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and the first "Contact Group" |
As we watched NATO military involvement in Bosnia recently, and we watched formation of "Contact Group" to supposedly deal with Bosnian crisis, let us tell you that this kind of interference by the self-elected club of world powers into the internal struggle between peoples of Bosnia is nothing new.
An old Latin proverb says: History is a teacher of life. In Bosnia, the teacher teaches one and the same lecture over and over again. This pattern of history repeated so many times that it got its own term: "EASTERN QUESTION".
This supposed "question" was (and is!) so central to the East-West relationship that earlier versions of Encyclopedia Britannica used to devote large space to its explanation. The edition of 1952, we are to take excerpts from here, stretches from page 861 to page 868.
Let us take a closer look at what History thought us. Let us see how Western powers, through their endless greed and injustice, already once before, instigated a planet-wide war over Bosnia. We will see that they behaved exactly the same way 120 years ago as they do today. By stubbornly supporting Islamic fanatics they are making the very same mistake today. This time the very life on Planet Earth may not survive their stupidity.
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Since the days of [Russian] Tsarina Catherine the opinion had been gaining ground in England that Turkey was an absolutely necessary bulwark of the British empire and that only by its preservation could expanding Russia be restricted from pushing southwards to the Mediterranean and ultimately to [the British colony of] India. The above quote is from: "A History of the Balkans" by Professor Ferdinand Schevill, Barnes & Noble, New York 1995, page 340 THE EASTERN QUESTION; The expression used in diplomacy from about the time of the Congress of Verona (1822) to comprehend the international problems involved in the impending dissolution of the Turkish empire... [I]ts roots are set... in the ancient contest between cultures of Europe and Asia, the antagonism of Christian and Moslem, and the perennial rivalry of the powers for the control of the trade routes to the orient. [It] dates in its modern sense from the treaty of Kuchuk Kainardji (1774) [signed by Turkey after its defeat by Russian forces], which marked the establishment of Russia as a Black sea power and formed the basis of her special claim to interfere in the internal affairs of the Ottoman empire. The actual right conceded was, however, very limited. Article VII of the treaty runs: "The Sublime Porte [Turkish government] promises to PROTECT firmly both the [Eastern-Orthodox] Christian religion and its churches; and also permits the minister of the imperial court of Russia to make on all occasions representations in favour of the new church in Constantinople, and of those who carry on its services." [In 1821] Louis Napoleon, now Prince President of the French Republic, desiring to... increase his prestige, instructed his ambassador in Constantinople to demand the restoration of French property and rights in the holy places [and, in effect, anull Kuchuk Kainardji Treaty]. [O]n Nov. 4, 1851, the British ambassador, Stratford Canning, reported to his Government that the question had "assumed a character of extreme gravity."... [Still, the Russian] tsar... [Nicholas] revised his earlier idea of an arrangement with Great Britain for the partition of Turkey. In the famous conversations (Jan. 9 and 14, 1853) with the British ambassador at St. Petersburg, Sir Hamilton Seymour, he spoke of Turkey as the "Sick Man," and gave his ideas as to the disposal of his inheritance: the Balkans should be divided into series of Christian States, Great Britain receiving compensation in Egypt, Cyprus and Crete. The comment on this by Lord John Russel, on behalf of the British Government was to deny that Turkey was sick and to insist that whole question must be settled by general agreement... [The tsar Nicholas] despatched Gen. Menshikov to Constantinople with an ultimatum demanding the preservation on the status quo as regarded the holy places and Russia's right to protect [Eastern Orthodox] Christians in Turkey... Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the British ambassador [though] persuaded the Porte to yield respecting the holy places, but to resist the demand for a protectorate over the Christians... [Over this issue and on the side of Ottoman Turkey] on March 27 [1854]... France and Great Britain declared war against Russia. [It was known as Crimean war and it was devastating for troops on all sides involved.] The above quote is from: "Encyclopedia Britannica" Edition 1952, Volume 7, pp 861-864 Entry: EASTERN QUESTION |
