suspected of planning to attack at least one church and is thought to have been involved in the killing of a woman near Paris, French authorities said Thursday.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls told France Inter radio, “This kind of individual does not act alone” and there were signs that planning for the thwarted attack was carried out “in connection with an individual who could be in Syria.”
PFFFFFFFFT!
So who was his DGSE case handler?
The Algerian, a 24-year-old computer science student, was arrested Sunday after he called the emergency services to receive treatment for a gunshot wound. Police found several weapons in the man’s car and home, as well as documents indicating that he was planning an attack on at least one church in Villejuif, a south of Paris.
Gotta love that French health care.
In an interview on the TF1 television station Wednesday night, Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, indirectly confirmed that the suspect’s name was Sid Ahmed Ghlam, as had been reported in the French news media.
“The Interior intelligence services had been notified about Ghlam in the spring of 2014,” Cazeneuve said. “They summoned him and retrieved connection data from his phone.”
“This did not reveal anything,” said Cazeneuve, adding that the spy services made similar checks earlier this year when Ghlam traveled to Turkey but found nothing suspicious.
François Molins, the Paris prosecutor, said Wednesday that DNA and ballistics evidence tied Ghlam to the killing of Aurélie Chtelain, a young woman who was found dead in her parked car in Villejuif on Sunday. Le Monde reported Thursday that Chtelain’s death was thought to have been the result of a botched carjacking by the suspect, in which he accidentally shot himself in the leg.
Le Monde, quoting an anonymous police official, also reported that Ghlam appeared to have been acting at the behest of an individual abroad, who told him specifically to target a church and gave him the location of a car parked in a Paris suburb with weapons inside the trunk.
Who could that be?
--more--"
My task for today is done. Sorry.
NDUs:
Markey, Warren fault Obama for not saying ‘genocide’
World marks centennial of genocide
It is “largely a semantic debate that Turkey seems to be losing” as Obama breaks another campaign promise.
As Armenians recall deaths, Turkey clings to its policy of denial
Anyone remember Gallipoli?
Crucial tools lacking to battle Europe’s migration crisis
Speaking of modern-day genocides, and “the plan to destroy smugglers’ boats is highly dubious. There is no shortage of rickety fishing boats or rubber dinghies. These quick-fix tactics make for catchy headlines but are not effective and sustainable solutions.”
2010 plot to bomb Vatican revealed
A very timely release of what smells like pure propaganda. Pope should have kept his mouth shut.
Eurozone ministers scold Greece
Not for very long though.
"Actress Angelina Jolie spoke briefly about the rising immigration crisis on the Mediterranean, where more than 1,300 migrants fleeing Syria and other places have drowned at sea over the past three weeks. “It is sickening to see thousands of refugees drowning on the doorstep of the world’s wealthiest continent,” she said."
Better cut it out and watch your mouth:
"UN official seeks to curb hate speech" Associated Press April 25, 2015
LONDON — The United Nations’ human rights chief Friday accused Britain’s tabloid newspapers of hate speech against immigrants.
Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said an article in The Sun comparing migrants to cockroaches used language similar to that employed by the instigators of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
The April 17 column by Katie Hopkins, a former contestant on the TV show “The Apprentice,” has caused controversy in Britain. Hopkins said gunboats should be used against migrant boats in the Mediterranean, and she called immigrants “feral humans.”
Zeid said the column was “one of the more extreme examples’’ of antiforeigner articles’’ in UK tabloids. He urged British media and regulators to curb incitement. Hopkins said the response to her comments made her aware of the potential danger of words.
Never mind bombs, missiles, guns, etc, etc.,
--more--"
You can keep digging if you wish. I'm done with this NDU.
"Gallipoli, The Truth - for a change
Sat, 04/25/2015 - 06:30 — james
April 25th is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand. It commemorates the beginning of the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during the First World War. This year is the 100th anniversary. It has been much hyped here in Australia, as you might imagine. If a sizable number of Australians and New Zealanders understood the truth in the following well written article, it would become exceedingly hard to con these peoples into yet another war for the psychopaths who want to rule the world.
