[Serpentor]

There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of these "crypto-Christians" or "forced" Turks - non ethnic Turks who had to deny their ethnicity and Christianity to survive in the final years of the Ottoman empire and in Ataturk's new republic.

[darkwing104]

Wow. Thanks for the history lesson.

[LauraleeBraswell]

""There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of these "crypto-Christians" or "forced" Turks - non ethnic Turks who had to deny their ethnicity and Christianity to survive in the final years of the Ottoman empire and in Ataturk's new republic.""



Wait a second. Muslim families risk their own lives to save children of Armenians, take them into their homes, and raise them as their own- and your calling them "forced" Turks!

I'm not defending Islam in any way, but when you say "forced" them to become Muslim. What would you think of the young Jewish children saved and raised by Christian families during the Holoucaust. I wouldn't call it forced. They were adopted. They were saved.

I don't think that these Good people are part of the Islamic threat.

[Spirited]

Thank you so much for this post.

[Redcloak]

I wonder how many of the missing Armenian orphans were secretly placed with Armenian families. This happened with my sister's father-in-law.

His family was part of a group being driven out into the desert. They fell behind the main group and his family was killed when Turkish cavalry attacked the stragglers.

He and his brother were huddled together when a mounted soldier attacked with a sword. His brother was beheaded and he received a terrible neck wound and was knocked out by the blow. The volume of blood on the ground convinced the Turkish soldiers that both boys were dead.

He was discovered later that night by a Turkish woman. She sneaked him into her home and nursed him back to health. She then arranged to have him smuggled to Istanbul and then off to the US with an Armenian family.

I don't doubt that the majority of Armenian orphans stayed with their Turkish rescuers; however, if one could have been placed with Armenian parents in this way, then others could have too.

[eleni121]

Wonderful post. Thank you.

[eleni121]

Ping!

[wideminded]

Perhaps some Armenian children were raised by Kurds.

From Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, Chapter 24 (an account of the Armenian genocide):

"When the victims had travelled a few hours from their starting place, the Kurds would sweep down from their mountain homes. Rushing up to the young girls, they would lift their veils and carry the pretty ones off to the hills. They would steal such children as pleased their fancy and mercilessly rob all the rest of the throng. If the exiles had started with any money or food, their assailants would appropriate it, thus leaving them a hopeless prey to starvation. They would steal their clothing, and sometimes even leave both men and women in a state of complete nudity. All the time that they were committing these depradations the Kurds would freely massacre, and the screams of women and old men would add to the general horror. Such as escaped these attacks in the open would find new terrors awaiting them in the Moslem villages. ..."

[wideminded]

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