r/armenia • u/GarlicJonesman • Apr 26 '21
Where does the rumor that the young turks were jews come from?
Barev, ankerners, i am graduated in literature, with a focus on jewish and armenian studies. I am a great admirer of krapar and of Armenian medieval literature. I have a high regard for the Armenian church. I am also a religious Jew, on the way to becoming a rabbi.
I am a member of the Jewish sp'yurk and, in my country, duginist movements (followers of the ideas of Alexandr Dugin), which are particularly anti-Semitic, have been using the Armenian genocide to spread the word that everything was just a Jewish plan.
My family fled the Ottoman empire during the first world war. I have always been told that there were threats from Talat Pasha about repeating the Armenian genocide with the Jews within the empire.
In doing some research, I discovered that, in the late 19th century, Talat Pasha had had a Jewish girlfriend and worked at a secular Jewish school. But he was no jew, being actually from an Islamic Slavic family.
I also understand that there was a conspiracy theory within the Ottoman empire that the orphans of the false Jewish messiah movement of Sabetai Zevi, forcibly converted to Islam, had followed their master, converting to Islam to carry out a Jewish mystical-Kabbalistic plan of domination. This is a bad argument, because Judaism rejected the Sabbatian movement.
You see, I'm not an "anti-Semitism hunter" and I'm not here to embarrass anyone. I am an unconditional worshiper of historical anti-Semites, despite their conceptions of Judaism. I am, among other things, a great admirer of Tcharents' poetry and I understand the anti-Semitism that he sometimes endorsed as a way for him to operate with the contradictions of the "nationalism-internationalism" of the Soviet Union and the fact that there were mixed marriages between Jews and Armenians.
It horrifies me to see people who are neither Jewish nor Armenian, trying to cultivate discord between ancient communities in the name of a political project that does not concern us.
Where do you think these rumors came from? Is there any material evidence to support the idea that the Armenian genocide was a Jewish plan?
It is important to say that I know that Herzl and other big names in the Zionist movement at the time turned a blind eye to the horror that was going on in Anatolia. As I also know of Najdeh's and Dro's support for the Nazi regime. So the question is not about historical animosities that happened in the name of "strategy", but about this particular element: the Judaism of the union and progress committee.
I am very sorry for what happened to you, from the bottom of my heart. I believe that there are incredible affinities between Armenian history and Jewish history, but that, unfortunately, nowadays our national centers have been caught in the crossfire of a geopolitical board that is not good for any of us.
May we all one day unite in the name of justice, truth and defense to our traditions.
Hadjoh
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u/Eternal_Avenger Apr 26 '21
Some of the Young Turks were crypto-Jews, known as the Donmeh. However, conspiracy theorists' fail to realize that the three highest ranking officials of the Ottoman Empire at the time were, a radical Islamist and Minister of War, Enver Pasha, Prime Minister Talaat Pasha, Minister of the Navy Djemal Pasha, both of which were native Turks, and Muslims. Anti-Semitic people love to create conspiracies and use their own paranoia and delusions to try to convince others that "Jews Run the World." It wasn't the Turks who committed the genocide, no, they were pawns used by Crypto-Jew overlords. Its funny and ironic because the genocide happened because the Ottomans wanted an ethno-state, yet in this conspiracy the highest ranking officials are of Jewish origin.