Indeed, the conspirators behind WW1 and the Gallipoli debacle were well aware of this as you will read in the article below and took steps to obscure the truth from the Australian and New Zealand populations. This propaganda has been extraordinarily effective.
I have copied this article from where I first found it at GlobalResearch. The original appeared at New Dawn Magazine. The authors' blog can be found at First World War Hidden History (after their book of the same name) and it contains much more information. The numbers in the text below refer to references at the foot of the article.
World War I and the British Empire: The Gallipoli Campaign, The Untold Story
‘The first casualty of war is truth’
By Gerry Docherty and Jim Macgregor
The truth about Gallipoli has, unlike its victims, been buried deep. Historians like Peter Hart who describe it as “an idiocy generated by muddled thinking”1 are justified in their anger, but not their conclusions. The campaign was conceived in London as a grotesque, Machiavellian strategy to fool the Russians into believing that Britain was attempting to capture Constantinople for them. The paradox of its failure lay in its success. Gallipoli was purposefully designed to fail.
A secret cabal of immensely rich and powerful men – the Secret Elite – was formed in England in 1891 with the explicit aim of expanding the British Empire across the entire globe. They planned a European war to destroy Germany as an economic, industrial and imperial competitor and, to that end, drew France then Russia into an alliance termed the Entente Cordiale. Their massive land armies were needed to crush Germany. France would be rewarded with Alsace and Lorraine, while Russia was conned into believing she would get Constantinople.2 Thereafter, seizing the Ottoman capital became a “widespread obsession, bordering on panic” in St Petersburg.3
Had Britain encouraged the friendship of Turkey in 1914, the disaster of Gallipoli would never have happened.4The Turks generally disliked the Germans and their growing influence,5 and made three separate attempts to ally with Britain. They were rebuffed on each occasion.6 They also pleaded in vain with the French to accept them as an ally,7 and protect them against their old enemy, Russia.8 Poor fools. The French and British alliance with Russia was at the expense of the Turks, not an alliance with the Turks to save them from Russia. Britain and France planned to carve up the oil rich Ottoman Empire. To that end, the Turks had to be pushed into the German camp and defeated.
In July 1914 the majority of the Turkish cabinet was still well disposed towards Britain,9 but their faith was shattered by the seizure of two battleships being built for them in England. As an essay in provocation it was breathtaking.10 “If Britain wanted deliberately to incense the Turks and drive them into the Kaiser’s arms she could not have chosen more effective means.”11 Winston Churchill (a loyal servant of the Secret Elite) seized the dreadnoughts because they were “vital to Britain’s naval predominance.”12 The truth ran much deeper.
Back in February, Russia laid plans for her Black Sea fleet to take Constantinople by landing 127,500 troops and heavy artillery from Odessa. Arrival of the dreadnoughts from England would destroy this plan.13 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sazonov issued a thinly veiled warning to London on 30 July: “It is a matter of the highest degree of importance that… these ships must be retained in England.”14 Fearful that Russia would renege on her commitment to war should the ships be released, the Secret Elite withheld them. It kept Russia on board and helped drive Turkey into the German camp (they signed a treaty on 2 August), but it created a major problem. How to prevent the Russian Black Sea fleet from seizing Constantinople? Two German warships provided the answer. On 4 August, while off the coast of Algeria, the battle cruiser Goeben and attendant light cruiser Breslau received orders to head for Constantinople.