Isn't this absolutely astonishing!? British ambassador was advising Porte (the Turkish government) to resist the demand for Russian (or anyone else's) protection of Eastern Orthodox Christians enslaved by Turkish Empire. Let us remind you that we are talking here about mid-nineteenth century and the time when Muslim tyranny over their Christian subjects was at its worse. Here is, once again, what Western books could admit a century later:
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If any single factor made the Balkans what they were in history -- and what they still are today -- it was the ordeal of the Turk... For the 18th and 19th Centuries, the image of Turkey was that of a rotting empire, of a corrupt, incompetent and sadistic national elite preying on the subject Balkan peoples - of a cynical government WHOSE VERY METHOD OF RULE WAS ATROCITY. [T]hey forbade the building of all but the meanest churches, and likewise outlawed the ringing of church bells. The above quote is from: "The Balkans," pp 43 - 44 Time-Life World Library by Edmund Stillman and the Editors of LIFE Time Inc., New York, 1967 |
So, the Eastern Christians could not even ring the bells on their churches while their merciless Islamic rulers ruled over them through sadism and atrocity. The Western Christians are so full of their interests that they will not only watch the atrocities perpetrated on Eastern Christians but would actually wage a war to ensure that Eastern Christians remain enslaved!!!
Just so that Russia does not get involved.
Sounds familiar? Isn't it the same Bosnia, we see now, more than a century later? In 1990's the Western powers repeated exactly the same atrocious injustice. They did their best to keep Bosnian Serb Christians under Muslim foot. Should brutal Islamic rule in the Balkans continue for one more century just so that Eastern Orthodox Russia does not get more influence among Eastern Orthodox Christians of the Balkans?
"Ignorance is strength" said George Orwell in his novel "1984." The Western "Rulers of the Universe," want you to remain ignorant. That is why they keep repeating to you that "Balkan history is too complicated." It is not.
They want you *NOT* to know history, so they can repeat it - using the same models and the same methods - over and over again.
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to keep Eastern Christains under Islamic tyranny |
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The heart of Russian maritime strength unquestionably was the great naval base on the southern extremity of the Crimea, Sebastopol. In September [1854] Great Britain and France forced a landing to the north of Sebastopol... and began the siege of the fortress. The siege lasted a whole year. It was an extremely difficult operation... The improvised Anglo-French camps were insufficient to protect the troops against the rigor of the Crimean winter and the ravages of disease, while Russians, shut up in Sebastopol, put up a magnificent defense... [I]n September 1855 they [British/French/Turkish alliance] captured Sebastopol... [T]he death in March, 1855, while the siege of Sebastopol was at its height, of the indomitable Nicholas,... threw the Russian ministry into confusion... Alexander II, who succeded his father... did not conceal his desire to end a struggle... The treaty of Paris records the purpose of [Western] Europe, under the leadership of Great Britain... Russia... [was to] surrender of all the special advantages gained at the expense of the Ottoman empire since Kutchuk-Kainardji... The treaty therefore, first of all, obliged the tsar to renounce any and every claim to act as protector of the Greak Christians within the dominions of the sultan. As to the rights acquired at various times to protect Serbia and Rumanian principalies of Moldavia and Wallachia [which are also with Eastern-Orthodox population under Turkish tyranny], these too he was made to relinquish. The above quote is from: "A History of the Balkans" by Professor Ferdinand Schevill, Barnes & Noble, New York 1995, pages 360-361 [T]he treaty of Paris expressed the collective will of Europe to save the "Sick Man" from the Russian ogre [sic!]