Vastly outnumbered (73 to 2) by French and British warships, the escape of the German cruisers to Constantinople, 1,200 miles away, is described as a “fiasco of tragic errors” by “fumbling” British Admirals.15The British Admiralty supposedly had no idea where they were heading, but the reality was very different. On 3 August, Kaiser Wilhelm telegraphed King Constantine to say that both warships would be proceeding to Constantinople. This information was transmitted to London,16 and to the British naval mission in Athens.17 Naval Intelligence in London had intercepted and decrypted the actual encoded message from Berlin to Goeben: “Alliance concluded with Turkey. Goeben and Breslau proceed to Constantinople.” The Admiralty knew,18 but relayed information to the Mediterranean fleet that “was either useless or inaccurate.”19 Goeben and Breslau were allowed to escape in order to neutralise the Russian Black Sea fleet. Foreign Secretary Sazonov was outraged that the Royal Navy had failed to prevent it.20
The Ottoman Ambassador in Berlin summed it up perfectly: “Considering the displeasure and complications which a Russian attack on Constantinople would produce in England, the British navy having enabled the German ships to take cover in the Sea of Marmora, has, with the Machiavellianism characteristic of the Foreign Office, foiled any possibility of action by the Russian Black Sea Fleet.”21 Safe arrival of the Goeben rendered a Russian amphibious operation well-nigh impossible,22 and the British Ambassador at Constantinople admitted that their presence served British interests, since “they protected the straits against Russia.”23
On 9 September Admiral Arthur Limpus, head of the British naval mission in Turkey, was recalled. Turkey, although still neutral, closed and mined the Dardanelles. In late October Goeben and Breslau bombarded Sevastopol and other Black Sea ports. Infuriated, Tsar Nicholas insisted on war with Turkey and the seizure of Constantinople for Russia. British and French fears that he would make peace with Germany if Constantinople was denied him gave the Tsar overwhelming diplomatic leverage, and it was agreed that Turkey must now be brought into the war.24
War Declared & the Secret Elites Initiate Gallipoli Campaign
On 2 November Russia declared war on Turkey. Britain and France followed suit three days later. “November 1914 brought a kind of holy war fever to the Russian Foreign Ministry.”25 With over one million Russian casualties for no gain, anti-war protests and revolution stalked the streets of Petrograd. In London, fear of Russia signing a peace treaty with Germany loomed large. How was Russia to be kept in the war with the promise of Constantinople, without actually allowing it? The solution, an attack on Gallipoli, was fraught with pitfalls. The Tsar had to be tricked into believing Britain was generously responding in his hour of need by mounting an all-out effort to take Constantinople for Russia.
The Gallipoli campaign supposedly arose from an urgent call for help from the Russian commander-in-chief Grand Duke Nikolay Nikolaevich on 31 December. Would Britain create a diversion to relieve pressure on Russian troops fighting in the Caucasus?26 This widely held view is wrong. The suggestion came not from Nikolaevich, but from the British military attaché at Petrograd, Sir John Hanbury-Williams. Intimately linked to the Secret Elite and their leader Lord Alfred Milner,27 Hanbury-Williams was frequently in close contact with Nikolaevich. He expressed anxiety about Russia’s domestic morale, but never even mentioned the Dardanelles. It was Hanbury-Williams who planted the idea of a British demonstration against the Ottoman Empire.28 Next day this was presented to the British War Council and magically transformed into a desperate plea for help from Russia.
Having already decided their strategy to keep the Russians out of Constantinople, the Secret Elite now cleverly made it appear that the idea came from Russia. It was all pre-planned, “long before any kind of military imperative in the Ottoman theatre was apparent.”29 The Secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defence, Maurice Hankey, proposed a solution that met all requirements, and it is no coincidence that Hankey was himself a member of the Secret Elite.30 The Gallipoli campaign would be mounted as a sop to the Russians, but set up to fail.
Days later the military dynamic changed. The Turkish 3rd Army was decimated in the Caucasus and, irrespective of whose suggestion it had been, there was no need whatsoever for any British intervention to help Russia. Nonetheless, on 20 January Britain informed Russia that she would undertake not just a demonstration, but a complete operation to penetrate the Dardanelles and Gallipoli. The Russians desperately wanted to take part, but were told to concentrate all efforts against Germany on the Eastern Front. The Secret Elite moved into top gear. An objective that required long months of careful preparation was rushed ahead at breakneck speed with disregard for the basic prerequisites for success.
Churchill assumed command and chose men for their ineptitude rather than ability. He turned to Vice-Admiral Sackville Carden, recently appointed commander of the Mediterranean Squadron after years in a desk-bound job, as superintendent of the Malta dockyards. Slow and ineffective,31 Carden was tasked with drawing up a plan for a naval attack on the Dardanelles, and relaying it to Churchill within days for presentation to a War Council meeting.32On 15 January Carden was informed that his plan had been accepted33 and that he would be in command. What had happened? The ‘plan’, rapidly cobbled together on the back of an envelope by a second rate officer, was to be used as the blueprint for the Gallipoli campaign. The reluctant Carden was given no option other than to get on with it,34 and was effectively set up to take the blame when it failed. For fail it must.