... They [also] obliged the sultan to publish the charter of 1856... Its provisions, summarized, signified that sultan gave his word [sic!] that the traditional Ottoman system, by which the population of the empire was sharply divided, along religious lines, into oppressors and oppressed, into masters and rayahs, was forthwith to end and be replaced by the legal and administrative principles current in the West... [But] the Muslim population... saw no reason for supporting a reform which deprived it of its ancient superiority over the Christians and merged the two religious groups in a common citizenry based on strict equality. Not only was such program contrary to long established custom, but it was distinctly irreligious inasmuch as it signified a denial of Koran and sheri [Islamic law], which in unmistakable terms designated the body of Mohammedan believers as MASTERS privileged to lord it over the INFIDELS whom the sword tamed... the instinctive attitude of all faitful Moslem to the blasphemous innovations of the ruler was to resist them with every means at their disposal. The above quote is from: "A History of the Balkans" by Professor Ferdinand Schevill, Barnes & Noble, New York 1995, pages 380-382 Read more: MUSLIM UPRISING AGAINST EQUALITY Even as late as 1875, on the eve of Bosnian [Christian Serb] revolt, which led three years later to the Austrian occupation [of Bosnia-Hercegovina at insistance of the West] [Count] Andrassy, the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, in report to the Crown Council, stated: "Turkey possesses a utility almost providential [=God given] for Austria-Hungary. For Turkey maintains the status quo of the small Balkan states and impedes their national aspirations [to be free of Turkish tyranny]. If it were not for Turkey all those aspirations would fall on our heads... if Bosnia-Hercegovina should go to Serbia or Montenegro, or if a new state should be formed there which we cannot prevent, then we should be ruined and should ourselves assume the role of 'Sick Man'." The above quote is from: "A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples" by Professor Fred Singleton, Cambridge University Press, Edition 1985, page 101 Behind the Russian policy was the Pan-Slav ideal, which Russian agents were busy propagating among the Balkan peoples; behind the Austrian [and generally Western] policy was the conviction that Serbia [free since 1834] was already aspiring to play the part played by Piedmont in Italy [which united all Italian statelets], and to become the head of a Southern Slav empire [sic!] built up on the ruins of the Austrian and Ottoman empires. If the rivalry between Russia and Austria did not lead to a breach, this was because Russia saw that in the event of war Germany would have to support Austria, now once more regarded as the bulwark of Germanism against Slavs... [S]uch considerations.... determined the attitude of the... Powers when the next critical phase of the Eastern Question began. It opened in July 1875, when Christian Slavs of Hercegovina rose against Turkish misrule. The above quote is from: "Encyclopedia Britannica" Edition 1952, Volume 7, pp 861-864 Entry: EASTERN QUESTION |
The Western powers are afraid that all Serbs, including oppressed Serbs of Bosnia, could get free - and even united into one state? Afraid!?
Let us see the story about Serbian uprising in Bosnia in 1875 and what role the West played so that Bosnian Serbs, despite the suffering they were ready and able to endure, were not granted their right to live free of Muslim oppression.
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ends as super-power conquest |
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When... in the spring of 1875, in spite of an almost complete failure of the crops, the [Muslim] tax-farmers [tax-collectors] went from house to house cooly practicing the usual extortions, the [Christian] indignation knew no bounds. On July 1, the inhabitants of the [Serb] village of Nevesinje, on a stony plateau not far from the Herzegovinian city of Mostar, raised the banner of rebellion. Immediately other villages fell into line until the conflagration embraced a considerable area. Then the fire leaped north to envelop the whole land. The above quote is from: "A History of the Balkans" by Professor Ferdinand Schevill, Barnes & Noble, New York 1995, page 395 Revolts by the raya against local Turkish officials were common, and Hercegovina was one of the more turbulent areas. "Usually the Turkish authorities were able to contain the rebels and matters were settled when a punitive expedition entered the village where the recalcitrants lived, burned their homes, hanged their leaders, raped their womenfolk and enslaved their children. In 1875, however, there were special circumstances which caused the revolt in Nevesinje against the tax collecors to spread. The harvest of 1874 had been poor one over a large area of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Christian peasants saw their families starving whilst what little food was produced by the last harves was taken to satisfy the demands of their Muslim landlords and the sultan's tax collectors. It needed only an incident like that at Nevesinje in July 1875 to turn the widespread discontent into open revolt. The above quote is from: "A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples" by Professor Fred Singleton, Cambridge