Rear-Admiral Arthur Limpus, an eminently more experienced and knowledgeable man who had spent years in Turkey advising on all naval matters, including the defence of the Dardanelles, was overlooked.35 Here was the man “who knew the Turks and the Dardanelles intimately,”36 yet Churchill shunned him because “the Turks might be offended” and it would be “unfair and unduly provocative” to place in command a man with an inside knowledge of the Turkish fleet.37 Limpus “knew all their secrets,”38 and more about the Dardanelles and the Turkish navy than any other naval officer, yet we are asked to believe that he wasn’t given command because it was considered ungentlemanly – “not quite cricket.”39 Limpus had been sent to the Malta dockyards to sit at Carden’s old desk. Outrageous stupidity or cold calculation?
Limpus was opposed to Churchill’s plan,40 stressing that the first stage must be an amphibious landing, not a naval attack.41 He was not alone in his opposition. In 1906, naval chiefs considered a naval assault too risky.42 Any attack on Gallipoli would “have to be undertaken by a joint naval and military expedition,”43 and Churchill himself stated in 1911 that it was “no longer possible to force the Dardanelles.”44 Rear-Admiral Carden was ignorant of the fact that any chance of success at Gallipoli was absolutely dependent on a combined naval and military operation. Without long, detailed joint planning, and a sufficient number of troops, it was impossible. Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, refused to make troops available and Carden was ordered to proceed with a naval attack.
The Russians were turning the screw. Pressure for immediate action influenced the War Council’s decision.45On 14 February, Sazonov stated that the time for moderation had passed. Tsar Nicholas agreed, informing the French ambassador that his people were making terrible sacrifices in the war without reward. Constantinople must be incorporated into his empire.46 Sazonov implied to the British ambassador that he would resign, and be replaced by Sergei Witte, a pro-German sympathiser who would immediately seal a treaty with Germany.47 All warnings against a purely naval attack were ignored. The navy’s objective was to “bombard and take the Gallipoli peninsula with Constantinople as the objective.”48 After the disastrous failure the Dardanelles Commission asked, “How can a fleet take a peninsula? And how could it have Constantinople as its objective? If this meant… that the Fleet should capture and occupy the city, then it was absurd.”49 It was all absurd.
Naval bombardment of the outer forts of the Dardanelles began on 19 February and ran for six days. It caused some damage but destroyed all hope of surprise and merely led the Turks to strengthen their defences.50 The main naval attack took place on 18 March. On the previous day Vice-Admiral De Robek had to take charge when Carden suffered a nervous breakdown. It was no surprise. He was never fitted for the task and felt completely undermined by the Admiralty’s refusal to provide custom-built minesweepers. They were utterly essential but he was given only North Sea trawlers that could barely make headway against the strong 5-6 knot current. Eight powerful destroyers, which could have been fitted with sweeps, remained idle that fateful day while the officers sat playing cards,51 and only two out of a total of 387 mines were cleared.52 A fleet of 16 British and French battleships bombarded the coast, but were unable to penetrate the minefield and six battleships were sunk or disabled by mines. The Bouvet sank within two minutes with over 600 men trapped inside. It was the disaster predicted as far back as 1906.
A Campaign That Could Never Succeed
Orchestrated chaos shrouded a campaign that could never succeed. Kitchener meantime had changed his mind and agreed to make troops available for a combined attack, but the naval assault had gone ahead before their arrival. Maurice Hankey, acting more as strategic adviser to the War Council than its Secretary,53 stated, “combined operations require more careful preparation than any other class of military enterprise. All through our history such attacks have failed when the preparations have been inadequate.”54 He listed ten points to be met if a joint attack was to succeed. Was he saying, “it will fail as long as we do not take the following measures”? According to the War Council minutes, Hankey’s plan was not even discussed.55 In the event, every point he made was studiously ignored.
Military leadership, like naval, was barely functional. General Sir Ian Hamilton, a man in the twilight of his career who “knew little of the Dardanelles, the Turkish army or of modern warfare,” was chosen to command.56 Scared of Kitchener, and hamstrung by his long-subservience,57 he noted in his diary, “It is like going up to a tiger and asking for a small slice of venison.” During the Boer War he had witnessed Kitchener respond to an officer’s appeal for reinforcements by taking half his troops away.58 The genial Hamilton, like poor Carden, was a scapegoat made to order.
Summoned by Kitchener on 12 March, Hamilton was brusquely informed, “We are sending a military force to support the fleet now at the Dardanelles and you are to have command.” Hamilton was stunned, later admitting, “My knowledge of the Dardanelles was nil, of the Turk nil, of the strength of my own forces next to nil.” When asked if a squadron of modern aircraft with experienced pilots and observers could be made available, Kitchener testily replied, “Not one.” 150,000 men was the minimum required strength for the task, but Kitchener insisted that “half that number” would do handsomely.59 No attempt was made to co-ordinate intelligence about the defences at Gallipoli, not even at strategic level.60 Hamilton was given a cursory briefing, two small tourist guidebooks and old, inaccurate maps.61 Detailed reports from Admiral Limpus and Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Cunnliffe-Owen, another officer with considerable knowledge of Gallipoli, were kept from him.62 Hamilton set off within 48 hours, together with some inexperienced members of staff who did not even know “how to put on their uniforms.”63 So much for detailed preparation.
The chaos continued. There was no discussion, no plan, no naval/military coordination. Indeed, it was a worse situation than preceded the naval operation.64 Gallipoli was to be invaded with a mixed force of 80,000 men from Britain, France and the Empire. Raw Anzac troops and unseasoned French recruits were to be thrown into battle for the first time. Marshall Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, was profoundly opposed to the whole operation and initially refused to provide troops. Political expediency forced his hand.65 A French army Colonel who had spent years in Constantinople also opposed the attack, but like everyone else with intimate knowledge of the area, its topography and defences, he was dismissed.66 Lieutenant-Colonel Cunnliffe-Owen, the British military attaché at Constantinople in 1914, who had personally conducted a detailed survey of Gallipoli, was likewise deliberately overlooked. In London when staff were being scratched together for Hamilton’s team, Cunnliffe-Owen was passed over. His detailed reports on the peninsula were never shown to General Hamilton.67
Kitchener agreed to the deployment of 18,000 men from the British army’s 29th Division. Its commander, Shaw, had served with distinction at Mons and was considered a highly competent and “impressively professional soldier.” Two days before leaving for Gallipoli, when continuity was all-important, Shaw was inexplicably replaced by Major-General Hunter-Weston. He immediately rejected his allocated ship because it lacked first class accommodation, and was transferred to the luxury liner Andania.68 Major-General Shaw suffered the same fate as Admiral Limpus. A competent, knowledgeable man was rejected in favour of Hunter-Weston, a laughing-stock in the British Army,69 spectacularly incompetent, and “one of the most brutal commanders of the First World War.”70Ask yourself, what was going on?
Hamilton arrived to find his army scattered in confusion over much of the Mediterranean. Some battalion commanders couldn’t trace their companies. Ships came from Britain with such poorly written orders that captains did not know their destination.71 On their arrival at Mudros, the ships were found to be loaded in a shambolic fashion, and had to be taken 700 miles to Egypt to be unloaded and repacked.72 Such was the lack of preparation that even the simplest questions could not be answered. “Was there drinking water on Gallipoli? What roads existed? Were troops to fight in trenches or the open? What sort of weapons were required? What was the depth of water off the beaches? What sort of boats were needed to get the men, the guns and stores ashore? What casualties were to be expected? How were they to be got off to the hospital ships? It was simply a case of taking whatever came to hand and hoping for the best.”73
An “Amateurish, Do-It-Yourself Cock-Up”
You couldn’t make it up. There was a shortage of guns, ammunition, aircraft and, above all, troops. Hamilton’s requests for additional supplies and reinforcements were either ignored or refused.74 Gallipoli veteran Charles Watkins described the campaign as an “amateurish, do-it-yourself cock-up.”75 It was designed to be exactly that. The quality of preparation and leadership guaranteed it. General Ian Hamilton was the Secret Elite’s Patsy-in-Chief, unwittingly abetted by the incompetent Admiral Carden. These were the men chosen to fail.