University Press, Edition 1985, page 102 The small garrisons maintained by the sultan were completely inadequate to cope with the insurgents, especially as the rebel bands were strengthened by volunteers from neighboring Serb areas and were equipped with rifles and ammunition which filtered across [Drina river] the border. Evidently the Serbs outside Bosnia, seized with a tremendous excitment at this rebellion of their kinsmen, were resolved to sustain them at every cost. Here lay the real peril of the situation. If the sultan did not soon succeed in crushing the uprising, public opinion in [for centuries free Serbian state of] Montenegro and [since 1834 autonomous but under Turkish nominal rule, central] Serbia would oblige the rulers of these states to make common cause with down-trodden peasants of Bosnia and a Balkan war would result, which, like all Balkan wars, might easily develop into a general [world] conflict. The cabinets of the great [Western European] powers did not fail to see the dangerous implications of the Bosnian rising. The above quote is from: "A History of the Balkans" by Professor Ferdinand Schevill, Barnes & Noble, New York 1995, page 395 The failure of the Turks to suppress the insurrection and the consequent danger of a general conflagration led to the intervention of the Powers, and on December 30, 1875, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary agreed to terms of a joint note, drawn up by Count Andrassy [the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister], for the presentation to the Porte [Turkish government]. This declared that the time had come for joint action to compel Turkey to translate her promises of reform into acts. It demanded the formal recognition of the equal status of the Christian religion, and certain reforms in Bosnia-Hercegovina which were to be watched over [monitored] by a mixed commission of Christians and Muslims. Great Britain and France having adhered, the "Andrassy Note" was presented to the Porte on January 31, 1876. The sultan, as usual, promised everything and performed nothing. Meanwhile the revolt spread. The above quote is from: "Encyclopedia Britannica" Edition 1952, Volume 7, page 865 Entry: EASTERN QUESTION The success of the Serbs [in battling Turkish forces] in 1867 and Greeks in 1866-9 had shown that the Balkan peoples could, with profit [of gaining freedom], take matters into their own hands. They need not always be the pawns of the European powers, who in the past had manipulated [Turkish enslaved Christian subjects] the Slavs, the Greeks, the Bulgars and the Romanians to further their own selfish interests... As the revolt spread through Bosnia and Hercegovina the powers, for different reasons, tried to damp it down. The Austrians feared that the unrest might spread to their Slav subjects and that, if Serbia stepped in to support the rebels, there might be permanent damage to Habsburg interests in south-east Europe. The above quote is from: "A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples" by Professor Fred Singleton, Cambridge University Press, Edition 1985, page 102 In May [1876] the signs were ominous; Serbia was arming, and Prince Milan [of Serbia] gave the command of his troops to the Russian general Chernayev; Montenegro also was arming. The three [European] emperors thought it time to take action, and on May 13 signed the Berlin Memorandum, which proposed combined action of the fleets, the enforcement of a two months' armstice, and further action if no settlement were reached. This broke down on the opposition of Great Britain, Disraeli arguing that it would only encourage the insurgents to go on. On May 24 the British fleet was ordered to Besika bay, for the defence of Turkey [!!!] in case of need. On June 30 Serbia declared war on Turkey, and on July 2 Montenegro followed suit. On July 8 Emperors Alexander II and [Austrian Emperor] Francis Joseph met at Reichstadt and signed a convention defining the policy of Austria and Russia. There was to be no intervention so long as the contest was undecided. In the event of the defeat of Serbia, the two powers would combine to preserve the status quo. In the event of Serbia's victory, Austro-Hungary was to receive Bosnia-Hercegovina... Meanwhile a fresh complication had arisen. In May the Bulgarian peasants had also risen [against Turkish rule] and massacred many Turkish officials. The Turks, on their march northwards against the Serbs, took horrible vengeance... The above quote is from: "Encyclopedia Britannica" Edition 1952, Volume 7, page 865 Entry: EASTERN QUESTION The Bulgar leaders... were convinced that no better opportunity to strike for freedom would ever arise and vigorously began preparations for a general insurrection. However, as their efforts were not well coordinated, the