The Gallipoli landings went ahead on 25 April 1915 with the terrible slaughter and wounding of many incredibly brave young men, dispensable pawns on Imperial Britain’s chessboard. Despite the fleet now having some thirty powerful destroyers equipped to sweep the mines, and many officers totally confident that the fleet could now get through, no further attempt was made to force the Dardanelles. The navy would play no further part other than ferrying the men ashore, taking off the wounded, and providing a safe haven off-shore for the likes of Hunter-Weston. Successful mine sweeping had always been the key to a successful naval assault, and with the new minesweepers and a clear run through to the Straits, the fleet could have greatly assisted the army with controlled bombardments of Turk positions from within the channel. It would, of course, also have been able to cripple Goebenand Breslau. For the above stated reasons, that would not be allowed to happen.
For years knowledgeable men had insisted that a well planned and resourced combined naval and military attack was the only type of operation that might succeed, but never at any point in the entire Gallipoli campaign was a joint assault carried out. The elites in London ordered the shambolic attack by the navy when they knew it was bound to fail, and now ordered an equally shambolic attack by the army in the full knowledge that it too could never succeed.
Gallipoli was a lie within the lie that was the First World War. The campaign ended in military defeat, but geo-strategic victory for the British Empire. By late 1915, with Russian forces pushed back on the eastern front and any likelihood of their intervention in Constantinople gone, the British government began planning withdrawal from the corpse strewn peninsula. The last Allied troops were taken off on 9 January 1916, leaving behind 62,266 of their comrades. The majority of the dead on both sides have no known graves. Many of the 11,410 Australians and New Zealanders who died76 suffered unspeakable deaths, deliberately sacrificed on the altar of British imperialism.
A Myth Obscures the terrible Truth
Over the last century, in both Britain and Australia, Gallipoli has been turned into a heroic-romantic myth,77 a myth promoted by court historians and pliant journalists in order to hide the stark truth. It was a ruse, a sop to the Russians to keep them in the war in the belief that allied forces would capture Constantinople on their behalf. Put into the hands of incompetent generals and admirals, starved of troops, determined leadership, ill-equipped, ill-advised and certain to fail, the attack on Gallipoli as an integral part of the imperial strategy was a stunning success.
We are aware of at least one renowned Gallipoli historian and writer in Australia who agrees with our thesis. Like us, he proposes that “it was the intention of the British and French governments of 1915 to ensure that the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli campaign would not succeed” and was “conceived as a ruse to keep the Russians in the war…” He believes that while the proposition has circumstantial evidence to support it, there is “little or no documentary evidence.”78 He is very unlikely to find it. As revealed in our book Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War, masses of crucial documents relating to the First World War were shredded or burned, or have been kept hidden away to this very day in a high security establishment at Hanslope Park in England. The individuals responsible for the war, responsible for Gallipoli, were many things, but they weren’t so stupid as to leave incriminating evidence lying around. Historians in Australia and New Zealand must stop protecting their comfortable careers and start acknowledging the terrible truth about Gallipoli. Peddling mythology as truth is an insult to the memory of those brave young men.
Just as in Britain, the Government of Australia seeks to be the guardian of public memory, choreographing commemoration into celebration,79 ritually condemning war while the rhetoric gestures in the opposite direction.80 The War Memorial in Sydney’s Hyde Park proudly exhorts, “Let Silent Contemplation Be Your Offering,” yet the deafening prattle of political expediency mocks the valiant dead with empty words and lies. Don’t be fooled. Those young men died for the imperial dreams of wealthy manipulators, not for ‘freedom’ or ‘civilisation’. They died deceived, expendable, and in the eyes of the power-brokers, the detritus of strategic necessity. Remember that.
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