Turks managed without great difficulty to keep the movement under control. Then in May, 1876, on the northern slope of the Rhodope mountains, occured one of those terrible incidents only too common when two peoples, long associated as masters and slaves, engage in civil conflict. Turkish militiamen, known as Bashi-Bazuks, a name sufficient in itself to strike terror to the heart, were dispatched into the disaffected area and, falling on a group of Christian villages harried them with fire and sword. No less than ten thousand men, women, and children lost their lives as a result of these horrors perpetrated by Turkidh soldiers. When the news reached Europe an immense wave of indignation swept the [still free] public press. Even in Turcophil England the popular sentiment, lashed to fury by a famous pamphlet from the hand of the Liberal statesman, Gladstone, loudly demanding the punishment of the malefactors... The Bulgars, cowed, permitted the insurrection to collapse. It was the Serbs only with whom the sultan had to deal in the summer of 1876... Under the anything but fortunate leadership of a Russian general [Chernayev] the Serbs adopted a plan of invasion [of Bosnia-Herzegovina] for which they lacked the necessary means. The above quote is from: "A History of the Balkans" by Professor Ferdinand Schevill, Barnes & Noble, New York 1995, page 396-397 On April 24, [1877] Russia declared war [against Turkey]... So far as the relations between the Powers were concerned, the most critical period was after [Russian] Gen. Gurko’s capture of Adrianople (Jan. 20, 1878), when the Russian advance threatened Constantinople and the straits. [O]n the 23rd the British fleet was ordered to Gallipoli. On the 31st the preliminaries of peace between Russia and Turkey were signed at Adrianople... [T]he British fleet was ordered to enter the Sea of Marmora. The situation was now extremely critical, for Austria-Hungary declared the terms of the Convention of Adrianople to be inconsistent with her interests, and it soon became clear that the only way of peace lay through a European congress. On Feb. 5 Count Andrassy formally invited the great Powers to a conference, and Russia, which was in no condition to continue the war with Great Britain and Austria ranged against her, had perforce to agree. Before the final arrangements for the congress could he made, however, the Convention of Adrianople was converted into the Treaty of San Stefano (March 3 [1878]). This seemed to realize the worst fears of the [Western] Powers... Serbia, Rumania and Montenegro were to be independent States, Bosnia and Hercegovina were to receive autonomous institutions under the joint control of Russia and Austria-Hungary... The news of the conclusion of this treaty, which seemed not only to bar Austrian advance in the Balkans but to be fatal to British interests by giving Russia a crushing preponderance in the East, again brought war very near. But in the end the strong representations of the Powers, backed by the diplomacy of [German] Bismarck persuaded the tsar to consent to submit the treaty to the approaching congress. This met in Berlin on June 13 and, after heated debates, arrived at a definite settlement a month later. By the Treaty of Berlin, signed on July 13, 1878, the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano were greatly modified. Its signature was hailed in Great Britain as a great diplomatic victory; the preponderance of Russia in the East had been checked; and Lord Beaconsfield boasted that he had secured "peace with honour," but the treaty represented, in fact, the starting-point of the latest and most disastrous phase of the Eastern Question which culminated in the World War[!!!] [T]he permission given to Austria-Hungary to occupy and administer Bosnia-Hercegovina gave the [Austria-Hungary's] Habsburg Monarchy what seemed likely to prove a permanent foothold in the Balkan peninsula. The above quote is from: "Encyclopedia Britannica" Edition 1952, Volume 7, pages 865, 866 Entry: EASTERN QUESTION |
Let us take one more look into this extremely important lecture History teaches us. First, let us take a look into the pattern of events.
The pattern is as follows: When it comes to their petty interests and their endless games of conquest, the Western Christian powers apply one rule only: "Might is Right". For centuries, Western Christians watched with calm and disinterest as Islamic Turkey perpetrated endless, increasingly gruesome atrocities on its subjugated Eastern Christian subjects. For centuries, thus -- and to this very day, in the first half of 21st century -- this open anti-Eastern Orthodox racism persists in the West. It was honestly expressed only by Hitler but it was the same way vigorously pursued by both British and American Empire.
With shocking sense of righteousness the two Empires pillaged this planet and committed whatever untold atrocities against countless populations, including Muslim, on different corners of the globe. They would never loose their sleep knowing that Ottoman Turks, in the same appalling ways mistreated their Christian subjects. In their minds "an equilibrium" exists: Muslims mistreat Christians which leaves them free hand to mistreat Muslims. Only on closer look is it clear that the oppressors and the oppressed do not change:
- Western Christians oppress and exploit Muslims
- Muslims oppress and exploit Eastern Orthodox Christians
Only Russia, in all its reincarnations, was an exception from this rule. They were both Eastern Orthodox - and free. This is why they always attracted special, racist hatred from the West.
Balkans and Bosnia (being at the very heart of the peninsula) have a special position in this East-West confrontation. Whenever Eastern Orthodox Christians had a chance to free themselves from the Islamic rule the pattern of history would repeat itself:
- Russia would try to help Christians' fight for freedom, but would frequently be too weak to do anything about it.
- Western Christians would send all their might to protect Islamic oppressor
- The West would force Russia to capitulate and leave Eastern Orthodox Christians to the non-existent mercy of the Muslims
In thinking hard about it all, one can at least understand the mechanism of events concerning Bosnia in mid-nineteenth century: To certain extent one can understand Western greed. One can even understand their criminal hypocrisy in supporting Muslims over Christians. One can not understand the stupidity. While one can try to measure intelligence, no-one can measure stupidity. Stupidity is a free, boundless form.
In 1875 the Eastern Orthodox Serbs were the largest religious and ethnic group of Bosnia. They could not endure any more the tyranny of the Muslim minority. They rose to arms. It turned out that their greatest enemy were not the Muslim oppressors but the far away British Empire (also known at the time as "Evil Empire.")
Why was Bosnia given to Austro-Hungary? It makes no sense. There were not five Austrians or Hungarians living in Bosnia at the time. In their stupidity (caused by boundless greed) the Brits handed over Bosnia to their own future enemy. During World War One the Brits paid a heavy price for the stupidity as they lost countless soldiers in fighting Austria-Hungary and Germany. The whole world paid a heavy price of British stupidity as millions of lives were lost in World War one.
The cataclysmic war almost started six years earlier - again over Bosnia. Britain was still in support of its future enemy and against Christian Slavs. The only way to explain this persistence in making mistakes is self-thought racist hatred of the Russians who were seen as competitors in "world conquest." The Brits termed it "A Great Game."
The second cataclysmic stupidity the Brits displayed in yet another anti-Slav act was the infamous betrayal of Czechoslovakia and giving portions of it to the enemy - to Hitler. The Brits and the world paid heavy price again in one more world war.
Two catastrophic mistakes and British Empire is no more. They were the largest empire ever as they ruled half of the planet.
America seems to be daughter of the Evil Empire. Greed, stupidity and mistakes are the same. While world Muslim population reached well over billion people and their intolerance of any and all non-Muslim human beings remains the same, the Western press keeps telling us that "Islam is a tolerant religion." Do they think that we are all born on Mars? Do they think that all old books are gone? All burned by Hitler's New World Order?
The frozen, racist minds in Washington still see Russia as the main enemy and never stop in plotting how to further weaken and partition the country. The Islam fundamentalist threat is dealt the same way the Brits did it: Feed the enemy by offering them Serbs at the altar. Maybe by giving them Bosnia and Kosovo the monster will satisfy its appetite.
This catastrophic stupidity the planet may not survive this time.
NEXT: [ 1908 - World crisis over Bosnia, prelude to WWI ]
BACK TO: [ Bosnian Muslims ]
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The truth belongs to us all.Feel free to download, copy and redistribute. Last revised: September 19, 2004 |